A worship service was held at 10.30am in the church on Sunday 12 April.  The service was simultaneously broadcast on the Church Facebook page.  For the next four weeks, you can catch up here.

The Bible passage was Luke 24:13-35 and Duncan led and preached.  Do listen to his sermon on the catch-up at 46:22 in. We were delighted to welcome David and Heather Sim back to Hilton:  David is going to be serving as Youth Minister. He was welcomed by Duncan, prayed for by Duncan and Elaine and shared his thoughts at the start of this new chapter. (You can read what he said here.)

John writes:   The sermon this morning was about the two disciples who met Jesus when they were on their way back home, walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They were utterly despondent after Jesus’ crucifixion, not knowing what to make of the stories of resurrecgtion they had heard.  Jesus, risen indeed, didn’t immediately reveal his identity to them (or perhaps their hearts were not in a place where they were ready to recognise him). 

Duncan pointed out that Jesus walked with them, listened to them deeply, discussed the Bible’s predictions about the Messiah. Finally his identity was revealed to them as he gave thanks for the bread and passed it round.

It is our calling as Christians, Duncan said to accompany people empathically, to listen thoughtfully to anything they tell us about themselves, to share the good news with them, and above all to be hospitable to them.  For just as at Communion we enter into the radical, grace-motivated hospitality of God, so Jesus is present, self-revealing wherever bread is broken.

Duncan urged us to go into the new week ‘with expectant eyes and open hearts. For in every step, every stranger, and in every breaking of bread, God may be nearer than we ever imagined.’

What strikes me particularly today is that:

(1) Jesus accompanies us, even when we are completely unaware of his presence.  We may feel desolate, but we are not alone.

(2)  Sometimes his presence draws near through the companionship of others.

 (3)  God is at work within us even before we recognise it, or recognise him

 (4) It is possible for us to be as familiar with the gospel story as the folks on the road to Emmaus were with the Torah and yet to miss its implications for us, today.

(5) The grace of God opens our eyes and fills us with certainty and hope.

(6)  Had the travellers not invited Jesus in, they would have, on that occasion, have missed out on that profound moment of encounter.

(7) Where did the bread come from? Did Jesus bring it with him?

(8) Jesus is sometimes elusive – after the moment of revelation, he disappeared. What’s that all about?  I suppose it’s a reminder that we walk by faith and not be sight.  We will not always have those moments of overwhelming clarity, but we are called to walk on in life, open to Jesus and to these unexpected moments of revelatory grace, believing in the presence of Jesus with even in dark valleys of shadow.