bread

this last week i have been strugging with a few people in how to relate to them despite some real irritations and annoyances. it's been effecting me quite a bit, always on my mind despite any efforts to move on or just forget it. i've tried rationalizing in effort to make sense of things, i've tried to look at the bigger picture... all to no avail. we've all dealt with stuff like this, no?

anyway... the church where i'm attending and on staff is in the process of changing our name, as part of a bigger process of "refocus" or "restart." i'm coming in on the tail end of things but have been lucky enough to be part of whats happening here. it's good stuff. anyway, our new name is emmaus road, a nazarene community. this may sound like a strange name, but it's got a pretty sweet story behind it. it's all based on the passage at the end of the book of luke where a post-resurrrection Jesus meets up with some disciples on a road leading to the town of emmaus. as they travel, they talk and for some reason they don't realize who He is. but as they journey and He explains the scriptures to them, making sense of all the things that have gone on recently. upon arrival in emmaus, they share a meal, where they continue to talk. it's in this time when they fully realize they're in the company of no other than a risen Jesus. later, they relate their experiences with other believers, saying, "He was revealed to us in the breaking of bread."

this idea of journey and breaking of bread has become sort of a model for ministry at our church. it just seems to me that the whole idea of journeying with Christ and with one another makes sense. we've had a new emphasis on breaking bread together much more often, in the belief that it's a real and tangible way that God reveals Himself to His people. today as we took communion together it was as though this passage of scripture came alive to me. as i took the bread and the cup together, i was overwhelmed with the realization that my issues with these people are covered by the very body and blood of Jesus. the very people i'm struggling with are people i love and take this journey of faith alongside. it was as though plain and simply the Spirit showed me that things will work out, the bigger reality was that we eat from the same table as His disciples. that's bigger than my petty annoyances. Jesus truly did reveal Himself to me in a new way through the breaking of bread with fellow travelers.