Sermon: "He opened their minds to understand the scriptures." (Easter 3B)

3^rd Sunday of Easter

April 19, 2015

Luke 24:36b-48

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

            True confession: I really struggled with this Gospel text this week. As many times as I read it, all it did was overwhelm me. I mean, it’s got some good stuff in there, but every time I got to something I could sink my teeth into, it seemed it bounced over to something else. It is an exhausting text to read! Just look at this line in the middle: “While in their joy [the disciples] were disbelieving and still wondering, [Jesus] said to them, ‘Have you anything to eat?’” In one sentence, we have joy, disbelief, confusion/wonder, and hunger. No wonder I’m overwhelmed!

            Maybe I’m especially overwhelmed because this week has been emotional for me, as I have endured a very frustrating illness that has knocked me on my back, all while trying to get my feet

Supper at Emmaus, by He Qi

back on the ground after Holy Week and Easter and manage the increasing physical and hormonal effects of pregnancy. And this brief passage from the Bible only exacerbates all of the varying emotions I am experiencing. Sometimes I want to read the Bible and find solace and escape from life’s troubles, not just more of the same!

            Well, that’s just it: sometimes the Bible does serve as a mirror, reflecting back to you exactly what you are experiencing in real life. And sometimes this is a good thing, because it helps us to feel less alone knowing that our struggles are some of the very same struggles that people have been enduring for generations. God was present to God’s people back then, and continues to be present to us today.

But sometimes the Bible’s ability to be a mirror for us is also frustrating, because it is too much like the life we are trying to escape, and because it forces us to look deeply at the things in our lives or in our relationship with God that are lacking, places where we need to do some work. And I suppose, given my reaction to this passage this week, that this is exactly what this passage is trying to do for me, and maybe for you as well.

            Recognizing that a passage might have something important to say to you is a really important step in letting it say its piece. Do you notice what Jesus’ response is to the disciples’ myriad emotional reactions to his presence among them? Luke tells us, “he opened their minds to understand

the scriptures.” This is such an important thing to remember. There are a lot of passages in the Bible out there with which we are quite familiar, and we think, “Oh yes, I know this one,” and then only hear from it what we already know or expect to hear. We are not open to the possibility that God might be saying something new to us, even in well-known and well-loved passages of scripture. On the other hand, there are many passages out there that are not at all familiar to us (even if we have read them before!), and when we first look at them and are confused, we dismiss them and say, “Oh, this one is weird. I’ll read something else that is more familiar.” (Anyone guilty of that?!) But these, too, if we go into reading them prayerfully, have the wonderful potential of helping us see and know something new about God and how God works in our lives.

So with all that in mind, let’s see what God might be saying to us in this emotionally-riddled, fast-paced and confusing passage. In other words, rather than tell you about experiencing Jesus in the scriptures, we’re going to actually try to experience it. Could you please get out a pen or pencil and your bulletin and open it to the Gospel reading? I’m going to read this again, just the first half, and while I read, I’ll ask you to circle or underline any word or phrase that strikes you, that God may be using to speak to you this day. (Not necessarily one you like! Just one that jumps out at you.) Before we read, I’ll say a prayer. Then you listen and follow along while I read…

            Let us pray. God of life, speak to us through your Word, so that we might hear what you have to say to us this day. Amen.

            “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

            Would anyone like to share what word or phrase God used to speak to you today? …

            Whatever your word or phrase is, hold it in prayer for a moment. In fact, I hope you will hold it the rest of the day or week, and pray with it, trying to figure out what God might be saying to you in it. To show you how you might do this, I will invite you to walk with me through my own process. First I notice (that’s what we just did). Then I figure out what feelings that word or phrase brings up in me. Is it positive or negative? Name the feelings. And third, what might God be saying to me this

day through my reaction? Why do I feel those feelings? What work is to be done there?

Okay, here goes:

            First, here’s what I noticed when I read this: I noticed how very present in so many ways Jesus is to the disciples. The specific phrase is, “Touch me and see.” Jesus is to the disciples wholly, even carnally present and able to be experienced through the senses.

Second, what feelings does this bring up in me? I suppose it is a mix of gratitude for that presence, but also jealously. It makes me long to experience the resurrected Christ in such a physical way as those disciples did. I want to touch and see. I want to give him broiled fish. I want to see his hands and feet so that I will have that concrete experience to fuel my faith in a God I believe to be “Emmanuel,” God with us, but who, if we’re being honest, sometimes is present in a way that can be hard to understand. We often talk about how God is with us, but this passage takes that to a whole new level. I want to be at that level, because sometimes, when I am feeling the stew of emotions that the disciples are clearly feeling in this passage, it is hard to discern where God is in the mix. I want it to be so simple as “touch and see,” so I can be sure.

Finally, third, what might this phrase be saying to me this day? As I sit with my longing, the question that emerges for me moves from, “Why don’t I get that concrete experience?” to, “What concrete experiences of Christ’s presence are right in front of me, but I am missing them because I am distracted by my complexity of emotions, or my to-do list, or whatever it is that seems so pressing?”

There are many possible answers to that question – and this could easily become a sermon about seeing Christ in my neighbor, or about seeing Christ in the signs of new life that are all around me on a daily basis. And those are true things that are worth preaching about, some other day. But standing in this sanctuary with all of you at this time, the answer that immediately leaps to mind is this [point to communion]. So many of Christ’s post-resurrection appearances happen in the context

of a meal. A meal is such a sensory experience, where we see one another, smell the food, touch it to our tongues, taste its goodness, and hear words of grace. And that is why, 2000 years later, we continue to celebrate the presence of the risen Christ in the context of a meal – where we can “touch and see,” taste, smell, and hear the goodness of the Lord. It is this sensory, concrete, carnal experience of Christ that provides us with strength and fuel for our faith. How easy that can be to forget, but how important it is to remember!

I will continue to hold these words in my heart, and let Christ continue to “open my mind to understand the scriptures,” and I hope you will hold whatever phrase God brought to you this morning and do the same, first noticing, then naming your feelings about it, then considering what God is saying to you in it. Thanks be to God that the risen Christ is alive and well in our hearts and in the Word, always moving us toward deeper understanding of our God and of ourselves. Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.