April 30, 2017
Texts:
Luke 24: 13-35
Acts 2: 4a, 36-41
Luke, a Gentile, is sharing his account of Jesus’ life and death and has just described how the women had seen the tomb with the stone rolled away and two men with clothes that gleamed like lightening were there and told them that Jesus had risen. When they faithfully return to the apostles and tell them what they have seen and heard, in typical sexist perspective of men at that time, the men do not believe the women. “Their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Peter who must have wondered if it was a possibility that Jesus was raised from the dead, runs to the tomb but only sees the cloths rolled up that had wrapped Jesus’ body. Does his lack of faith cause him to not see any messengers or hear what has happened to Jesus, as the women had? He has to wonder what has happened.
Now we switch to Cleopas and another follower of Jesus who are on their way to Emmaus, talking about “everything that had happened.” “Jesus himself came up and walked along with them … but they were kept from recognizing him.” Another translation says “but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.” I was wondering what it is that prevents us from recognizing Jesus as He is walking along side of us in our lives? What prevents us from seeing Him? The apostles had been demeaning of the women, seeing the amazing moment in their shared experience as nonsense. Their inability to see the gift of the women’s power and spirituality limited their view of the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. Their sexist view of the world prevented them from seeing what was happening with Jesus. Even Peter, Jesus’ Rock, did not see the vision. How many times do we, with our ingrained prejudices and judgmental attitudes towards others who are different from us, whether it is racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, do we fail to see Jesus walking beside us? I was so aware of my oppressive thoughts towards others as we studied sexism, heterosexism and racism in Colombia in South America with the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Cleopas, too, immediately labels Jesus as a visitor when Jesus asks him two simple questions. “What are you discussing as you walk along?” and “What sort of things?” He assumes Jesus is not part of their group, putting him outside of the faithful few. We know he is upset by the trauma of Jesus’ death and confused by the women’s words. “They stood still, their faces downcast.” Trauma can keep us blind to what is really going on in our lives, and can prevent us from seeing Jesus who is walking with us on our journey.
I had an experience with this in Colombia with the Christian Peacemaker Teams training. We were discussing the possibility of being kidnapped and what we would do and what we would experience. We broke up in to small groups to discuss some questions and I was blind to Jesus’ presence in my two friends from Colombia, both of whom had experienced the kidnapping and death of a loved one. Pilar had her boyfriend kidnapped and killed and Salvador had his father kidnapped and killed when he was young. I was too traumatized myself, worrying about the possibility of me being kidnapped myself at the time to remember their losses, listen to them better, and see Jesus in what they both had to teach me about this experience. I am sure Cleopas and his friend also had those fears. If it was Jesus crucified this time, it could be us next. Their own fears were also preventing them from seeing Jesus.
Then Jesus challenges them with one of the most amazing sermons I can ever imagine. He calls them foolish and slow of heart because they had not believed what the prophets had predicted about him, the Messiah. He went through all the scriptures, beginning from Moses and all the Prophets, reminding them “Did not the Messiah, the Christ, have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Jesus had studied the scriptures from his childhood and he knew his purpose. His mother knew the words of the prophets as she glorified God in the Magnificat, reminding those in her hearing that “He has put down the lofty from their thrones and has elevated those of low estate.” Even at the age of twelve, Jesus amazed the scribes and Pharisees in the temple with his knowledge of the scriptures. He had read the prophecies and had reminded his closest followers many times he would have to die. He had also told them he would be resurrected but it was not humanly possible for them to understand it all. It was beyond the earthly realm to take this in to their hearts and their minds, as it is sometimes for us today.
Even though Cleopas and his disciple friend heard Jesus laying out all the prophecies about his death and suffering and resurrection, and had their hearts burning from Jesus’ words, they still did not recognize Jesus. All they knew was that they wanted this person not to stay with them. Jesus acted as though he was going to keep going beyond Emmaus. Jesus made them “urge him strongly” to stay with them. This is what Jesus wants of us. To urge him strongly to come in to our homes and our hearts and to want him with us at each moment of our lives. What keeps us from urging Jesus to come in to our journey on this earth and be the center of our lives?
Sometimes for me it is fear, our own or others’ fear. I knew I was supposed to go to Colombia for the Christian Peacemaking Teams training, but I was fearful about how Kent would do without me for a month. He did have a difficult time handling the time with me away, but he was able to. I was fearful about my physical ability to handle the training, and I shared that fear with our trainers the first day of the training, in front of everyone. This is not easy for me to share since super independence has been important to me all my life, which God does not appreciate, but it has been a way I have handled my disability. The trainers took care of my fears and helped me to get to the training with another disabled trainee in a car, instead of walking along a busy highway with trucks veering in to the side area where we would walk. I fell down twice on water which seemed to be everywhere on the floor at our training center, hurt myself but still kept going. I was afraid one night when we had lost all electricity in the area where we were staying two hours south of Bogota in Fusagasuga. I had been in Bogota alone that day and was getting off the bus in the dark. I was walking alone up the dark hill to the finca and a big dog behind me was barking ferociously at me. I prayed and kept walking, looking up at the stars and asking for God’s protection. I was met with a wonderful welcome by my fellow trainees who were sitting around sharing their lives in the candlelight. I was afraid some of my patients might have problems in my absence. One of my patients slit the throat of his caregiver just about a week after I left, but thankfully his caregiver survived, barely. I was desperately trying to send a letter to handle the situation from Colombia where half the time we did not have Wi-Fi. I was also aware of the fears of the people of Colombia when we marched to the cathedral square, protesting more one hundred deaths of social leaders in the previous year. I was handing out leaflets to those we walked by. A young man took one and I asked him to call or e-mail the Tripartita, the group including the Government of Colombia, the United Nations and the FARC to ask them to protect the social leaders in the country. I told him we were from the Christian Peacemaker Teams. He said he wasn’t a Christian, but could he help? I said we needed everyone to do this. With fear in his eyes, he said he would. I understood the sacrifice that it could be for him with the paramilitaries directed by the government to kill anyone who would challenge what is going on in the country, in spite of the peace agreement signed in December 2016. He was scared, but he was willing to put his life on the line for justice and protection for his people, just as Jesus did. We need to face our fears and urge Jesus to come and be with us on our journey. He will be there, even when the way is challenging. He is here with us as we face our fears about our own dangerous government which seems focused on destroying our world for the sake of greed and wealth for those who have so much. Many of us stood up and marched against this callous treatment of our earth yesterday with beautiful posters made by Meade and Grace about God creating us to care for the earth. We experienced a sense of brother- and sisterhood with so many from different faiths, ages, and races. We are called to a new level of commitment to people who are suffering war and oppression in our country and across the world. And we need to see Jesus in the faces of our brothers and sisters in this congregation who are suffering and are oppressed and urge Jesus to join us in this family of His to be close and loving and supportive to all we are called to be with.
So what did it take for Cleopas and his friend to recognize Jesus? It was the simple meal of breaking bread together. The meal that was his last before he was arrested. Giving thanks and giving the blessing that honored God and all God had done for them. They saw him in that moment, as he looked at them with all his love and handed them the bread that would sustain them for the rest of their lives. He was there sharing the meal that they would remember forever. And then he vanished.
They started to think back about being with Jesus. Many of us are not aware of what our bodies tell us in our lives spiritually. They said, “Were not our hearts burning within us when he was with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?” They remembered their hearts’ reactions to Jesus. They were experiencing the gift of burning hearts but were not realizing the importance of their bodies’ messages.
Their bodies were more aware of what was happening than they were consciously. I know when I am in the presence of something important spiritually because my body responds with a shiver of recognition that the Spirit is guiding in what is happening and what is being said by me or someone else. I wasn’t conscious of it before I was committed to Jesus but now it is my signal that I am being guided and in the presence of the Spirit of God and Jesus. I know we are one and we are on the same wave length. It is the Spirit who tells me with my body, “Stay awake. Something important is happening here.” God has given us perishable bodies, but they are God’s creative way for sharing Jesus’ love and presence and letting the words, guided by Jesus, to flow as they are given. We all experience that remarkable flow when we are singing together and the Spirit is giving us the feeling of joy and God’s glory and power from the words and the community of love we are here. Cleopas and his friend realize this and they are so energized that they walk the seven miles back to Jerusalem to return to their fellow followers of Jesus and tell them the story of Jesus being with them, unrecognized and then revealed in the breaking of the bread. Now Jesus’ presence is affirmed. Jesus knew he had to appear to the men to have it believed. His ever patient love keeps understanding our blindness and our limited view of others.
But now we are taken to the Pentecost moment in Acts 2 when Peter, who has been forgiven and loved even through his betrayals of Jesus, has the courage to speak the truth of who Jesus is, both Lord and Christ, their Messiah. He challenges them and tells those listening that they crucified Jesus. Here again the bodies of the people give them the message, “they were cut to the heart.” They felt their sin in their hearts, the fact they had not seen who Jesus truly was, and that their lack of recognition had killed their Lord and their Messiah. Our bodies give us messages of when we are on the wrong track as well as when we are in the Spirit’s presence. The crowd is open to what Peter wants them to do to change their lives and follow Jesus.
Why is repentance the first thing Peter instructs them to do? We have to recognize what is separating us from Jesus before we can commit ourselves fully to him. It is so easy for us to see others’ darkness and separation from God. Aren’t we the good guys here? I realized at a deep level the North Americanism I brought with me at The Christian Peacemaker Teams training. Ever since Trump has been in the White House I realized how I kept giving Obama the benefit of the doubt in him using drones to kill targeted people and many civilians. I realize that Eve never was doing that. She recognized the death and destruction the US was still waging against others in this world. We have destroyed the stability of Iraq, and Libya, just because we wanted cheap oil and because we thought we could make those countries into little United States’ democracies, not understanding anything about their tribes and cultures. We continue to wage war on the Palestinians by providing billions of dollars to the Israelis to support our military industrial complex in the US. In the words of I Peter 1: “For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers.” For those of us who are white, our forefathers built the white man and woman’s wealth and economic stability by destroying the First Nations of this country and on the backs of slaves who were treated like property. We must face this and make reparation, both individually and as a nation. We continue to destroy brothers and sisters of color because of mass incarceration, treating young black men and women as criminals for minor offenses, or for not being able to pay bail to get out of jail. We ask innocent young black men to make a plea deal to something they did not do to avoid long terms in jail. Forgive us Lord for all our sins and help us to not remain complacent to these sins which are ongoing in this country.
Let us not stand by as we see these ongoing atrocities continue and let us put our lives on the line for Jesus. As Peter says that Pentecost moment, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you. In the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Peter pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Three thousand of the Jews that were there were baptized and started to demonstrate Jesus’ power in their lives with signs and miracles.
Well, my brothers and sisters, we still need to be saved from this corrupt generation. We are living in the richest nation of the world and our wealth has not taught us God’s wisdom. But we have the Spirit in our lives and we can recognize Jesus if we are aware of our fears and our oppressive behavior and thinking and keep asking Jesus to forgive us and not become complacent in our lives. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to face whatever we need to create God’s Beloved Community in our country and our world. We may be scared of the journey, but we have to be aware of the messages we are given from our bodies and the Spirit when we are in God’s flow. We have to act and to be wholly committed to him and to each other on His path. Can we demonstrate God’s signs and miracles in this little Body of Christ? We have and we will! Amen and Alleluia!