Where Did Jesus Go?

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

“Did not our hearts burn within us?”

This is the question that Jesus’ two disciples ask after their encounter with him along the Road to Emmaus. And it’s a question we’ll unpack this week as we continue our series “Where Did Jesus Go?”

We’re looking at Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances and how Jesus never goes back or valorizes the cross. Jesus never invites the disciples back to visit the tomb. Instead, he meets his friends and followers around communal meals, ordinary places, and the beauty of the natural world.

The “cross,” it seems, was not the most important thing Jesus wanted his followers to remember once he was resurrected. Instead, he wanted them to remember these kinds of moments.

This Sunday, the Gospel lesson tells of Jesus talking with two friends along the road to Emmaus. For reasons the text doesn’t make clear, they don’t recognize him. Maybe it’s their grief. Maybe it’s their fear and confusion. The text doesn’t actually say.

What it *does* say is that they go for walk together. They walk along the road and they talk as they are walking. 

So it is that: walking on the road is one of the places where Jesus goes.

He walks. He talks. He gets out in the open air. 

Dennise and I have found the wisdom in walking lately. Given that the temps are warmer and the light lasts longer, we’ve taken to “walking to dinner” to local restaurants. It’s a joy to just spend time together, talking about our days and seeing the green beauty of the natural world.

When I think about walking, I often think of Steve Jobs. Jobs was famous for going on long walks through his neighborhood —or around the Apple campus— with titans of industry.

Coworkers and famous technologists would often show up for meetings only to find that instead of huddling around a table in an air-conditioned office, Jobs would take them for a walk —up, down, and over the hills of his neighborhood.

Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson suggests that some of the most important technological innovations of the past thirty years happened on those walks. 

That’s actually unsurprising. Studies from Stanford University have shown that our creativity is raised by almost 60 percent when we take a walk. I would suggest that is why walks are also moments when our spirituality is also awakened and attuned to the grace of God all around us.

As the walk ends in the Gospel story, the two disciples implore Jesus to stay with him in Emmaus. He breaks bread with them, and in the breaking of the bread, suddenly their eyes are opened and they recognize him. 

As before, this isn’t really explained. But it seems that the act of being around the *table* and sharing the bread is an act in which they see Jesus.

So…where did Jesus go?
This week, he goes..
…on a walk.
…back to a table.

Sure, these are ordinary places. But if God is truly an incarnation God —present in and through all things— then like these two disciples, our “ordinary moments” can become “holy moments.”

The more our spiritual eyes are open, the more we are looking for the holy in the everyday, the more we are likely to find it.

Sadly, like these two disciples, instead of living fully into each day…instead of deeply embracing holy moments like waking or eating…we increasingly stay glued to our indoor screens and thereby miss the beauty around us.

We say, “I’ll walk later…”
Or, “I’ll see my friend, later…”

But then tomorrow comes, and we fail to do it again.

Therefore, seize the beauty of each present-day, friends. Jesus goes to the walking path and the table to remind us how to live life as God’s people of the resurrection.

I tend to think there is some regret in the rhetorical question of these two disciples: “Did not our hearts burn within us?”

How did we not see that it was Jesus?
How did we not understand that it was a holy moment?

The key to avoiding this kind of regret and of seeing the holy in the everyday is being *present* in the NOW.

Take that walk….but also breathe in the moment while you’re doing it.
Eat that meal with friends…but also see them as the God-kissed humans that they are.

When we keep our spiritual eyes open, every road, every meal, every breaking of every loaf of bread has the possibility to be a holy moment.

Where Did Jesus Go?

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Our theme during the post-Easter season is: “Where Did Jesus Go?”

The Gospel lesson scriptures through Pentecost will be post-resurrection stories but taken from all four Gospels. The reason for this is: I believe the “where” Jesus went, post-resurrection, has a lot to say about who we are called to be as the Church.

Far too often, during these weeks after Easter, we seem to jump right into Pentecost (the coming of the Spirit…).

But maybe these stories have something to teach us.

“Where Did Jesus Go?” has multiple meanings…

Where did Jesus' “body” go?
(Hint: it’s both anormal, and not-so-normal body…)

And where did Jesus “show up?”
And by extension, where did he encourage others to go?
(Hint: Around a table…on a walk…by the lakeshore…to the ends of the earth…)

And finally, where does Jesus “go” in our hearts?
Are we filled with doubts or able to trust?
Do we feel him present or absent?
Or both?

These are our questions during the post-Easter period.

I’ll give you a part of the “punch line” now. It’s from a Maundy Thursday essay by Dr. Diana Butler Bass. And while she was mostly writing about that day, her words are really about this coming season:

“…when the disciples want to meet Jesus again the next week, they return again to the upper room to meet him at the table.
They never return to the cross. Jesus never takes them back to the site of the execution. He never gathers his followers at Calvary, never points to the blood-stained hill, and never instructs them to meet him there. He never valorizes the events of Friday. He never mentions them…Instead, almost all the post-resurrection appearances — which are joyful and celebratory and conversational — take place at the upper room table or at other tables and meals.”

I think she’s on to something. 
There is a lot of discussion about Jesus’ crucifixion *before* it happens. But *after* it happens, almost none. 

Upon being resurrected, Jesus seems no longer interested in “the cross” but in the “community;” which is exactly what he was concerned about at beginning of his ministry. Humanity tries to crucify God, and God “rejects our rejection” of God and continues to model what truly holy community looks like. Jesus seems deeply eager that those who will still be on this earth understand that the work and ministry continues. It continues around tables, along the road, in worship, and in service…to the whole world.

So, join us during April/May for our continuing celebration of Easter and of the resurrected Jesus, and all that he has to teach us.

See you Sunday.

Eric Folkerth

One Story

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Every year that passes, I become more convinced that it’s always not helpful to separate Good Friday and Easter. They are all *one* story, not two separate stories. Despite this, we’ll have a Good Friday service tonight and two Easters services Sunday. And we hope you’ll come join us!

I suppose what I want to remind you about today, then, is that this division of Good Friday/Easter is only possible to do from *our* vantage point…looking  back at Holy Week through the lens of history. As experienced by Jesus, it was all ONE story.

To *only* celebrate Good Friday —suffering, death, despair— can cause us to drift deeply into sorrow. And, yes, there are sorrowful times in our lives. And, yes, it’s important to remember that Jesus walks with us in our sorrows.

But it’s also important to find hope too. As we exit two years of pandemic life —as we are still accounting for hundreds of thousands of dead, and watching the horrors of war in Ukraine— I’m not sure how much more sorrow our world can take. It can be dangerous to our spiritual and mental health if we can’t ever find a way out of suffering. We humans are always in need of Hope. So, that’s where God’s Easter message comes in.

But, of course, Hope devoid of the reality of suffering can quickly drift into frivolousness or denial of true human pain. Hope that fails to acknowledge suffering can seem so cheery that the very people who need Hope most can see it as saccharin and frivolous.
Or, to avoid pain, far too many of us drown our sorrows in all sorts of quick fixes…drugs, shopping, alcohol and all manner of pain-numbing devices that we think will pull us out of our sufferings.

Taken together, can we not see that we need BOTH Good Friday *and* Easter?

Holy Week is a story that comes to us as an entire drama. Yes, it has several acts. But to focus *only* on Good Friday risks just watching “Act One” of a play. To focus *only* on Easter risks just enjoying “Act Two.”

The Gospel writers present it as a WHOLE story. 

Death, despair, suffering and sorrow…these are real things. And this week we look straight at them without flinching.

But Hope, new life, and resurrection are also a part of our story. 

The whole arc of the story is… Life…into Death…into Life. Please hear this deeply Good News.

Join us tonight and Sunday as we move deeply within the power of God’s Holy Week story.