COMMUNITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRISTMORNING BIBLE STUDY INSPIRATION

May 4, 2014Breaking Bread/Companions on the Road/Seeing Jesus Together

Opening Meditation:

Opening Prayer:Dear God, I pray that I know that mighty currents of God's love are flowing through me. I make it securely through my day because I am immersed in God’s love. I leave behind me all traces of chilling doubt or bleak discouragement because I am newly awakened to thepotential of God's perfect love coming through me. Dreams, once frozen in winter apathy, now are bursting into bloom as creative love activity and love achievement. I respond to life and the people in my life with the warmth of heart. Today is my day to love and today is a new beginning of accepting love.In Jesus Christ’s name. . . Amen

Scripture Text: Luke 24:13-3524:13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

24:14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

24:15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,

24:16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

24:17 And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad.

24:18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the

1

only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?"

24:19 He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

24:20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.

24:21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.

24:22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,

24:23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

24:24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him."

24:25 Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!

24:26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"

24:27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

24:28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.

24:29 But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them.

2

24:30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

24:31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.

24:32 They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"

24:33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

24:34 They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!"

24:35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Focus Questions1.The Disciples sit down at table together and break bread, and often, more than intellectual understanding, they come to see with their hearts, what was right before them. What are stories from your own life, when your eyes were opened because someone welcomed you, or because you opened your heart, your door, your life, to a stranger, someone you didn't expect to be a blessing?

2.If the world of the disciples had been turned upside down by life and teachings of this person Jesus, think of how that same world had been "rocked" by his death. Even so, they haven't had time to absorb that calamity when new stories about Jesus’ sightings have sprung up. Think of times when the news, or your own life, unfolded in ways that shook the foundations of what you believed in, perhaps too fast for you to process and integrate into your understanding. What did you do to find peace and balance, and to build new foundations?

3

3.The experience of these two travelers (one may have been a woman, like other New Testament pairs) was fleeting, as our glimpses of God, or brushes with God's presence, are. We look back on our experiences and process them, understanding them better "in the rear view mirror" than we did face-to-face. How does God still speak to you today, not only through the encounter these early Christians had with Jesus, but through your own encounter with Jesus, in the breaking of bread, the sharing of stories, the study of Scripture? We're not just hearing/reading a story about something that happened to others, long ago and far away. It's happening here, today, in our lives, too, if we open our eyes and see, and then maybe our hearts, too, will burn within us. When we struggle with questions of meaning and we just can't understand what's happening around us, the answer is often right before us.

4.As the United Church of Christ strives to extend and embody extravagant hospitality, where is the possibility of transformation within our congregations and ourselves? How is God still speaking to your congregation in the simple breaking of bread, the sharing of the story, the study of Scripture? Perhaps, in a time of increasing polarization in our public discourse, we in the church can find common ground in the simple but faithful practice of hospitality. It will take practice to develop this discipline because it's not easy to welcome all of God's children along with the hopes, and dreams, and beliefs that animate their lives and may transform our own.

***Next W eek: Acts 2:42-47 Powerful Witness ***

4

5