In many ways our lives resemble journeys. Some of us now live far from where we were born, and all of us change as we grow older. Often the journey is lonely and beset by difficulties, such as tension between friends and relations, or problems with motivation and purpose - just why do we do what we do, week in and week out? It is always good to have a travelling companion we can trust, to talk these things though with, to debate the hard questions with, and maybe to go a different way with.
A long time ago, two travellers set out from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and along the way they were joined by a stranger. They had been talking about how their teacher Jesus had been executed, and how their hopes of change were dashed. The stranger helped them to understand the bigger picture, and at the end of their journey, as they sat down to eat, revealed himself to be the resurrected Jesus - and their eyes were opened, and their lives were changed, as a result.
This isn’t so unusual, actually. Jesus may be walking with you too - if the two travellers who had known him before didn't recognise him, how can we? Part of the answer to that is that we can recognise him today just as these two disciples did - by eating together, recognising Jesus' presence in spirit, as he told us to. Church offers a way to do that, and Churches of Christ in particular celebrate this meal in very simple ways, without all the ceremony that has accumulated over the centuries in many other traditions.
Perhaps an unscheduled meeting with Jesus lies ahead on your path too!
Jesus' teaching offers a way to be set free from the need to succeed in the world's eyes, from the need to compete, from fear of failure, and from guilt. You don't have to drink the 21st-century kool-aid of consumerism and success - there's another way, a way of freedom. Come along to our Sunday evening gatherings (7-8pm) or on a Wednesday evening (Around Arthur's Table, 6.30pm-8pm) and we can talk about it.