As we live our lives, sometimes a national or international crisis can impact our lives. Governments changing, wars affecting food prices, even impacts of AI. Today we read of this happening to Abram. However the events that unfold become a vital part of the ongoing story of God’s working. In our reading from Genesis 14 we had a dramatic account of three battles. The first two concern attacks by 5 Eastern kings (Chedorlaomer of Elam plus) on 4 Western ones.
I wonder if they noticed as the miracle was happening? Five loaves and two fish broken up isn’t a lot is it, and yet as it goes around that great crowd everyone has enough to eat and be satisfied. I wonder if they noticed it was going further than expected, I wonder if they noticed that the supply didn’t seem to be running out. Five thousand fed, and, as Matthew alone notes, that’s just counting the men.
What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it about an extra set of practices we need to keep: reading the Bible, praying, doing good? Is it about a few extra things in our diary like worship on Sundays and other things throughout the week? Is it about a new set of beliefs we sign up to and say ‘yes, that’s what I believe’ as we do each week in the Creeds? All of those things are true, but they don’t get to the heart of it, they’re the working out of a bigger and more fundamental truth: to be a Christian is to be adopted into the family of the God of the Universe.
Christian faith involves living a new way, turning from sin and going God’s way. So how are we to battle against sin in our lives? Is what is needed more effort, more knowledge or something else?
magine you’ve got guests coming round for dinner. How are you going to prepare? Well, if it’s close friends and family you’ll likely make a bit of a fuss, but you’re not going to panic too much about a bit of mess around the corners of the house, usual plates and stuff for the meal. I remember hanging out with some friends at a conference, we’d brought a bottle of port, but ended up drinking it out of mugs because it was all we had. You’re delighted they’re there, you’re going to make a fuss of them, but it’s not going to be anything extraordinary, you’ll make do and muddle along.
But what if it’s your boss, or someone you’re trying to impress?
In our Gospel reading today we see Jesus encountering quite a few different people in quick succession, but the thread running through them all are two themes: who Jesus has come for, and what he has come to bring them.
Our readings today are rather wonderful, they speak of the awe and majesty of God, the otherness of God, and they speak of the one who has made him known that we might make him known.
What do you make of Jesus? Who is he? What is he? A good teacher, giving wise advice, who helps us think about the bigger things of life? Certainly. A Saviour who dies to set his people free? Absolutely. But here Jesus takes on a different picture for himself. The shepherd. The fact that Jesus takes upon himself the title of shepherd, and indeed in the very next verse after our passage for today, the title of the good shepherd, is a rich picture. We’ll think about some of what he’s saying in a moment, but first it’s worth pausing to note the theological undertones here.
On the road to Emmaus burdened hearts become burning hearts. They’re trudging home, exhausted, disillusioned, confused. All their hopes have died with Jesus on that cross and lie with him in the cold of the tomb. We’re back on that first Easter Sunday and as far as anyone is aware, as dawn breaks, Jesus is still in the tomb.
But what’s interesting about these two on the road is where they’ve come from. Our reading begins that on the same day ‘two of them were going to a village called Emmaus’. Two of them? Two of who?
‘The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it’. So begins the film the Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring. It starts in total darkness with that voiceover before the title card appears at the end of that sentence and the strings of the orchestra play a melody which will thread through the entire trilogy. It has stuck with me since I first watched it partly because it’s an utterly captivating way to start a film, but also because the first half resonates so deeply with our Christian faith.
The world is changed. Changed by the events we celebrate today.