FROM THE PULPIT
Body
At this moment in an ongoing treatment of “lectionary” Scriptural passages that flesh out what it means to be an Easter people (pls. note the purposive use of the present tense more and more) we turn to a Scriptural lesson not chosen for study in 2025 but [being] the preeminent model for our, as we are those Easter people, experiencing an appearance of the Risen Lord and the resultant commission we receive therein. That passage, chronologically taking place late on Resurrection Sunday according to Luke’s gospel, is generally known as the Walk to Emmaus (Luke24:13-35). Described by the unmatched New Testament translator and commentary author William Barclay as one of the world’s truly immortal short stories, the Walk to Emmaus reveals to us 1) how in our lostness we at first fail and then come to recognize the Risen Lord, even though we have been constant believers if not disciples, and 2) how the experience renews and redirects us. In the middle of the century preceding the last (20th) century before this still young 21st century the famous newspaperman and sage Horace Greeley famously advised a protégé seeking to break in to what is now known as journalism, “Go West, young man,” go [into the West].