You Are For Me
(Audio Sample - 1.05 MB)
Response of an Emmaus Disciple
1. The Dialogue
Narrator Who could ever believe what they had seen, and heard, on that road to Emmaus, about the stranger, the one they'd met there on the way.
Disciple 1 We never stopped to think where he'd come from
Disciple 2 where he was going. It's not that he caught up with us,
Disciple 1 he just appeared, walking alongside.
Disciple 2 He asked us why we were so sad,
Disciple 1 and we told him our teacher and friend was dead,
Disciple 2 taken away from us and put to death.
Disciple 1 He didn't seem to be upset at all at this,
Disciple 2 as though he already knew about it,
Disciple 1 understood what it meant....
Disciple 2 which we certainly didn't!
Narrator They went on to explain how they persuaded him not to go on, but to stay with them throughout the evening, to break bread with them into the night.
Disciple 1 We listened, spellbound, as he spoke to us those words of wisdom.
Disciple 2 and we could feel our hearts burning, lightening within us,
Disciple 1 as he opened the Scriptures for us.
Disciple 2 The scales fell suddenly from our eyes
Disciple 1 because we'd never understood the Scriptures that way before.
Disciple 2 It was as if the law, the prophets, the psalms,
Disciple 1 had all been written about him,
Disciple 2 that he had grown out of them - talk about enlightenment!
Narrator Here, it seemed, was the God of our lenten journey,
Disciple 1 a God of the desert,
Disciple 2 of stillness and self-discovery;
Disciple 1 a God of the mountain,
Disciple 2 where heaven and earth meet;
Disciple 1 a God to be found in the waters,
Disciple 2 oceans of rebirth, encircling the earth;
Disciple 1 a God beyond the radiance of light,
Disciple 2 a pillar of fire to gladden mind and heart;
Disciple 1 above all, a God to be found in an empty grave,
Disciple 2 calling us to new life, to a new journey.
Narrator Then, as suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone! And it was no longer important to go on to Emmaus - if it ever had been.
Disciple 1 So we hurried back to Jerusalem,
Disciple 2 wondering, talking about it all the way,
Disciple 1 worrying, thinking what to tell the others.
Disciple 2 And when we got back, we told them everything, as it had happened,
Disciple 1 about the stranger we'd met on the road,
Disciple 2 about what he'd said to us,
Disciple 1 and how he'd broken bread with us.
Disciple 2 And we'd recognized him at once:
Disciple 1 who else had ever broken bread that way?
Disciple 2 who else had ever spoken as he had?
Disciple 1 Though, at the time, we didn't understand....
Disciple 2 .... and still don't....
Narrator Who could ever believe what they'd heard that day, or what they'd seen that night, on the road to Emmaus?
2. The Song
You are for me God of the desert,
stillness, where no voice is heard.
You are for me God of our longing,
"I in you" shall be your word.
You are for me God of the mountain
earth-rock, meeting place of old.
You are for me God of our future,
past and present now unfold.
Stay with us, Lord, throughout the evening,
break bread with us into the night.
And speak to us your words of wisdom,
did not our hearts burn with your light?
You are for me God of the ocean,
river dancing round the earth.
You are for me God of our thirsting,
drawing each of us to birth.
You are for me God of the morning.
Daystar calling me by name.
You are for me God of our rising,
empty grave is your domain.
You are for me God of the night time
ancient, secret place of strife.
You are for me God of our dreaming
path on which we come to life.
You are for me God of the journey
foot-print in the desert sand.
You are for me God of our loving,
heart-beat in a living land.
A Reflection on Luke 24:13-35
Now that very same day, two of the disciples were making their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking about what had happened, and they were so sad. As they were discussing these things, a stranger suddenly joined them, walking along with them. They did not recognize him, and began to describe to him all that had happened.
Then he asked them, Why are you so slow you are to believe all that the prophets have said? Starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.
They pressed him to stay with them, because it was almost evening. And while he was at table, he too the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and handed it to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. But he had vanished from their sight. Did not our hearts burn within us when he talked to us and explained the scriptures to us?'
They set out at once, returning to Jerusalem. There they found the others, assembled with their companions. Then they told their sory of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized him in the breaking of bread.
Composer's Reflection
In an earlier song, Can It Be True (JM 507), the disciple is asked "But who do you say that I am?" That song is a journey through the disciple's questioning process. How to answer such a question? Was not Jesus so compeling that his followers would walk through fire if necessary to follow him? In You Are For Me, the same process of reflection is followed, but now in quite a different manner. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had been caught up by a stranger who wished to journey with them. In the course of the journey the stranger opened up the Scriptures for them, about the God who had called Israel into covenant and who had appeared as messiah among them. As night fell, they urged the stranger to take his rest and dine with them. As the stranger said the blessing and broke bread with them, they recognized him at once as Jesus.
Unlike the first encounter mentioned above while Jesus was still alive, the Emmaus experience was a totally different one. Jesus had risen, and so the connection was more intense, more mystical. This Jesus was everything a disciple could ever hope for.
The verses loosely follow the pattern on the lenten gospels: the journey into the desert, the call to the mountain top, the encounter at the well (symbolized in the ocean imagery), the calling of Lazarus to life again.
I wrote this song for Marcy, but it could never have been completed without her. Her recording The Road To Emmaus, combined with lengthy conversations we shared, resulted in the conception and birth of this song. It is impossible for me to say where her contribution stopped and my creativity kicked in. The entire song is the fruit of a unique, mystical interplay between us both. This song was sung at our wedding in 2003.