Easter 03: The Road to Emmaus

Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

1. In the context of discussing “the lack*,” Tim said, “Part of the role religion plays is to maintain the barriers between us and our sacred objects.”
What’s your response to this idea? Tim suggested it might make us a little uncomfortable. How do you think that function of barrier maintenance works? In what way does religion maintain barriers? Is it intentional or incidental?
Share a bit about your experiences in which religion has functioned as or supported barriers between you & objects of your desire? How did that work? Were you consciously aware of religion’s role in any way? How do you view that dynamic and its impact as it’s played out in your own life?
2. There was a slide accompanying today’s sermon that read, “Emmaus is the road we walk amidst the wreckage of all the hopes and dreams that don’t pan out.”
Take a few minutes to considerthis and share about some of the Emmaus experiences of your life. What have you learned through those experiences - good, bad, or ugly? What have the paths journeying away from those spaces afterward looked like?
The second part of that same slide said, “God meets is on that road.”
Has this been born out in your Emmauses? What has that been like for you? If you are in an Emmaus space now, or remember clearly that space, what is it like to try to believe that God is meeting you in that place on the road as you’re in it? How does that idea impact your emotions and feelings about the difficulties in those disillusioned spaces?
3. Tim closed his sermon by reminding us that “there is no sacred object that isn’t a scam; the Lack is never going away… it’s there to turn us toward each other.”
In your experiences with the lack, what are some of the sacred desires that have attracted your hopes and longing? Are there certain types of things that you tend to put into that space of “sacred object?”
When those sacred objects have failed you, what has that turning toward others looked like? Is that your default?
Turning to others sounds easy, but often isn’t. What diversions and blockades tend to disrupt that process of disillusionment turning us toward each other for you?
What types of connection help salve that place of Emmaus pain inside us? How might we better cultivate them? How might we lean into them in times of need? And, finally, how might we ensure that we’re available to be someone who is turned to in another’s time of hurting and disappointed lacking?
*If you need a refresher on the terms from the sermon, see the slide image below; hopefully it’ll provide some clarity about the general framework of the sermon.