The Emmaus Uncertainty Principle

Luke 24:13-35

Emmaus.

The road to Emmaus story is this great reminder of how hard it is to convey religious experiences in words. Emmaus reminds us that we can have this amazing coming-to-Jesus moment on the road—a person can literally walk with Jesus on the road—but at first we won’t even realize what is happening and when we finally do see it for what it is Jesus will be gone. He will evaporate into thin air. The moment we step back to reflect on religious experience we can no longer grasp what it was all about, and since we are no longer a part of it we have an awfully hard time describing it. It’s like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which I’m sure all of you remember from science class: Heisenberg suggested that when you take a measurement of a particle you can know where it is or where it's going but not both. A similar thing is true of faith: You cannot understand an experience at the same time you experience it. I’m going to just go ahead and call this the Emmaus Uncertainty Principle.

It has two equally true parts: First, you cannot understand a religious experience while you are having it and then, conversely, you cannot completely describe an experience once it’s over. You can try, but people will mostly stare at you blankly and you will get the feeling they are just humoring you. This is a limit to testimony: You can enjoy that another person had an experience, but they can only bring you into that experience so far. You have to experience something different for yourself.

Religious experience is also fleeting and opaque; it’s usually only through slow reflection after the fact that any of us come to the realization that something divine actually happened. Those disciples walking that road to Emmaus were not looking to have a religious experience; in fact, they were looking pretty woe-be-gone. Even when they were walking with Jesus and listening to him interpret the scripture to them they weren’t really awake to what was happening. It wasn’t until he broke bread with them that everything clicked and they realized this astonishing thing that they had been part of, and the instant that happened it was over. Their realization ended the experience.

I don’t talk about my most meaningful faith experiences very often; not just in preaching but even in private conversation—even with Kate or Natalie—and likewise Kate doesn’t often share deeply of her religious experiences with me. I don’t share my experiences not because I’m shy about it but because my experience has been that there aren’t good words to help bring you in to the experiences I’ve had. It’s hard even for me to have any sort of meaningful conversation about the depths of those experiences, so I’m not telling you today that the key to faith is helping others share in your experiences. Rather, I’m saying we need to be open to realizing, often after the fact and rarely clearly, that God walks with us all the time.

Emmaus does not tell us that we will have that same experience as Cleopas and his friend on the road. It doesn’t assure us that we will understand what they understood. But it does remind us that religious experiences are as important as they are fleeting. You don’t need to have the same religious experience as those disciples, but experiences are out there for you. You do need to discover some wonder for what else is out there. Wonder won’t assure you of something remarkable happening but it is the fertile seed bed for recognizing what God is already doing. We all need more wonder.

Jesus meets us in all sorts of ways. The only question is whether we will recognize him or not. If the disciples wouldn’t have followed the feeling in their hearts and invited this man whom they did not recognize into their home then they may never have realized who it was. That sounds crazy, right? Jesus has risen from the dead and they do not recognize him walking next to them. Then again it’s not so crazy. After all, who’s to say how many times Jesus has walked with us in our lives without us knowing? After all, religious experiences don’t require anything exceptional; they don’t require mission trips or mountain tops, and if we see them more often in those spaces it’s only because something about it made us open our eyes. Meaningful experiences that connect us with God are open to us every day. Prayer sometimes takes us there. Grief or joy sometimes take us there. But it’s always there. Religious experience is always close at hand because that’s precisely where God is.

The Emmaus Uncertainty Principle is my personal reminder that these things are hard to put our finger on, but that doesn’t mean they are far from us. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It also means we can’t force others to understand them; and any experience you do have will seem far too short. You can’t force yourself to have a religious experience, you cannot make others understand the experiences you’ve had, and you also cannot re-create experiences from your past. Instead, we are to wait on God to meet us in different places on the road of life. All we can do is make space in our hearts to realize what is happening. This can be intentional—through prayer or meditation—or it can be unintentional—through grief or joy. But every meaningful experience is about God meeting us on the road of our lives while we are traveling from point A to point B unaware of what is about to happen. We can’t force it; often the harder we try the less likely we are to find it. But God is always there, whether to hold us in need, to catch us when we fall, or to walk beside us in every season. Occasionally, just occasionally, we realize it, we feel it, and it reconnects us with our faith.

It’s OK if others don’t get it. Next week we’ll hear about Thomas. He wasn’t there when Jesus came to visit; he didn’t see Jesus. The disciples’ experience doesn’t convince him, but just because they didn’t convince Thomas didn’t mean the experience was not worth it. It also didn’t mean that Thomas was a worse disciple. Thomas would get his own chance, his own coming-to-Jesus moment. Every experience is good, every one is important, and your experience is no better or worse than any other. God walks with us—to Emmaus; to wherever we are walking—and religious experience is not as far away as you think.