Third Sunday of Easter Year A 2014
St. Luke’s, Burnt River, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon
What must it have been like that first Easter day for followers of Jesus? Fear, uncertainty, despair, confusion.
In last week’s Gospel story from John we hear how on that very day disciples in Jesus inner circle went from all those feeling, to a hope, joy and peace through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit by their risen Lord.
From doubting the word of Mary Magdalene and other women who went to find an empty tomb, they encountered Jesus in the upper room, and began the next stage in their journey of faith.
But what about those who were not in the inner circle, the many followers of Jesus who had watched as Jesus was led away to be crucified, and then heard stories of his Resurrection and the empty tomb…but no first hand accounts.
That’s why Luke’s story of Cleopas, only mentioned this once in scripture and an unnamed second man travelling on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem is so important in understanding the transformation of Christ’s followers into inspired group to preach the Gospel.
The two men were talking about what had happened when they met Jesus. They were discouraged. And somewhat angry when this stranger didn’t seem to know what they were talking about.
“Are you the only one that does not know the things that have taken place in these days?” they ask.
Luke says their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
I can understand that. Sometimes I know someone even by name, as well as recognizing them, but in a place I don’t expect to see them, I don’t recognize them.
So not knowing it is Jesus, they tell him the story of the crucifixion, and empty tomb reports by the women.
Jesus responds somewhat impatiently---how foolish they are not to understand the prophetic background of these events in Hebrew scripture, and proceeds to open the scripture to explain his role as the suffering servant of Israel, the Messiah.
This is an important part of Luke’s teaching throughout his Gospel. Jesus is the Messiah foretold in Hebrew scripture. He’s a Messiah very unlike the one they had possibly looked for, one who would defeat Rome militarily and rule over a return to prosperity for Israel.
Instead of a triumphant Messiah, they had a crucified Messiah, who rose again, to defeat sin and defeat death, not to defeat Rome.
Jesus meets these two men in grief and loss, and patiently lays out the teaching of scripture.
After the teaching, Jesus begins to walk ahead as if to go on without them, before accepting their hospitality.
He breaks bread with them, and in that moment they know he is their Lord and Master. But they did not recognize him until breaking bread with him.
Then Jesus disappears, as quickly as he had joined them.
This story is different from other post Resurrection appearances by Jesus. He appears to two individuals, and this story is not mentioned elsewhere in scripture.
But it is profound because it shows Jesus connecting with us, as we, like the travellers on the Road to Emmaus, travel on the road to life.
Jesus accompanies us, teaches us, and offers us the bread and wine, so we connect with him in a real and tangible way.
God walks alongside us in our confusion, and our doubts, and meets us in word and sacrament to feed both our bodies and our souls.
Hospitality is an important part of meeting Jesus. We can’t keep the good news to ourselves. Like the Emmaus travellers we have to return to Jerusalem, or wherever we live to share the good news.
One of the most dangerous myths in our pluralistic society is that faith is a private matter. It’s sort of like saying politics is a private matter, when the political decisions we make through our votes affect the way our society operates.
Our faith informs everything we do, how we conduct our lives.
This story of the road to Emmaus also helps us understand why we worship with others.
Whenever two or three come together to worship in Christ’s name, they are following the teaching of Jesus.
And we notice as far as our liturgy, our worship goes, that this follows the pattern of our communion service. First the word, the scripture is shared, then the bread and wine are shared in a spirit of hospitality. They we depart to carry the Gospel teachings into our own lives.
A very ancient pattern. Symbol and ritual are an important part of how we live out our faith, corporately, and individually.
I’d like to conclude with a prayer. Lord Jesus, stay with us, be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.
Monday 5 May 2014
Honest Doubt and Faith
Second Sunday of Easter Year A 2014
St. John’s Dunsford, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon
Lord Alfred Tennyson, a 19th century English poet laureate wrote: There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”
This morning’s Gospel is about honest doubt. We’ve growing up hearing Thomas nicknamed “doubting Thomas” because of this post resurrection appearance by Jesus to the disciples. It has become part of our vocabulary.
Yet in a way we are all Thomas. We have honest doubts about our faith, even if we are afraid to admit them.
I think Thomas has been hard done by for the last two thousand years. He was missing from the upper room the first time Jesus appeared to his disciples. So when he comes and finds his friends changed men, no longer huddling in fear but energized and ready to proclaim the Gospel, he doubts their experience. He wants to touch the wounded hands of his master so he too can believe.
I identify with Thomas. I am skeptical. I like to see evidence before I decide whether to believe a story.
Thomas is only mentioned once before this story in the Gospels. In John 11, verse 16 we learn Thomas understood Jesus when he foretold his own death. Thomas tells his fellow disciples, many of whom couldn’t accdept what Jesus told them. “Let us go, that we may die with him.”
Doesn’t sound much like a doubter there.
When Jesus first appears to his disciples (when Thomas is away) he greets them with the peace, then he breathes on them.
This breathing of the Holy Spirit is often called John’s “Pentecost” because Jesus conferes the power to forgive sins, and pours his spirit on the disciple, foreshadowing the Day of Pentecost we celebrate in six weeks.
Thomas missed that important moment. But the very fact he was willing to leave the safety of the upper room to go out indicated an act of faith and courage at a time when the followers of Jesus were a dispirited lot.
So when Thomas was back and Jesus appeared he wanted to share in the experience of the risen Christ. He wanted to believe—something demonstrated by his response to Jesus---“My Lord and My God,” surely not the declaration of a skeptic. Doubt had turned to assurance.
And Jesus has more assurance for those of us who could not share in his post-resurrection appearances. “Have you been blessed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
That’s an important teaching, because if faith had only been possible for those who witnessed the risen Christ, or had a chance to listen to their testimony, than Christianity might have been a footnote in history, rather helping to shape the world’s history since that time.
The blessing of Jesus, for those who have faith in things unseen, extends to us today as we struggle with a world where many follow scientific rationalism, and profession no faith in God…only in themselves.
What happened to Thomas after this famous encounter with Jesus.
Accounts found in what are called the New Testament apocrypha, books that weren’t accepted as part of the Biblical Canon, tell of Thomas going to preach the Gospel in India. He was a reluctant evangelist. He didn’t know how he would reach people from a very different culture than his Mediterranean world.
The Acts of Thomas say Jesus appeared to Thomas and told him: “Fear not. Go to India and Preach the Gospel. My grace is with thee.”
After briefly refusing Thomas agrees to go. “I will go whither thou wilt, Lord Jesus. Thy will be done.”
Later he was martyred, dying by the sword. But the church survived in India from that time, and still reveres Thomas as a saint.
What can we learn from the story of Thomas?
Perhaps the most important is there isn’t anything wrong with asking questions. Sometimes during its history the church has persecuted those who questioned creeds and dogma.
Yet our faith is sure one of relationship, with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit—all part of our Trinitarian understanding of the divine. And how we live out our faith is not in agreeing to a set of propositions, but in that relationship, and living out that relationship in our lives.
That’s why we can’t or shouldn’t come to church on Sunday and profess a faith, without trying to live it out in the rest of our lives.
Our Christian faith doesn’t provide easy answers. I’m not saying that. But it provides a basis to make choices. If we love Jesus, love our neighbours as ourelves, the Holy Spirit will help us in making the right choice.
Of course we will sometimes have doubts. It was easy for Thomas. It isn’t easy for us.
But a living faith is able to encompass doubt and grow. Let us pray during this Easter season of new birth, new life and resurrection, that we might grow in our doubts and fears, and grow closer to Christ.
St. John’s Dunsford, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon
Lord Alfred Tennyson, a 19th century English poet laureate wrote: There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”
This morning’s Gospel is about honest doubt. We’ve growing up hearing Thomas nicknamed “doubting Thomas” because of this post resurrection appearance by Jesus to the disciples. It has become part of our vocabulary.
Yet in a way we are all Thomas. We have honest doubts about our faith, even if we are afraid to admit them.
I think Thomas has been hard done by for the last two thousand years. He was missing from the upper room the first time Jesus appeared to his disciples. So when he comes and finds his friends changed men, no longer huddling in fear but energized and ready to proclaim the Gospel, he doubts their experience. He wants to touch the wounded hands of his master so he too can believe.
I identify with Thomas. I am skeptical. I like to see evidence before I decide whether to believe a story.
Thomas is only mentioned once before this story in the Gospels. In John 11, verse 16 we learn Thomas understood Jesus when he foretold his own death. Thomas tells his fellow disciples, many of whom couldn’t accdept what Jesus told them. “Let us go, that we may die with him.”
Doesn’t sound much like a doubter there.
When Jesus first appears to his disciples (when Thomas is away) he greets them with the peace, then he breathes on them.
This breathing of the Holy Spirit is often called John’s “Pentecost” because Jesus conferes the power to forgive sins, and pours his spirit on the disciple, foreshadowing the Day of Pentecost we celebrate in six weeks.
Thomas missed that important moment. But the very fact he was willing to leave the safety of the upper room to go out indicated an act of faith and courage at a time when the followers of Jesus were a dispirited lot.
So when Thomas was back and Jesus appeared he wanted to share in the experience of the risen Christ. He wanted to believe—something demonstrated by his response to Jesus---“My Lord and My God,” surely not the declaration of a skeptic. Doubt had turned to assurance.
And Jesus has more assurance for those of us who could not share in his post-resurrection appearances. “Have you been blessed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
That’s an important teaching, because if faith had only been possible for those who witnessed the risen Christ, or had a chance to listen to their testimony, than Christianity might have been a footnote in history, rather helping to shape the world’s history since that time.
The blessing of Jesus, for those who have faith in things unseen, extends to us today as we struggle with a world where many follow scientific rationalism, and profession no faith in God…only in themselves.
What happened to Thomas after this famous encounter with Jesus.
Accounts found in what are called the New Testament apocrypha, books that weren’t accepted as part of the Biblical Canon, tell of Thomas going to preach the Gospel in India. He was a reluctant evangelist. He didn’t know how he would reach people from a very different culture than his Mediterranean world.
The Acts of Thomas say Jesus appeared to Thomas and told him: “Fear not. Go to India and Preach the Gospel. My grace is with thee.”
After briefly refusing Thomas agrees to go. “I will go whither thou wilt, Lord Jesus. Thy will be done.”
Later he was martyred, dying by the sword. But the church survived in India from that time, and still reveres Thomas as a saint.
What can we learn from the story of Thomas?
Perhaps the most important is there isn’t anything wrong with asking questions. Sometimes during its history the church has persecuted those who questioned creeds and dogma.
Yet our faith is sure one of relationship, with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit—all part of our Trinitarian understanding of the divine. And how we live out our faith is not in agreeing to a set of propositions, but in that relationship, and living out that relationship in our lives.
That’s why we can’t or shouldn’t come to church on Sunday and profess a faith, without trying to live it out in the rest of our lives.
Our Christian faith doesn’t provide easy answers. I’m not saying that. But it provides a basis to make choices. If we love Jesus, love our neighbours as ourelves, the Holy Spirit will help us in making the right choice.
Of course we will sometimes have doubts. It was easy for Thomas. It isn’t easy for us.
But a living faith is able to encompass doubt and grow. Let us pray during this Easter season of new birth, new life and resurrection, that we might grow in our doubts and fears, and grow closer to Christ.
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