P.O.P. 4/30/06 “Joy and Confusion”, Acts 3:12-19; Luke 24:36-49

Joy and Confusion

          Easter really plays tricks with the mind, doesn’t it!  It confuses and confounds almost as much as it brings joy and hope.  If true, if it really happened, then all we’ve been taught about life and death, about power and politics, about economics and social structures is called into question. If death isn’t the end: what is?  Why are we so anxious about the future, so afraid of death?  If sacrificial love replaces self-preservation: why do we spend so much on armies?  If Christ died and rose for condemned criminals then what do we do with all the electric chairs?  If mercy not vengeance is the Easter way, then what must we do with our angry or bitter hearts? 

          Peter gives the simple answer: “repent and turn to God.”  It is the same answer Jesus gave from the start: “repent for God’s kingdom is at hand!” Repent means turn around or change direction. We often think of turning from something like sin; but Peter highlights turning toward someone – God! Easter demands we turn toward life and to all things life affirming: forgiveness, kindness, patience, compassion, building, confirming, teaching, generosity, humility, peacemaking; the list can go on and on.  And of course that means turning from those things that do not affirm life: vengeance, rudeness, greed, indifference, destructiveness, ignorance, negativity, impatience, pride, violence etc.

          In today’s gospel lesson we reach the end of that confusing, terrifying, joy-filled first Easter day! The disciples gathered behind locked doors; fear of Jewish and Roman authorities still pervades their thoughts and actions.  The conversation; however, is on the Easter news: women’s tales of an empty tomb, Peter’s confirmation of their stories, Cleopas and his companion’s story of meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus and how they recognized their Lord in the breaking of bread.  There is hope but there is also doubt!  Certainly some who heard the stories wondered if they might be just fairytales? 

          The risen Jesus suddenly appears, stands in their midst and greets them, “Peace be with you.”  “They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”  I want you to imagine yourselves in their sandals: how would you have reacted?  I mean Jesus was dead! Not almost dead or sort of dead: he was certified dead and buried by the authorities! Now he stands before you and begins a conversation! How are you to react?  What can you say?  “Glad to see you Jesus!  How do you feel?  How’d it feel to die?”

          No, a deep intake of breath, the dropping of the jaw and a step backward are the more natural responses.  Jesus understands – he asks questions more for their sake than to get answers; he knows why they are frightened and doubtful.  He shows them his wounds and invites their touch. He seeks to assure them they are not in the presence of a ghost. I identify with their response: “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering….” Can you think of a more human response?  This is too good to be true. “I want to believe; I really do; if it is true then alleluia! But everything I’ve been taught, my entire life’s experience tells me “dead is dead” and “corpses don’t walk and talk. I see him; can I really believe my eyes, my ears?”

          Jesus goes one step further; “Have you anything here to eat?” he asks.  Dr. Craig Satterlee of Chicago’s Lutheran School of Theology wrote a wonderful article about this encounter.  I want to share part of it with you this morning.

         “The risen Christ breaks bread in Emmaus and then eats fish in Jerusalem.  Easter, or at least the first Easter as Luke describes it, is not as much about an empty tomb as about food.  Jesus spends Easter Day eating.  His followers celebrate Easter not at an empty tomb, but around a table.  So we might consider Easter as a multi-course meal rather than a trip to the empty tomb, and experience resurrection by eating.”

          Dr. Satterlee then reflects on the events in Emmaus before returning to this text:

          “Everyone is terrified, so Jesus shows his hands and feet and invites his friends to touch him.  But our minds are on food.  What is Jesus doing with the broiled fish?  We get it: Jesus has indeed risen from the grave because apparitions do not eat.  But is ghost-busting the only reason that Jesus eats boiled fish? 

          Bread and fish are not much of an Easter dinner.  Why bread and fish, loaves and fishes?  Our minds race to other meals that appear to be courses in Jesus’ resurrection feast.  Jesus served the first of this pairing in a deserted place when he blessed bread and fish and gave them to a multitude.  All ate their fill, and there were leftovers to boot.  This meal served as a foretaste of the feast that Jesus will serve when the reign of God comes in all its fullness.  Surrounded by people of every time and every place, surrounded by all of creation, Jesus will serve up the great and promised feast, the final course of Jesus’ resurrection banquet.  No one will be hungry; all will be satisfied.  The last will be first and the first will be last, and the feasting will continue forever.

          What about all those other meals Jesus attended and served?  Could Jesus’ eating and drinking with the poor, the outcast and the despised also be courses in this resurrection feast?  Jesus certainly raised people to new life at those dinner parties! And if resurrection happened at those tables, does that mean that Jesus, risen from the dead, is present and bringing new life to every table at which the hungry are filled, the despised are loved, the outcast are welcome and the poor receive the reign of God?

          Dare we allow our minds to wander to still other meals?  What about Abraham’s feast with angels, manna in the wilderness and the cake that the angel of the Lord provided Elijah – were they also courses in Jesus’ resurrection feast?  What about the family dinner, the business lunch, the snack shared between classes?  Are they part of Jesus’ Easter feast?” 

          Reflecting on his ideas I realized the fish served as a bridge between Jesus’ incarnation and his resurrection.  The disciples can’t get their brains around the idea of resurrection – it does not compute.  The fish touches their appetite, their hunger, their subconscious memory of their Lord, it appeals not to their intellect but their senses.  Like the Psalmist declared, “Taste and see that the Lord is good!”  Sermons don’t do Easter justice, for Easter is bigger than words, bigger than ideas!  Easter is to be tasted and sung, shouted and lived!  The confusion is in their minds; the joy is in their hearts!

          After eating; however, Jesus opens their minds by sharing the scriptures.  Tables are not just for eating, they are for conversation, for sharing stories, hopes, dreams, ideas, and questions.  “Jesus gives those gathered a panoramic view – the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms – all in one sitting.  Jesus points out that he, and with him death and resurrection, repentance and forgiveness, can be found throughout scripture.”

          During Confirmation Class the students took a Christian life styles inventory.  I asked them to position themselves along an invisible line regarding their participation in certain spiritual disciplines and religious activities. Do you pray, say grace before meals, read scripture on your own or with your parents, discuss issues of faith or ethics with family, give to church and other charities and similar questions.  While all prayed, only about half said grace, fewer still read scripture and hardly any admitted talking seriously with their families about faith issues.  What about you? Have your eyes been open to the risen Christ as you dined with friends or family?  Have you read scripture and thought, “Aha – so that’s what God expects of me”? Or held hands in prayer and experienced new life within you?  Have you experienced spiritual emptiness and taken a good, long look at yourself and repented and turned to God?  Dr. Satterlee observed, “Celebrating Easter by eating means that Jesus could show up, that resurrection could happen, at any table, at every table.  We have no way of knowing when, where and how the risen Christ will bring new life…. So rather than making an annual trip to the empty tomb, we celebrate Easter by eating together and sharing scripture until that day when Jesus, risen from the dead and standing in our midst, overcomes time and space and everything else that separates tables around which we gather.”

          Brothers and sisters: Christ is risen from death and at large in the world. Christ is present where two or three are gathered, Christ is found when bread is broken and shared in love, Christ is present when tears are shed in common sorrow or where love is reflected in a couples’ eyes.  Christ is found as we read the Bible seeking to understand and be transformed and when we sing and pray with hearts open to the divine glory that fills creation and life.  Christ indeed is risen!  Alleluia!  Amen!