EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on April 26, 2020. This was the seventh digital service we performed after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic.
What a terrific story that we have for today's gospel!
And I know, just from experience, that this is a story that is near and ear to a lot of people's hearts. It's a story that we know that comes in the hours just after Jesus has risen and left his tomb. The story paints a perfect picture of what it is setting up for us in Mary Magdalen and two other disciples, one later that we hear is Cleopas, they are walking on this road to Emmaus, which is seven miles from Jerusalem, where all of the believers had gathered in the hours after Jesus' crucifixion.
And we can picture in our minds these three believers who are just downtrodden. Here their savior was just crucified, and he's no longer in the tomb. His body is gone, and they don't know what to think! They hear reports that the body is gone, and yet Jesus hasn't appeared to them yet.
And I think in this time that we are walking through ourselves, as I spoke not that long ago, it's been 40 days since we haven't been able to gather as a congregation together, or to share the Good news here together in this sanctuary. I'm sure that many of us probably resemble the three of those believers who are on that road right now.
The longing to want to believe. The longing to want to see Christ and Christ's miracles that he performed in the days that he was alive. Those tangible proofs that Christ was right there with them. And yet, we don't see Christ in this journey with us right now, do we? We don't tangibly see Christ walking along our own road to Emmaus from Jerusalem.
I find it interesting that as Jesus comes to them that the three disciples can speak to him, and they know the news that is in front of them. They can fill him in on the facts that Jesus was turned over for the crucifixion by the leaders of the Jews. That that tomb was empty earlier in the morning, and if you go back to today's gospel, you can see all these points that they lay out for Jesus. And they kind of quizzically ask him, "Are you the only stranger around that isn't aware of this news?"
We can be unware in our day too. ... If Jesus were among us right now, if Jesus was sitting in the sanctuary with the five of us, and we were unaware that it was him, anyone of the five of us could tell him the daily news. We could tell him about the pandemic. We could tell him about the count and how many people in our state have it, and have been tested, and unfortunately the number of those who have passed, and the economic devastation that we are all experiencing right now. We could recount all of the news of the day to Jesus, just as these three disciples are doing on this walk to Emmaus.
But interestingly, after they recount the news of the day, what happens is that Jesus intervenes. Here in the gospel it tells us that Jesus basically stops them and says, "Whoa, how foolish you are! And slow of the heart you are to believe all of the prophets!"
He stops them because in the midst of their angst they can describe to Jesus all of the physical, tangible things that are going on in their day, but it seems they have forgotten the promises that Jesus tells all of the believers in the lead up to the crucifixion. He tells them over and over again, that he will come back. He promises that he is dying but conquering death in his death.
But in this moment the believers can only see the news of the day, and I feel that might be the place that many of us are in. We can see the news of the day, and yet we long for Jesus' intervention. Well, he does intervene in this story. And I believe that that is the promise that we hang onto in our belief, in our Christian lives. We know that Jesus is going to intervene in our behalf as well. That is the promise that he gives to us.
Interestingly enough in this particular story, I find it interesting that Jesus ends up revealing himself in their home. In this day, in this new life we're all living, so many of us miss so many things. We miss going out on Sunday morning and coming here to the sanctuary. We miss sharing the peace with each other, going across the aisle to the other pew where the Ericksons sit. Or to the other pew where the Hendricksons sit, and shake hands and hug and give each other the peace. And we miss that. We miss going out and sharing the peace with others, and going somewhere to see Christ tangibly.
But interestingly in this story, Jesus reveals himself in the home. And I can't help but wonder for this day if there isn't a message in this gospel for us in that, yes we can't get out and travel right now, and we can't come to our beloved sanctuary for church every Sunday, and our Sunday schoolers have to participate in Sunday school from their homes.
But maybe in this gospel today, Jesus is reminding us that the also reveals himself in our homes, and that this might be an extended opportunity for us to see Christ in our homes. After all, Jesus didn't do anything miraculous when he sat down to break bread with Mary Magadalene and the two other disciples. It was a simple meal, offered to a traveling stranger.
But we are told in this story that it's in that very act of sitting down together and breaking bread together that the disciples see Jesus. And what might be a better metaphor for all of us right now who are in our homes? We're breaking bread more often with our families because we don't have sports to run to or we Wednesday night Lenten services. Or we don't have as many meetings outside the home.
I wonder if this isn't a time to enjoy what Jesus is doing for us in our home, and revealing himself in those simple pleasures. Jesus promises us in the lead up to his crucifixion that he will reveal himself to us. And even though there might be times that we walk through the dark night, such as what we're feeling now, we know, we know that those promises are on the backside of that night. After all, every night is followed by a dawn, and after every crucifixion it is followed by the resurrection that is shown very tangibly to us with our cross and that beautiful white banner.
Faith Family, we've find ourselves in a liminal period. For those who haven't heard that term before, it's a term that many counselors and therapists and, yes, us pastors, use quite frequently. A liminal period, in its most basic sense, is a transitional period. It's a period of uncertainty. It's a period of ambiguity. Often times, it's that transitional period really maximum moments in our lives until that next chapter. I think about all of those who are seniors this year, both in high school and in college, who in a normal period, right, they would be graduating this month or in early June. And then there would be this weird period for them where they weren't high schoolers anymore, but they hadn't started college yet. And so they're in this liminal period.
Well, we're in a liminal period. We haven't been able to worship together in 40 days. We've had to make do with what we through technology here. We've had to figure out what is church when we don't have the church building. What is being Christ for others when it is that we can't physically bring them food, or physically share the peace with them, or physically go visit them in their homes, or visit them in assisted living facilities. We are in a very liminal period.
Mary Magdalene and the two disciples who were walking on that road to Emmaus were in a liminal period. Looking for Christ. Wanting to believe in all of those promises. But not seeing Christ tangibly. We even get a picture of that liminal feeling that they have in the scripture when they start talking about the fact that Jesus had revealed himself. He came into their home, and he broke bread with them. And all of a sudden, their eyes open, and then Jesus vanishes. Just up and vanishes.
But their thinking to themselves, "Well, when we're on that road, when we were talking with him, and we're talking about the scriptures, weren't our hearts burning? It says their eyes were opened and they recognized him and vanished from their sight. And they said to each other, "Were our hearts not burning within us while he was talking to us on the road? While he was opening the scriptures to us?" And I wonder if we're not all living through similar experiences in the sense that every time we see the good in someone else, every time we see a news story where somebody recovers miraculously from COVID. Or we see the donations of hundreds or thousands of masks to hospitals that need it. Or we see people just like you and I making donations to charities. Or we see Sunday schoolers making paper cutouts of kids just to brighten our congregation. Or we see people who are reaching out to each other, people they may not know to do something Christlike for them. Do we not feel the burning in our hearts when we do those things? Or when we read those good stories? And is that not the same recognition that these disciples have when they recognize that Christ was right among them?
And so I would suggest to you, Faith Family, that even though we're not together today, that that same feeling of joy when you tuned into Facebook this morning to see the service here, or to be in worship with your Faith Family that you felt that burn in your heart. That every time you've sewn a mask for someone, or that you give a gift to a delivery worker or to a hospital, or that you've made a donation to a volunteer, or that you've put a food basket together for someone, or that your kids have gotten together to record a song together to bring joy to people, do we not feel that same burning that these disciples feel around that table today?
So, in this moment, as we continue our own walk toward Emmaus during this pandemic, I hold up to you, Faith Family, that Christ is here. He is sitting around your tables, breaking bread with you and your family. He is sitting in this sanctuary, breaking bread with us, even though we're reaching out and connecting through digital means. And we're feeling the burning of the heart because we know that he is here amongst us.
We know those promises he makes in the lead-up to his crucifixion. We know that Jesus is intervening, just as he does on this road to Emmaus. And so what I ask of you today then, Faith Family, is that we focus in on the last portion of this story. Because what happens in the end of the story is particularly important, and I think it is important to us as believers.
"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 has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon. Then they told what happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread."
And there today is the invitation to us, Faith Family, in that we are now those believers. We have seen witness to Christ being risen, and it is our day ... it is now our day to run back to Jerusalem and to tell everyone, "Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!" It is our job as the ones who are the light, the ones who are Christ's hands and feet, to run back to Jerusalem. Even in the midst of our own sorrow and our own grief and our own time of uncertainty. It's now our job to go out there, outside these walls, outside what we know as our normal church, and be the church to the greater world. Because we have an awesome message to tell. And that message is: Christ is risen indeed!
And so in these continuing days, Faith Family, I invite you to be like Mary Magdalene and the two other disciples, who in this story, shook off that uncertainty, shook off that ambiguity and believed in the promises and shone that light into the world. They ran back to Jerusalem and reminded people that Christ has risen. And today that's my invitation to you. I invite you to shake off the uncertainty, and work through the ambiguity, and run back to Jerusalem, and remind everyone out there that Christ is risen indeed.
And that is the Good News for this Sunday, Faith Family. Amen.
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