From FB post-2/5/22
For the first time in a long time I was reminded this morning of my 25 years of involvement with The Walk to Emmaus as I participated in an online devotional conversation where the topic of individuals’ experience with that renewal movement came up. I pulled away from involvement in Emmaus after my experience with pursuit of deacon ordination in The UMC. Some of the individuals I’d encountered there in clergy roles had shown me a side of the ” connection” and “discipleship-making” that suggested more talk than walk. I no longer felt comfortable inviting lay people to live into God’s call if it should become a call to pursue vocational ministry in The UMC. I felt I would be too much a vessel of caution, a wet blanket to the joy and enthusiasm of others. I had seen how the sausage is made and it ruined my appetite for sausage…. not for Christ, but for the grinder that the institutional church has become in thwarting moves of the Holy Spirit.
The Emmaus Movement as a means of grace and a route of deeper life in Christ and even into the calling to explore vocational ministry is clearly resisted by some among the ranks of ordained clergy who view it with suspicion as superficial and limited in value.
As God would have it, this prayer, used frequently in Emmaus Walks, popped up on my FB page moments after that conversation and I smiled, praying it by heart, with fond memories of how God met me there so often in so many meaningful ways. It was there December 10-13, 1992 that I was immersed in Life of the Word and the Spirit.
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
One friend observed: “The Walk to Emmaus was life-changing and life-giving for me, both on my original walk and when I served on walks. But I too have seen “how the sausage was made” and I’ve been deeply hurt by some of the sausage makers. You and I were hurt, but not defeated. We’ve gone on to serve God as we were called to do.
Come Holy Spirit!” (T.G.)