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Luke 24:15,16: "Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him." v.31 "Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him………" It was just on Thursday – Maundy Thursday – that we were thinking about the events in the Upper Room – the foot washing and the Last Supper. In my sermon then, I was making the point that now, 2000 years on, in the Eucharist, that because of the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ is as real to us by his presence as he was then. And so tonight we have recalled the famous walk on the road to Emmaus, that evening of the day of Resurrection, when Jesus walked with two, it says, 'of them'. Of whom, you may well ask? For they are not of the twelve. (or, by that time, perhaps, the eleven, as Judas had done his business.) It became a tradition in the church that they were of the seventy that Jesus sent out on a mission, as recorded in Luke at ch.10. In any case, they would have been Jewish pilgrims, who had been up to Jerusalem for the Passover, and, as we heard, had some idea as to what had been going on with regard to the famous Rabbi Jesus. As a Methodist, I have grown up from babyhood with the very clear message that in the sacrament of Holy Communion, Christ is really and truly present. Charles Wesley wrote many hymns for the Communion, and this idea is pervasive in them. We do not simply take bread and wine into our hands. We take elements which are more than symbols of Christ. We are receiving, in the bread and the wine, Christ himself. Indeed, Wesley touches on the theology of the Orthodox Church, and, I have to remind you, the Scottish Episcopal Church. Indeed, because of the history of the SEC, this was exported to America too. However, you may be surprised to hear that this is a vexed question, concerning when the consecration is deemed to be complete, and I have no intention of going into that right now! But if you listen to this verse written by Wesley, you will see what a high doctrine he held of the Eucharist, and how he was obviously familiar with the doctrine of the Orthodox Church. In the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, which is the basis of Orthodox worship for the last 800 years, there are these familiar words, familiar for we use almost the same ones in the SEC: "Send down thy Holy Spirit upon us, and upon these gifts here set forth; and make this Bread the Precious Body of Thy Christ, and that which is in this cup, the Precious Blood of Thy Christ, changing them by thy Holy Spirit." Now listen to Wesley: "Come, Holy Ghost, Thine influence shed, And realise the sign; Thy life infuse into the bread, Thy power into the wine. Can you see it? It is asking the Holy Spirit to bring these ordinary elements to life as the Body and Blood of Christ. I have sung that verse ever since I was admitted to this sacrament as a boy, seeing here my Lord 'face to face', as another hymn says. So at this sacrament, let our eyes not be blind, but let us see our Lord, and know that he lives! In the bread and the wine, recognise the Lord, who comes to be with us. Take him in your hands, touch him. He really is present with us here! Let me finish with another verse from Wesley: "We need not now go up to heaven, To bring the long-sought Saviour down; Thou art to all already given, Thou dost even now Thy banquet crown: To every faithful soul appear, Here it comes: And show thy real presence here." "Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him…..Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him………" |