3 Easter 2008

Luke 24: The road to Emmaus

The disciples are walking away from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus about 7 miles a day’s journey (or just the right distance to raise money for the hungry in the crop walk this afternoon). This is still Easter Day – in the afternoon. Experiencing sensory overload, they could not process the horrific death, the empty tomb report of the others, and so they were trying to make sense of it all. I think they were despondent, depressed, maybe fearful, and certainly disappointed. The way Jesus set his face to Jerusalem – the many who joined their ranks as they approached the city – it was all so promising – what happened? They need divine intervention and they get it. Joining them on the road, Jesus listened to them and joined the conversation. Even as he offered alternative interpretations for what had taken place, they still did not understand.

The Word is Jesus – not the text --- He can make the prophets and law known because Jesus brings both to fulfillment. That is why we often fail to understand what we read because it is just words – we need the living WORD to speak to us – to have our hearts burn within us. Still – even in this moment of teaching and preaching they still don’t recognize Jesus, until he breaks bread with them.

The revelation comes in three simple human acts. First the two travelers retell the gospel story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Second the story is interpreted in the context of scripture and the prophets. Third, bread is broken. The meal starts simply enough, just hospitality at the end of a long day. When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

There is a memory being stirred here – this is what Jesus did during the Last Supper. Further back in time, maybe, many times he did this. Suddenly, it all comes clear: Remembrance is important in Luke – and in our worship and discipleship.

Memory will make the connections, interpret the events, and lead them to share the news of the resurrection. We, the readers are taken into the event and want to tell them what to remember. We too suffer memory loss in events that challenge our faith and our hope. We need to be prompted from time to time. It is all well and good that “they” experienced the risen Lord and were changed, but my life is pretty empty, low on energy, short on answers to horrific events, memory fails. Here the liturgical memory of the church can bridge us into God’s tomorrow.

Their eyes were opened and they recognized him. The experience shapes our liturgy. Word and sacrament shared in community! In the Episcopal tradition the way we worship shapes our belief. We read scripture, hear some explanation, and share table fellowship in the breaking of the bread. We need to ask whether we are as changed by the open encounter with the Word and breaking of bread as were the disciples in Emmaus.

One may be tempted to read the Emmaus narrative as a process or sequence of events in which God comes to us in little by little. That would be wrong. The message of the gospel is that God is fully there and here with all God’s love all the time. God is not a commodity. God is there and here completely. It is we who come to God in bits and pieces. We are the ones who hold back. God does not hold back. When we are open, and get a glimpse of the truth of the gospel, we may be as overwhelmed as the disciples. We need to encounter the Word – more than we need to read it.

The Word is more than speech and writing. The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us is an act, event, occurrence, presence, and person. Christ happens as word. Are you open to the word? Is your heart enough a heart of flesh to welcome the word? If you continue in my word, you truly are my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:31-32). The word takes root in us and goes through a transformative process. The truth comes in ambiguity, polyvalence, and mystery. Our truth usually comes with scars. The word changes us, purifies us, and in some ways wounds us in order to make us a new creation/ conformed to the image of Christ.

We may want to compartmentalize the experience of the Word from the experience of the Spirit. Again that would be wrong. The gospel does not teach that Jesus is the first course and the spirit is the second. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, receive the Holy Spirit. In Luke Jesus instructed the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them then they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. The Spirit – the Son – and the Father according to our creed and orthodox belief are never separated, but always one. Jesus instructed the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until filled with the Spirit so that they would have the power to take the Gospel out from Jerusalem into all the earth.

We need the spirit to open our eyes to see Jesus in the breaking of the bread. We remember the words: take eat, this is my body broken for you….this is the cup of my blood poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins. We offer these words of remembrance each and every Eucharist, and with these words, there is sound, action, and visual focus. The words recall what Jesus did and modeled for us. Then in another place within the Eucharistic prayer we ask that the Holy Spirit descend upon these gifts, making them the body of Christ and the cup of salvation. Language and action performed by any human being cannot transform the elements into sacrament – only the Spirit of God can make God present to us as a medium of grace. That is what we mean by sacrament: an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.

During the past month, we made our journey through Lent, the liturgy of Holy Week and Easter. Last Sunday 7 of us were confirmed by the bishop – after each had completed a course of study about how to live into our baptism. We are baptized into the body of Christ, made full members of the church, and this often happens while we are still too young to choose this manner of life. When we have matured to the point of being able to understand and make our own commitment to Christ we are confirmed. We are making a deliberate, free, informed choice to live according to our baptismal promises.

Those five promises are grounded in scripture. Thematically the whole bible teaches us to love God and our neighbor; to work for justice and peace; to advocate for the good and to turn from evil. When we sin we are to repent and return to the Lord. We are to take part in the ministries of the church: prayer, sacraments, bible study, formation, and proclaim the gospel to the world by outreach and mission. We are called to be in a community where diverse gifts are complementary so that the work of the kingdom can be accomplished. In essence, the reason we gather as church is to be nurtured in scripture and sacrament so that we can spread the gospel in our day.

Knowing we are part of the living body of Christ we are commissioned to do the same work Jesus did 2000+ years ago: welcome the stranger, eat with sinners and foreigners, heal the sick, care for the poor, speak the truth to power, reform the church, advocate for justice and peace!

In faithful disciplines of prayer and study and regular fellowship, participating in the sacraments, we grow into the likeness of Christ. That journey is not likely to be easy or always pleasant, as we know from the life of Jesus our Lord.

We need each other to figure out the problems of our time: is it better to support the AFDA (Aids to Families with Dependent Children) or the more recent TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)? Which is more just? Which is more compassionate?

Should we give to Heifer or ERD? Which one gets the most of the money to the people with real need? Do both have programs meeting the need of folks in the US? What other programs are reputable and good investments?

Are the Millennium Development Goals really the mission of the church? Is this the right set of goals? Do they help improve the quality of life for people living in such conditions that we would rather not think about it much less look and see. If we help sick people in other parts of the world, should we not insure that every citizen of the US has access to health care too? What can one person do against such overwhelming needs?

The World Health Organization declared health to be a fundamental human right “without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition” and that was 60 years ago. The first suggestion to make health care universal in the USA was in 1912. Economists have formulas that will tell us we need to commit 0.1% of our gross domestic product to devote to health care for low-income countries. In addition low-income countries should devote 15% of their own GDP to health. Collectively we should take infectious diseases seriously, especially those we can treat. If we did, millions would live longer and higher quality lives. Is that where Jesus would find the sick today?

We have a variety of reasons to support or oppose such suggestions. It is not important which of the various strategies you endorse to feed the hungry, care for the sick, visit those in prison, and how you tell everyone the news that the kingdom of God has come. It is important that you find a way to do it. We have many good choices ERD, Heifer, Bread for the World, Crop Walk for Hunger. Christians bear the image of Christ. We are given the charge by Jesus to care for the poor, to visit the sick and those in prisons, and to share what we have.

When we encounter Jesus in word and sacrament we must be changed. That is the proof of the reality of our experience with the Living Word. Our hearts ought to burn within us. We ought to feel uncomfortable with having too much while too many have too little. We ought to know that when we see Jesus in the breaking of the bread, we will be turned from the direction we are going and take us back into the action of discipleship. The disciples left Jerusalem in despair – they encountered the risen, living Word, and they turned around and went back into Jerusalem to wait for the Spirit to empower them to spread the gospel to all the world.