The Model

In this passage from Luke, Jesus provides us with a helpful model for people who are eager to draw closer to him, who want to know him and experience his presence and his Spirit. In this post resurrection passage Luke describes the feelings of two of Jesus' disciples who had been totally devastated by the events of the previous days leading up to Jesus' criminal trial and execution.

 

They had witnessed their best friend condemned to death by crucifixion, the cruelest of deaths. Even more painful, however, was the reality that they were now alone with their shattered lives and broken dreams. Who cannot identify with

their experience?

"The Celebrating the Word" Model is a user friendly process that allows people to make connections between their life stories and the Gospel Story, and in the process, experience the presence and power of God's own Spirit.

For a good part of two to three years these disciples sat at the feet of Jesus almost daily, listening to his fascinating stories and celebrating his wondrous miracles. They loved being with him, witnessing his life of service and his compassion for the most needy. They had come to treasure his company and wanted to stay with him, follow him, be part of his team and his life. Never in their lives did they anticipate what they were compelled to witness those past few days. Jesus' hideous death by crucifixion had to leave them devastated, lost, abandoned, angry, confused. Not knowing what to do in Jesus absence or where to turn, the two disciples set out for their home town, Emmaus, about twenty miles west of Jerusalem.

Luke relates how Jesus catches up with them on the road. Note Jesus' approach. First he engages the two lost souls in conversation, not by preaching to them but by inviting them to talk about their pain and loss. They in turn describe how they feel, their lives broken, their dreams shattered- " we had been hoping..."   After hearing their story Jesus then responds with his own spoken Word. He reminds them of the Upper Room promise: " I will always be with you; you will never be alone.." Probably for the first time the two disciples caught the significance of what Jesus had promised. As they continued walking, they must have hung on Jesus' every word as they made their way to Emmaus. Then later in the day, after eating together, and while reflecting on what had transpired in the previous few hours, one of them observed: " Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to usd along the way and opened the Scriptures to us."

The key words that best describe Jesus' method of ministry here with the disciples are engage, inform, and transform. Jesus was simply respecting the typical Hebrew scriptural practice that was used to find enlightenment or to seek a resolution to a problem.

What Jesus had done with the two disciples was first to pay attention to them. He noticed their pain and invited them to talk about it. He then helped them identify what they really longed for. He reminded them  what he had promised them. Finally, with their observation " W ere not our hearts burning within us ..." the two disciples happily realized what had just transpired.

In sharing their stories of anguish and pain with Jesus himself, God's own Spirit had touched them in a profound way, just as Jesus had promised.

Lkewise, when we gather in our small group with our life stories, happy and sad, and prayerfully place these stories within the context of the Sacared Scriputres-God's Word, the small group members commonly experience that same Spirit  in their midst.

Celebrating the Word is a process model for faith sharing groups that is designed to replicate the Emmaus encounter. Most of us can identify with the plight of those two disciples. We know their experience. We have been there. And we need a place and a process that will allow us, as a faith community on a regular basis, to make connections between our life stories and the Gospel Story. As with those two disciples, we are assured that when we come together in faith and trust to make connections between our life stories and the Gospel Story, we too will come to experience the presence and power of God's own Spirit: " Were not our hearts burning within us when He opened the scriptures to us."

To better understand how Celebrating the Word works, see The Process section.