Easter 3 A: Poignancy and Possibility
Dear Partner in Preaching,
How are you doing?
It’s been six or seven weeks now of doing ministry we didn’t expect and weren’t trained for, and that’s hard. In the few spare minutes between overseeing things in my own shop, I occasionally visit other congregations via the web and have been so encouraged by all that you are doing and trying. What I see regularly is creativity and resiliency and faithfulness that swells my heart with gratitude. Thank you.
As we look at this week’s passage, I’m struck that there is also a fair amount of creativity, resiliency, and faithfulness on display as well. Luke, certainly, exercises considerable creativity in crafting and sharing a story none of the other Evangelists include. And in that story, two disciples are renewed in their faith by their encounter with Jesus and granted the resiliency to turn around and head back the seven miles to Jerusalem to share word of their encounter even though it was now evening.
“The Road to Emmaus” is a familiar and, for many of us, favorite story. This year, however, it’s also a poignant one. I’ve long thought that Luke crafted this story to point his readers – persons who likely had never met or seen Jesus – to Sunday worship as the place where they would be encountered by the Risen Lord and have their hearts warmed by faith and fellowship. For surely it is no accident that the four parts of the story – Jesus meeting them amid their journey, interpreting Scripture, giving thanks and breaking bread, and then departing again for witness – model so closely the ancient and dominant pattern of worship that includes gathering, Word, meal, and sending. What’s poignant, of course, is that we will not physically experience this rhythm this week… or perhaps for many weeks. And to hear Luke describe it narratively is, quite honestly, a bit painful in the middle of our social distancing and isolation.
And yet amid this poignancy I find three elements of profound possibility, and I hope these may buoy you in faith this week.
First, I am struck once again that Jesus meets the disciples on the road. This is more than a symbolic representation of the gathering rites of our worship, this is an actual promise that Jesus always meets us where we are, whether in celebration or mourning, whether in victory or defeat, whether in gladness or sorrow, whether in times of heath or sickness or even pandemic. We are on a journey… as congregations, as leaders, as Christians, and as a society – both national and global – and Jesus regularly shows up midway through the journey, while we’re still on the road, to encourage us, accept us, and embolden us.
Second, while I typically read the story of the meal that the disciples and Jesus share as representing Communion – compare the description of Jesus at the Last Supper and that here (22:19, 24:30) – it occurs me know that’s not a necessary conclusion to reach. (And interestingly, Luke uses the same words to describe Jesus’ feeding of the multitude: 9:16.) To put this another way, I think that this meal (and all of our meals, for that matter!) may be sacramental – that is, holding the potential to mediate the grace and presence of God – without necessarily being a sacrament – that is, containing the promise of Jesus that they will mediate grace.
The remarkable amount of writing in recent weeks about whether and how to share communion during shelter-at-home periods – some of it quite helpful, some less so – has given me pause to wonder whether we have in recent years over-emphasized the Sacraments. Again, I’m not sure I’m saying this well. I come from a sacramental tradition and highly value the promises of salvation physically embodied in baptism and communion and commanded by Jesus to encourage us in faith. But perhaps our emphasis on the sacraments – and particularly our at-times rabid concern with getting it Right (just do whatever proclaims the Gospel and respects your community’s traditions, for heaven’s sake!) – has overshadowed the potential of everyday events, occurrences, and people to be powerful reminders and even mediators of God’s promises and presence.
Can we invite people to see the meals they share at home, as well as alone, or the online fellowship they enjoy via Snapchatting with each other or through a Zoom happy hour, or the additional time they are spending with those closest to them (some of that time joyful and some, honestly, painful) as places where God is still showing up, still reminding us that we are loved, still promising to meet us where we are and accompany us all along the way? Perhaps it’s time to set some of our people free to read and interpret the Bible on their own and to share and claim sacramental moments at home, as God continues to meet us in the ordinary and mundane elements of life, often where we least expect God to be, making promises to ordinary and mundane people that we are beloved children of God.
Third, I’m encouraged by the fact that it takes a number of people in the New Testament a fair amount of time to recognize Jesus. Whether it’s Nicodemus in John’s story – introduced in chapter three, but not demonstrating any particular faith until he declares himself for Jesus by burying him in chapter nineteen… Or whether it’s all four Gospels reporting the standard reaction of dismay, confusion, doubt and disbelief by the disciples as a whole when word of Jesus’ resurrection reaches them… Or whether it’s that Cleopas and his companion simply don’t recognize Jesus until he blesses and breaks bread with them…. I am encouraged by these delayed professions of faith. Sometimes, faith comes easy. At others, faith can be pretty damn hard and Jesus remarkably difficult to recognize. Either way, Jesus is there, waiting patiently for those he has already called. And that may be just the thing to tell folks who may very well be struggling to see Jesus right now.
There is lots in this story to ponder and proclaim, Dear Partner, some of it quite poignant, even painful, and that’s important to give voice to. But other elements of the story – and I’d be bold enough to say more elements – are just brimming with the resurrection possibilities of the God we know in Jesus, and this is important to give voice to as well. Thank you for your proclamation, for your faithful ministry, and for taking care of yourself so that you can take care of others.
Blessings in Christ,
David
To me
the story is about the two disciples running all the way back to Jerusalem. No it does not say they ran, but it was getting late when Jesus stopped with them… dangerous to be out at night… yet, they went all of the way back at night! why… they had an excitement and elation that we have lost. Yeah, Jesus is risen… so what? How can we get it back?
I’m excited by the fact that these two disciples were willing to talk to this stranger, unlike the ones in Jerusalem who were hiding. I want to pull that out, along with their disappointment. They weren’t afraid to say they knew Jesus and had hope in him. I’m also excited about the fact that Jesus sought them out!