Easter 3, Luke 24v13-49, The road to Emmaus, Jesus appears to the disciples

The women have seen Jesus but because they were women their resurrection appearance is discounted. Even today we find that woman are discounted as legal witnesses in many countries. Then he appeared to Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus and because they go back to Jerusalem to find the disciples they were talking, gossiping about Cleopas and his friends story on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus appeared, through locked doors! Scary stuff! And he said “Peace be upon you"-Sallamm Malaichim in Arabic,, Sasidakahl in Hindi, Shalom in Hebrew. Peace be upon you and your household. that Shalom that encompasses all we could ever need, the peace that passes all understanding. 

They thought that he was a ghost! So would I have done! And being forever perceptive he asks them why they are troubled! And some of them obviously thought-this cant be ~jesus. So he asked them to touch him. You cant touch a ghost! Look at my hands and my feet. It is me myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And some of them still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, So we have a ghost with a gaping hole that you can feel. Or maybe it's just a story, a comfortable way of resolving grief, collective transference. So to answer their doubts he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

And to the unbelieving shocked group of disciples he again as on the road to Emmaus showed them how he had fulfilled the law and the prophets.

He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations(ethnos), beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses (marturio) of these things.

Have you ever doubted the existence of God? Many of at times have doubted. But  our experience of God turns doubt into faith. God comes to us at strange times and jolts us from doubt to faith. We will not have the experience that the disciples had of feeling the holes where Jesus was pierced but something else cuts through and we believe.

There are a number of resurrection stories. Jesus convinced the disciples he was alive, through convincing proofs, for 40 days after the resurrection. 

 In all of them Jesus appears. In most of them he is initially not recognized(recognizing Jesus in others is an art form). In all of them he gives his peace and in all of them (except the garden tomb) the setting is in the context of eating. There are eucharistic overtones. There may be a profound truth here that Jesus is always potentially to be found as we eat together.  Gods Spirit is with us everywhere and in everything we go through on our journey of life. Be prepared for God to bump into the middle of the chaos of life.

Ultimately It is only God who can convince us that God is with us even though we do cannot feel the marks of the crucified body of  Jesus, although maybe we have our own scars, our own crucifixions. Unlike ourselves God never loses faith in us, never doubts us. There will be deaths and there will be resurrection because it’s the rhythm of the universe.

Easter 3 and Easter 4 2011

Body positive! (Luke 24v36-4)

The story for Easter 3 is the road to Emmaus after the ressurection. As the disciples are being told by Cleopas about the Jesus's appearance to them on the road to Emmaus, He appears before them. They were scared as the women had been, because they thought they were seeing a ghost. So he shows them his hands and his side to prove he is real. Then he ate a piece of fish again to prove he is real. He has a real body!

The problem is the body! First there is “no body”. The women at the tomb were grieving for the body which they thought had been taken. The missing body is the beginning of the end.

Then there is a somebody but he is not easily recognized as Jesus. Not by Mary, not by Cleopas, not by Thomas and not by the disciples.

But the body is of importance central to the tale. This is not any body it is the body!

This story is not about some ethereal resurrection, the Spirit going to God. It is about the whole person being resurrected. God is concerned about the whole of us, bodies as well. Lets think about this for a moment.

If God resurrected Jesus’ body then he will resurrect ours! How do you regard your body? Do you love it enough to take it with you to eternal life? Think about it. Do you love your body at all or regard it as baggage? We are encouraged to be spiritual, to pray  but also to present our bodies to God (Rom.12). Our bodies are not only a gift from God but to be used by God. But most of us hate our bodies. Try loving each part of your body, it could change your life!  

The story for Easter is the Good Shepherd (John 10). Jesus, the Good Shepherd. This story has loads of asociated images;

Shepherd-Have you met one? I have an image of a weather beaten man with a sheepdog on the Welsh hills. Or David sitting on a Palestinian hill or  Brokeback Mountain with those beautiful scene of the hills and the shepherds on horseback. Shepherd care for their sheep and protect them from wolves. When I was little my favourite book was about sooty the sheepdog who fought off the bad wolf who came to harass the sheep and even stole one. Powerful imagery. Enough to drive you into the church?

The sheep gate is less clear to me. But my grandma had a picture of sheep in her bedroom and when I stayed over she told me to count sheep. The sheep were enclosed in a field by a gate. So the gate also protected the sheep and controlled who came in and who came out.

The shepherds voice. Sheep and sheep dog are trained to respond to the shepherds voice. A shout a word means everything-from the shepherd. There is the story of the man who gets lost in the mountains in a snow storm. He hears the voice of  a well known mountain guide who tells him to jump. It’s a drop and he cant see what is at the bottom but he trusts the voice. He jumps as is saved.

Sheep have a bad press. “Like sheep”! “Dressed like mutton”…but also “like a lamb” for trusting passivity. Sheep are lost without a leader, a shepherd. They will die without a good shepherd.

Gates. Some powerful gates for me are the gates to the nunnery on Iona, which are latticed and latched and creak in the dark, dark nights on the island. Or the sheep gate on Holy Island which was a metal gate that lets only one person through and is too complex for the sheep in the field to fathom. There are other gates. The gates to Winson Green prison, the gates to the church heavy and old with a loud clunk when it shuts. Gates control space and are boundaries to activity. Gate keepers are important people like lock keepers.

Probably the most powerful image of Jesus is as the good shepherd with the lost sheep on his shoulders. Jesus the good shepherd has come to seek and save the lost sheep. But of course the most well known biblical text is the “Lords my Shepherd” Ps 23. So it’s a very powerful image of God too.

Shepherd themselves need to eat sleep and rest because they are potentially on call to rescue lost sheep and they need to be alert and wise to wolves in sheeps clothing.

Who in your life has been a good shepherd to you? Some time ago Ian died suddenly. He had been a senior paramedic at WMAS -and he cared about people-loads of people. He was a good shepherd.

One Anglican Bishop practiced his sermons by preaching to his sheep when he was first ordained. They listened to his voice, which they recognized. They stayed near to him knowing that they were safe there.

In our time there are many voices competing for our attention. With economic recession there will be even more (Hitler, Moseley, Xenophobia). We may lose the voice of the good shepherd and go astray from time to time and fall into danger, perhaps following a voice that sounds strong and smart and seductive, but different. We may follow a path that leads us away from Christ. Whose voice do we follow? What gate do we enter by? What gate do we lead others through? 

Jesus does not respond to demands, even for simple answers to question. He invites us to draw our conclusions on the basis of his actions. Those who believe in Jesus and belong to his sheep are safe; no one will be able to snatch them from him. Eternal life is theirs. Jesus' sheep include those who are not already in the fold. (controversial!)