Easter 3

The Lord is risen indeed.

Alleluia.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Lord be with you, and also with you.

Let us pray.

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread.

Open the eyes of our faith that we may behold him in all his redeeming work, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Reading from Acts, Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd.

Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, Brothers, what should we do?

Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven, and you'll be given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promises for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, to everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.

And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

So those who welcomed his message were baptized.

And that day about three thousand persons were added.

You know that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.

Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.

You have been born anew, not of perishable, but of imperishable seed through the living and enduring word of God.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now on that same day, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?

They stood still, looking sad.

Then one of them, whose name was Cleopus, answered him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?

He asked them what things?

They replied, The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we'd hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.

Moreover, some women of our group astounded us.

They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us they'd indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.

Then Jesus said to them, Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had declared.

Was it not necessary the Messiah should suffer these things, and then enter into his glory?

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself and all the scriptures.

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, because it's almost evening and the day is now nearly over.

So Jesus went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

And then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight, and they said to each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us.

That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

They were saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon.

And then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

We get to meet once again and consider what it means to be resurrected and resurrected instead of resuscitated.

Again, that's our our our theme, I think, for the 50 days of Easter.

And last week we got to read the Gospel of John, in which uh the resurrected Jesus shows up to the disciples, but not Thomas on the same day and gives them the Holy Spirit.

But this week we get to read Luke's perspective.

And I think it's really, really helpful to hear, if you're new to this, that the Gospels tell slightly different stories.

It's not because they're competing about the factuality.

What they're trying to do is drill down to their audience about what's happening with new life in Christ, how it is that the first believers experienced it, and how we might.

And of course, because they're writing to different audiences, frankly, they choose to accentuate different details.

Sometimes they even tell the secrets of events differently.

So in John's Gospel, Jesus shows up at the tomb to Mary.

She tries to grab him, he says, Let me go.

Later, he shows up to the disciples the same day.

In Luke's gospel, it goes a little different.

And so here it is, imagine, go back two weeks.

Easter Sunday, the women go to the tomb, they see some messengers that say he's not here, he's risen, tell all of his friends, and now a couple of the friends are walking home.

They'd been to Jerusalem for Passover, and the Passover was over.

Remember, Passover was a time in which 40,000 regular occupants of Jerusalem swelled to more than 400,000 people because they came for the high holy days.

So 360,000 people are on their way home, and two of them are going through the village of Emmaus.

On their way, they run into Jesus.

But notice the scripture says their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Now, we don't quite know what that means.

Was Jesus wearing a mask or a costume, or was it more likely because they believed Jesus was dead and gone, they could not see his new life right in front of them.

I want to suggest that is most likely, and in that sense, Luke and John really share this perspective.

Mary thinks the risen Jesus is the gardener.

And maybe that's because she expects Jesus to be dead and not living.

So she can't see the living Jesus right in front of him.

Anyway, here are these two disciples, and they're telling Jesus as if he has no idea what's happened.

Look, there was this guy who came in, and we had a lot of hope for him.

We thought he was going to be the Messiah.

And here is something happening at the time of Jesus that we've kind of let go of.

The difference between Messiahs and the Messiah.

So, biblically speaking, there's a lot of messiahs.

In ancient Israel, the way that you were made a king is that a prophet poured oil upon your head and anointed you with oil.

They did that on behalf of God.

David was a Messiah.

He was anointed.

So was the king Saul.

So was the King Solomon.

Actually, Solomon's brother, who ends up losing his head, was also anointed as a messiah.

All kings are messiahs.

Essentially, they've been crowned to be kings.

There's many of those.

But when we hear the word the Messiah, you want to think with a capital M.

There was a popular belief that there was somebody who was going to come and be the Messiah of Messiahs, who was going to take people back to the golden age of King David, kick out the Romans, feed the hungry people.

And Jesus is trying to say, don't you understand that the Messiah is different from all those other messiahs?

The capital M is different from the regular folk.

And he tries to explain to them using the scriptures the prophets.

And this is really interesting.

Jesus and Luke's audience were not just reading the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

They were reading the prophets in the writings.

He goes to explain to them how this had to be true.

They get to where they're going to have dinner.

Maybe it's a way station, maybe it's their final destination.

And Jesus wants to keep going and they invite him in.

This is a really interesting story because, again, as I mentioned to you last week and even two weeks ago at the vigil, the gospels are really clear that the resurrection experiences, by and large, don't happen at the tomb, they happen on the way.

So on their way, they meet Jesus.

And notice Jesus wants to keep going ahead of them, and they're the ones that pull them back.

They say, no, no, come with us.

They come into this setting, and now there's the sort of the normal tables of the meal have been overturned.

Normally the hosts should say the blessing and distribute the food, and it's the guests that should receive the hospitality.

But how interesting that Jesus, who is the guest, takes the role of the host.

He blesses the bread, he breaks it and gives it to them.

And we have to wonder is it just that the disciples now, maybe Jesus had a distinctive way of breaking bread.

Maybe instead of just snapping it one way, he snapped it two ways.

Or maybe he held it over his head when he broke it and passed it out.

Or maybe he tore it into strips, whereas other people just tore it in half.

We don't know.

But at the moment of blessing and breaking the bread is when the disciples realize who it is they've been with all along.

And they're able to say, boy, our hearts were burning the whole time within us.

And this is a really great, I think, opportunity to think about the resurrected life and experience Luke is inviting us to consider.

Now, if you were watching back on Maundy Thursday, I told you that there is, there are many ways, of course, to understand the Eucharist, but one of the strongest ways of understanding the Eucharist is as nourishment for the journey.

So think about what we do when we come in for communion.

We give thanks to God.

We ask God to wash away all of our ingratitude and all of the things that get in the way between us being our authentic selves and being open to God.

That's the prayer that we start the service with every time.

We come and try to give thanks.

We try to offer our concerns and anxieties to God so that having done that, we can be present with the rest of ourselves.

And then we get to hear in the Eucharist that not only do we get to be grateful for God, but that God is grateful for us.

And so we have this nourishment that happens every week of generosity, of being present, of stepping aside for our anxieties, at least temporarily, to experience God in regular passage of time.

And we do that through shared meals.

Specifically, we eat at the Lord's table.

We need nourishment as we go through spiritual deserts.

And um there's this really strong understanding that Jesus would nourish us for our spiritual journey.

And uh every time we say this, we get to say the body of Christ, eat this in remembrance of me.

Remembering is this really a great word because it doesn't just mean, oh, I forgot, I'll pay attention to it again.

Remembering is the opposite of dismembering.

Like if your arm has been cut off, it's been dismembered.

When you put it back on, it has been remembered.

So we regain functionality, we regain wholeness, and that's what happens when we have the bread.

We remember Jesus in our lives, in our spirits, in our relationships.

And all of this is cast not only, of course, in terms of nourishment, but we sometimes also cast it in terms of sacrifice.

Here are these two disciples on their way from Jerusalem home, and they stop at Emmaus and they are exhausted.

They have encountered some very real anxieties.

Jesus is crucified, he's dead, they had a lot of hopes for him.

Some people are saying some weird things have happened to his body, they don't know what to believe, they're just full of anxiety, confusion, and they're exhausted.

And then they come into this meal with Jesus himself as host, where he blesses the bread, breaks it, and gives it to them.

And here, in that one moment, they remember Jesus.

Their anxieties, their doubts, their confusion don't necessarily go away, but the center of their being is reunited with the living Christ, with God's presence in them, with spiritual nourishment.

And anytime that happens, that is a resurrection experience.

And I think it's very helpful to say that we get to reclaim that language.

Resurrection certainly will happen to us after we die, but boy, it's a really helpful experience language for us to reclaim and say, no, I had a resurrection experience when I was reconciled with my brother because we remembered that we're family together.

I had a resurrection experience when I was able to take a compliment for my child or from my spouse or from my parent for the first time ever because we were remembered as one body as a family.

I had a resurrection experience when I was able to see somebody else's perspective and not have to take it on as my own.

These are resurrection experiences and they show up in daily little bits.

In fact, I want to be honest with you, they often show up for me if I'm careful and open in meals.

It seems to me like some of the best things we can do to make up with or understand people that we've got some apprehension about, is to play together, to work together, and to eat together.

There is something so human about sharing meals and remembering our common humanity together, just like there is something human about remembering our common humanity through play and laughter and through work with a common purpose.

Today we're invited, I think, to consider about remembering Jesus, remembering God's presence through the blessing and the breaking of bread.

Now, this could look a lot of ways, and right now is a difficult time for you to go through your Rolodex and say, huh, how can I remember my friendship by having people over to dinner?

In fact, that may not be scientifically advisable yet.

The day will come.

But for now, I wonder if we don't have this regular opportunity to experience the risen Jesus in the breaking of bread.

And here's a couple of weird ways you might do this.

Um, one is it is Jesus who is the guest who offers the blessing.

And um, I have to say, this is a really interesting thing to do.

Normally, when people come to home for my dinner, I'm the host, I'm the one who's supposed to do it.

Then is now.

So I do wonder if there's an opportunity to say, hey, thank you for this beautiful meal you prepared for us.

Can I offer a blessing for the meal?

I have a significant family member who has converted from Christianity to Judaism, and I have spent a Shabbat with him.

And in addition to doing things like lighting the Shabbat candles and passing the kiddish, which is this opportunity to share Thanksgiving and blessing the Halah, what this family member does with his children and sometimes with guests, is puts his hands on their head every Friday night and blesses them.

Now, I don't mean he blesses their heart.

What I mean is he offers them his blessing.

And this is a really interesting thing to think about, something that we rarely ever do.

Blessings are not where we say, hey, here are my objectives for you, so I sure hope you meet them and then we'll all be happy.

Blessings are when we look at one another and say, I am trying to see you.

And I'm trying to see you, seeing yourself.

And you have not only my hope, but my support and my joy as you pursue your growth and your truth and where God is calling you to go.

It may not be a reflection of us at all, but we offer a blessing to other people when we support them.

I wonder if you have ever blessed somebody in your life.

This is one of those great clergy privileges because not only do I get to do this, people expect me to do it.

But you know, there's nothing that relegates this to the dominion of the clergy.

Have you formerly offered this opportunity?

I know it would be a little bit awkward, to bless your spouse, to bless your parents, to bless your dinner hosts.

Maybe you don't want to put your hands upon their heads.

Although I would tell you there's something extremely powerful about that.

And in my own story, uh resurrection moments, I grew up a low evangelical, and we did not use things like anointing with holy oil.

What I love about the Episcopal Church is that we say, not only do we use it, it's sacramental, and I can tell you that I almost get a shiver of connection that is so beyond anything I ever got praying for somebody when I anoint some with oil and lay hands upon them.

The intimacy of that gesture, the ability to identify with them intimately while praying for them is extremely powerful and resurrecting for me.

And I have to tell you that blessing my own children, it feels a little bit awkward.

I usually do it at the beginning of the school year, but I wonder if Jesus isn't inviting us to consider this week.

Boy, how often can you really go in between receiving blessings?

How often should you go in between giving them?

Like I said, I know this is a little bit uh awkward, and maybe it's a little bit uh happy clappy standing to you, but I don't think so.

I think this is what true intimacy is like among family members and friends, and ways in which we can live into God's uh presence, especially right now.

So maybe you're socially distanced from some of the friends you want to be with, but there is someone you can be with.

And I wonder if you couldn't offer and live into a resurrection experience by giving them your blessing.

And if they have done your grocery shopping for you.

Maybe you're not comfortable laying hands on them because that's not social distancing.

There is something called a wave offering.

I wonder if you can't offer them a blessing.

Maybe the blessing is I am so grateful for what you've given me for this opportunity to live into safety to meet my physical needs.

I think that's a great place to start.

But I wonder if Jesus in this story isn't inviting us to consider, can we go deeper?

Do we know the delivery drivers by name?

Do we know the family members who are serving us and the kind of joy and hope they are trying to live into enough?

Could we make time to know those things and then offer ourselves, offer our blessing to those people on their way?

It may not be that people ever take our blessing in the sense that they call upon us to support them.

It may not be.

But boy, if we spent a few more moments thinking through how could we meaningfully offer the support we'd like to give, and what support would we like to give, then I think we would be reminding, remembering persons on their way that they are part of one body.

And anytime we remember we're part of one body, instead of dismembered parts, I think we have the opportunity to experience and live in and invite resurrection.

When this is over, I hope that you will share meals, but I hope you won't wait if you don't have to.

When this is over, I hope you might try the strange spiritual practice of laying hands on somebody and offering them a prayer or a blessing, not in the kind that says, I hope you get what you want, but I hope you grow into joy.

And I hope in the middle of these challenges you're able to find yourself more deeply than you thought possible.

But I wonder if we have to wait.

I wonder in our phone calls if we can't say, Is there a blessing I could give you?

A lot of us might cringe at that word.

I'll tell you, I uh sometimes uh shopkeepers will check me out unless they have a blessed day.

And that's a little bit troubling for me.

I have to be honest with you, because it reminds me of a time when everything was all about blessings, and if I wasn't doing that, it wasn't right.

But I think there's a difference between saying, I hope you have a blessed day, and me saying, How can I be a blessing to you?

I really can't say that, in my opinion, unless I take time to get to know you enough to earn the right to bless you.

And I wonder if that isn't our invitation today to be people truly of blessing, not with our words and not asking people to live into what we want for them, but to say, how can I accompany you on your journey and be a blessing to you?

I hope you have people in your life who are actively blessing you, even if they don't use the words.

And I hope the word is a helpful thing for us to struggle with and grow into, so that we at St.

Thomas can indeed do as God asked us to do, and be a blessing to the world, and reveal Jesus in the most basic things, like the sharing and the breaking of bread, of giving gratitude to our hosts, of being open to connection in places we weren't before.

Maybe there are times when our eyes are kept from recognizing the risen Lord, because we can only see what we believe.

So this Easter season, I invite us to change what it is we believe so we can see what God intends all the more.

Amen.

Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only child of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made human.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and God's kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father in the Son, she is worshipped and glorified.

She has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church, that we all may be one.

Grant that every member of the church may truly and humbly serve you, that your name may be glorified by all people.

We pray for Michael, our presiding bishop, for Andy, Hector, and Kylie, our bishop.

And then I also think Michael of Prayer.

For the previous argument, Mike Bill and Lena and for all the bishops of the previous and deep.

That they may be faithful images of your world in the document.

We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world.

For all the members of the armed forces, and for all who and justice that they may add with prudence and vision activities in your kingdom everywhere.

That there may be justice and peace on the earth.

We pray for our power and our visitor.

That our community may be very clearly and it is very effectively.

We pray for the economic possible for those who take and those who are bearers of your grace to all who come through our doors.

That our work may find favor in your design and comparison on those who travel from any week for trouble.

Maybe delivered from their interest.

May we also continue having those of the question?

Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit, you have made us one with your things in heaven and on earth.

Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their witnesses to your power and mercy.

We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you and also with you.

And I hope you are all staying safe, but not only sane, but finding ways to connect via telephone or with one another in the communities where that's safe.

We still are waiting week to week as we get to hear not only the state level of unrolling and safety, but also the diocesan suggestions and recommendations.

So we're balancing two, and we're trying to be as upfront as possible whenever there is news.

In the meantime, we are beginning a new Bible study on uh the first Wednesday in May.

That's May the 5th, and it's centered on the parables of Jesus.

We'll be doing that on Zoom meeting, and if proximity allows, we'll do that.

Um, if we end up in between, uh, you'll be able to zoom in or come in prox uh physically as well.

So uh there's a book by Amy Joe Levine, and uh that uh information is available on the web or you can contact me for more information, but that'll be starting May the 5th.

The other really big announcement is that our food distribution on May 1st is still on, and uh the need seems to be greater than it was normally.

So our McGurder families have actively reached out and said, can we do this?

When do we come?

So if you're interested in supporting that, um May 1st is the Saturday.

We need volunteers to arrive at 8 o'clock and expect that we'll be leaving by 10:30, 10:45.

We'll probably see more than 150 cars come through, possibly as many as 250 cars in that window.

So uh what we'll do is practice social distancing from one another, wearing gloves and masks.

We'll separate a truck into individual portions, whole pallets of things like onions and apples, and uh and then hand them out to cars, just simply putting them in the trunk while a few people collect demographics from the drivers on some pads.

There is volunteer opportunity for anybody, uh really of any age as well.

Um the things we need, if you can come, that's great.

If you can't, we still need chopping bags.

We also need boxes that are medium to large size, because what we do is put the whole share of food in a box and put that in a car.

Those can get dropped off at St.

Thomas in front of the entry doors, uh, and and it's fine.

We have people coming in every day to do a few work, uh some work in the office, and so we can bring those boxes in, but you can simply leave them there.

Same with shopping bags, uh, because again, we're we're going to end up serving more than 450 individuals through about 150 cars, I would I would guess.

And so that many boxes and bags is necessary.

Really, we can take as many as you give.

HEB has been really kind and given us a good number of shopping bags, both last time and advance of this.

And again, that's on May the 1st.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

Um, and now just continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.

And let's pray as our Lord and Savior Christ has taught us.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

May God the Father, who has redeemed us and made us children of God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, bestow upon you new joy, the riches of God's favor.

May the Holy Spirit, who through the waters of baptism has raised us from sin and into newness of life lead you into the mission and holiness of being God's own forever.

May Jesus, who has brought us out of bondage to sin and into true and lasting freedom as our Redeemer, guide you to live into your internal inheritance.

Amen.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.

Amen.

Alleluia, Alleluia, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Alleluia, alleluia.