Given By Rev. Dr. Monica Coleman April 23, 2017
Doctor Coleman takes inspiration from the song “I want Jesus to Walk with Me.” Spirituals helped Blacks express their pain and yearnings for freedom while encouraging themselves. Today we sing these songs because we are not always OK. We tap into our need for something greater than ourselves. This fits well with our reading today. The reading talks about two disciples meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Last week, we celebrated Jesus’s resurrection. We are an Easter people, believing in life after death despite evidence to the contrary. While we know how the events of the tomb turn out, the disciples knew only that he was gone. They are sad, disappointed, and grieving. Like us, they must deal with loss. Life happens. Loss can mean people, but it can also be a job, financial security, or even our dreams for the future. Dr. Coleman wants us to rethink our desire to walk with Jesus. Maybe we should want to walk with these disciples. They walked with a stranger, shared their fears and doubts, and invited the stranger into their home for dinner because it is late. Would we do the same? To walk with a stranger today means walking with people who are different from us. It means to stand in solidarity with those who are oppressed or disenfranchised. It means opening ourselves up and sharing our hopes and dreams with them. The disciples learned this from Jesus. He sat, walk, ate. and talked to strangers. In the simplest of acts is where we find God. When we are at our lowest, may we find someone to walk with. When others are at their lowest, may we be there to walk with them.