|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Based on the Scripture readings: |
2004 July 11 |
The Road to Emmaus[Note: click on any picture for a larger version, then use the "back" button on your browser to return to this page.] It was 6:30 AM on an early Sunday morning toward the end of June. It was well before our church service here would begin, but there we stood in the parking lot, parents and youth, luggage in tow, several cars ready to take us to the airport. We stood in a circle and prayed in the early morning sunlight. Prayed for the road ahead, that God would be with us on our journey, on our mission trip, and that God would be there at our destination point. That God would be there to encounter and learn and grow from as we reached out to a community very new to us. We had just been commissioned the week before by you all of the church. We had all recited these words of the commission together during our worship service. Here in this sanctuary, we said: "There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to each of us for our particular service." And during our moment of commissioning, we all recited these words from scripture together. We said, "The Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all." One week following our church service commission, we were off -- by plane, and then another plane, and then by a big white van that we drove over many long, winding country roads of Missouri. We were on the road to Emmaus. Destination: Emmaus Homes. Emmaus Homes was founded in Missouri over 100 years ago by the United Church of Christ to enhance the quality of life for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. One of their brochures is headlined: "Emmaus Homes: Discovering gifts and empowering people for over 100 years." The goal at Emmaus is to make possible life experiences that enable growth and inclusion within each person's chosen communities. There are two campuses, each with homes, work sites, and chapels. Emmaus Homes' spiritual roots are to be found in the good news of
the New Testament. "It is those roots that make the
difference," they say at Emmaus. Emmaus was the name of the town where two of Jesus' discouraged and depressed disciples saw the risen Christ. The two disciples on the road needed clarity and new vision because they had lost something so great and powerful in their community. They felt the loss of Jesus. They needed to recapture this spirit in order to move on in their ministries, but they were giving up hope. Out of the blue, a stranger tagged along with the disciples as they walked on a road away from Jerusalem. They had not recognized who the stranger was until the disciples extended hospitality. "Won't you stay with us," they asked of the stranger. At the dinner table in the disciples' home in Emmaus, the stranger broke bread. The disciples' eyes were opened. At that moment of the breaking of the bread, it dawned upon them that Jesus had come back to life from the dead. The disciples "rose up," which according to Greek text, literally means they had their own resurrection. "They understood from that moment on that nothing is impossible with God, that all possibilities are wide open to all." People who live and work at Emmaus believe that the risen Christ is accompanying them on their journey. When the obstacles seem high and they lose hope, they remind themselves that they are not alone. It is written in their brochure: "God provides life even when every other power seems to deny it. God insists that development and learning and growth are possible even when all observations and assessments would seem to indicate that there is no hope for change. God says that all life is precious and possessed of abilities that are enhanceable even when others see only limitation and disability." Christ is risen at Emmaus Homes. One of Emmaus' chaplains, Pastor Joan Jones describes: "As
there is a progression of knowledge of developmental disability,
clearly the presence of Christ has moved right with us at Emmaus as
Jesus did then with the two disciples walking down the road. We of Newton Highlands were new to Emmaus, we the five youth, a
chaperone, myself. What struck me about the room was that taped up on many of the walls were lots of quotes -- messages of hope. Several quotes came from a book, Of Things that Really Matter. One quote on a wall read: "The people on this planet are not standing in a line single file. Everyone is really standing in a circle. Holding hands. Whatever you give to the person standing next to you eventually comes back to you." Another quote read: "Speak well of people and you'll never have to whisper." And another: "Success: The true measure of success in life isn't money, fame, or power. It's laugh lines." Another quote was taped onto the rec director's door -- words by Elbert Hubbard that stood out for me the most. Hubbard says: "It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test." As we walked around the campus, Mike brought us into people's homes. One home housed several women, another home housed several men." Mike asked us as we stepped inside the women's home "Is there anything you notice about the décor of this place?" Flowery wallpaper, quilts, beautiful paintings, flowers, many decorations, soft colors. The place was distinctly feminine. The women had decorated the house themselves. In one of the young women's bedroom, there was even a poster of Brad Pitt. We went to the men's house. "What do you notice about the décor of this place?" Mike asked. Fewer decorations, subdued colors, model trains and cars lying around. Mike pointed out that their home had a distinctly masculine feel. The message seemed ultra simplistic, but Mike's point couldn't have been clearer. There is not so much that separates us as you might think. There is more that we have in common than you might know. We saw so much that day -- a factory work site where many of the
residents were hard at work, some wearing hard hats and goggles working
with power tools, melding together metal parts. Our tour ended at a chapel on a hill. Mike gave us an overview of what we would be doing that week. "How many of you know or have met people with developmental disabilities?" he asked. No hands were raised. "This is undoubtedly unfamiliar to you," he said "you might feel uncomfortable at points. That's okay. Don't judge yourself for any feelings you might have. Just try to stay open." The bottom line is, "all we're really asking of you," he said, "is that after spending a few days with us at Emmaus, you will come away thinking about and treating people with developmental disabilities differently then you did before you came to Emmaus. That's all we ask." No small thing. How many of us have heard jokes about something being retarded, or maybe we have found ourselves making these jokes without even thinking of how hurtful these words might be for other people. It happens; the hope is maybe less so after an experience like this. There's an extreme example of how much work we have to do as a culture around raising awareness about the integrity of people with developmental disabilities, but just this week in the news, there was a report about a minister in Milwaukee found guilty for abusing an 8-year-old autistic boy who died in an exorcism. The minister was trying to exorcise the boy of his disability. Shifts... Often shifts of perceptions, even the smallest of shifts we can make in our perceptions, are significant. As some staff at Emmaus put it, they are about the business of planting seeds for their visitors. The youth worked hard over the few days we were at Emmaus. Some
cleared paths of weeds and brush. Others painted fences. One youth went
on a trip with some of the residents to deliver meals to shut-ins.
There was one project, which required moving $10,000 dollars worth of
pottery pieces that a woman had just donated to Emmaus Homes. There
were cabinets of pottery pieces, and each piece had to be carefully
transported from the woman's house to Emmaus. Mercifully, all was
accomplished without even one pot breaking. Several youth commented
upon how it felt good to have a sense of accomplishment after working
hard, to feel that they had contributed to improving things on campus. As Mike predicted, there were times that were awkward indeed and
times when the youth felt uncomfortable, One resident had recently moved to Emmaus Homes. His father had been put in jail for child abuse, for abusing him and other members of the family. This resident told of how his father would hit him with a whip. Now, having found Emmaus, he shared with us how glad he was to find a home. I marveled at how kind this man was, given his experience. I was also moved to see one of our youth sit down and just listen to him for a while, with care, calmness and compassion. That same evening, a few other youth were spotted at the pool table, playing pool with a few of the guys. I think all of us were hoping to meet one resident, Ted. We had seen his paintings and drawings all over campus. The paintings were so rich in detail -- they truly amazed us. Ted didn't speak, but I marveled at the far away look in his eyes, as if he were constantly imagining new paintings.
The women could not talk but it was clear that as they were being
pushed around One evening, I led a chapel service During the church service, one resident, although she could not talk, clearly was distressed. Earlier that afternoon before chapel, our youth group and I sat down for our "talk circle." We talked about the healing power of presence. How just sitting with a person, just showing up, can sometimes be as healing as any amount of words. Hours later, during our church service, one youth member exemplified how to be fully present to another in such a graceful way. She sat next to the resident who was distressed, holding her hand, stroking her arm, not having to say a word. She just sat there with her for the longest time. The psalmist says in perhaps one of the most astonishingly beautiful psalms ever written, Psalm 139, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, each one of us. That God knit each one of us together in our mothers' wombs. The psalmist writes: "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance, in your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed…" My hope for our youth is that they will realize over time how
fearfully and wonderfully made they are by God.
Copyright © 2004 Gretchen L. Elmendorf. Used by
permission. http://www.nhcc.net/sermons/Sermon20040711.htm |
|
|
| |
