May 4, 2014

Helen Jacobi

Easter 3     Acts 2:14a, 36-42     Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19     1 Peter 1:17-23     Luke 24: 13-35

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

In the week leading up to ANZAC Day TVOne showed the Peter Burger film “Field Punishment Number One” [1] about the conscientious objectors in World War One and the incredibly harsh punishments they all suffered.

It was a hard film to watch.

There is a beautiful scene though in the movie where three of the men are in prison in France.

They sit down for a lunch break from their forced hard labour and are given thick white bread to eat – not their usual fare - with the words Merry Christmas.

“So it’s Christmas day then?” one asks the guards.

And as they sit in the cold with snow almost falling one leans back and says

“oh that’s good – can you feel that sun on your face?”

Another looks puzzled for a second and then responds “Smell that pohutakawa; its great this time of year isn’t it?”

The first replies “Its tea tree – someone is smoking a trout for Christmas dinner”

“That’s what it is alright”

“no doubt about it – I’m gonna get sunburnt if I’m not careful”

The third man is looking confused and so they ask him

“what did you get in your stocking this morning?”

He gets it, interrupts and says “Listen – and they do – ah it’s the kids splashing down at the shallows – hope someone told them about the crabs!”

And the scene fades back to the ongoing ordeal of Archibald Baxter.

Our two companions walking the road to Emmaus this morning are not suffering such dire circumstances but they are in despair.

They are lost, they do not know what to do.

The one who gave them hope for the future of their people - their prophet, who seemed to be mighty in word and deed, has turned out not be so mighty after all.

What are they to do?

A mysterious stranger joins them on the road and they do not recognize him.

They do not know him.

They have known Jesus well it seems, they have listened to his teaching, but they do not recognize him now, this post resurrection Jesus is different, changed, elusive even.

This stranger listens to their tale and then does some teaching of his own, talking about Moses and the prophets, explaining perhaps that God was never going to give them the triumphant victory over the Romans they wanted. Moses might have had victory over the Egyptians but that was followed by 40 years in the wilderness, (where the people were fed with bread, manna from heaven they called it); and he explains how Elijah was chased out of town in fear for this life (and a widow gave him her last bread); and how Isaiah spoke of a servant who would suffer with the people, and not bring the victory they imagined.

Isaiah said along with the other prophets:

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke? 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house. (Isaiah 58:6-7)

Jesus taught Cleopas and his companion as they walked along and still they did not know him.

But they ask him to stay with them as the day is ending.

The word used here for “stay” is often translated “abide” in the gospels.

“Abide with us, because it is almost evening”.

John’s gospel has Jesus say “abide in me as I abide in you; abide in my love” (John 15).

The word is more than “stay”, it means: be with us, let us know you, abide with us a while.

And the stranger stays – and they gather at the table for a meal and they ask the stranger to bless the bread as was customary.

“Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”

In that moment they recognize him, they see him, they know him.

And he vanishes.

Elusive again.

Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them; as he did at the Last Supper; as he did in the sharing of the loaves and fish with the crowds of thousands.

These actions of taking, blessing, breaking and giving are actions Cleopas and his companion recognized; they are actions we recognize as the actions of our eucharist.

The risen Jesus is to be found now in the gathering of the community at the table, or on the beach, sharing bread and fish.

But he does not stay.

One writer says “God’s presence is always elusive, floating, dancing at the edge of our awareness and perception” [2].

Thomas Boomershine says:

“The reality of the resurrected Jesus’ presence is located in the memory of the listeners and in their recognition of the connections between Jesus’ liturgical gestures and the liturgical actions of the Eucharist. In these visible images, the invisible One is seen.” [3]

In these visible images and actions, the invisible one is seen.

Jesus does not stay physically with them, except that he is present when the people gather.

And they know him in a different way - in each other and in the bread and the wine that they share.

The prisoners in the Field Punishment movie all have moments when they feel hope and support in their times of deep despair and suffering.

The scene I described was triggered by the sharing of bread together. They took the bread offered grudgingly to them, and it became a sacrament of memory and sharing of love and life as real or even more real than the harsh conditions around them.

And then it was gone, elusive, but the hope remained in their hearts and they carried on one more day.

On Thursday I joined you, the community who gathers here at this table, on your journey, on your roads to Emmaus.

We will walk this road together for a season; it remains to be seen how elusive God is going to be.

I expect though that God will show up when we gather at the table and we take, bless, break and give the bread to each other.

I expect that God will show up when we feed the hungry and speak up for the poor and the excluded.

I expect that God will show up when we welcome people with radical hospitality to be baptized or married or buried.

I expect that God will show up in your lives of work and service and ministry in the world.

I expect that God will show up at your tables, especially when you invite a stranger to abide there.

For God is in all those places already ahead of us.

Many others will join us on the road, they will all be welcome.

We will invite them to abide a while with us.

And my prayer will be that when we gather “our hearts will burn within us” as we open the scriptures together, as we break bread together, as we pray and sing together.

Our hearts will burn with desire for our elusive God;

our hearts will burn with joy for the love we know;

our hearts will burn with anger for the sorrows and injustices of our world.

Our hearts will burn with frustration at the slowness of our church to get over itself on the issue of gay marriage.

Our hearts will burn within us.

And we will share our joys and sorrows, frustrations and celebrations.

In the Book of Acts we hear the classic description of church community life:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (2:42) – it is not very complicated really and I am blessed to be beginning my walk to Emmaus with you all as companions today;

And the risen Jesus elusive, invisible, visible, is walking right beside.

[1] http://tvnz.co.nz/field-punishment-no1/smovie-event-ep1-video-5910595

[2] Alan Culpepper The New Interpreter’s Bible 1995 Abingdon Press, Nashville, p 482

[3] http://gotell.org/pdf/commentary/Luke/Lk24_13-35_commentary.pdf