May our eyes be opened and hearts burning within us Easter 3A

                                 EASTER 3  Year A   April 23, 2023

Acts 2:14a, 36-41  •  Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19  •  1 Peter 1:17-23  •  Luke 24:13-35

 

We may be a long way from Christmas, but it might be worth pondering the word, “Emmanuel”, meaning “God with us”, as that theme is really what God is all about.  God wants to be with us.  It is why he sent the son and in our Gospel story today, just when they thought that Jesus was gone and they were probably also feeling the sentiments of Psalm 22, “My God, my God why have you abandoned me, they discover that Jesus is with them again.

 

 “On the road to Emmaus” is a story and a phrase that has inspired countless people over the centuries and it has inspired the movement, that we know as Cursillo, others know the movement by another name, the “Emmaus walk”.   So, what is it that was going on as these two disciples travelled to Emmaus?

 

The main characters are Cleopas and another unnamed disciple.  You may recall that there was a lady named Mary, the wife of Clopas mentioned in our Easter readings, as the one who was at the crucifixion with Mary the mother of Jesus.  It is possible that Cleopas and Clopas are the same person and it is suggested that he was a relative of Jesus, possibly his uncle.

 

It is even suggested that these two disciples are Cleopas and his wife.  They were possibly on their way home after spending time comforting Mary.  Whatever the situation was, the important thing is that they encountered Jesus.  Initially, they did not recognise him for his true identity, but saw him as a fellow traveller on the road.  They couldn’t help but be talking about all that had been happening, as it was central to their lives as Jesus’ disciples, but they didn’t recognise Jesus as the one who was walking with him.

 

Is it possible to be a follower of Jesus and not truly recognise him? 

 

Today’s readings urge us to reflect; Jesus has said, what we do to the least of “these”, meaning other people, we do to him….  Have we failed to recognise Jesus in others?

 

But, on a more basic level, is it possible that we don’t recognise that Jesus is with us, at all?  Certainly, Jesus does walk with us, as he promised to always be with us through his Holy Spirit, but we don’t always sense him there.  Many times lately, I’ve heard people say that they attended a prayer meeting, retreat, or service and “God showed up”.   What do we expect?   Of course, he showed up, after all, God is always with us and the point of our meeting is to reflect on and become aware of his presence with us.  God is with us always and this is His desire.  He wants us to be aware of His presence; Emmanuel. 

 

The disciples met Jesus in the flesh.  We often think that this gave them an extra advantage in knowing Jesus, but it seems it could be possible that this may also have been a stumbling block.  They knew Jesus the man who performed miracles and irritated the pharisees.  If this Cleopas was actually the relative of Jesus, then he even knew Jesus, the baby, toddler and young boy.  Sometimes there are basic things that create a presumptions and get in the way of us seeing the deeper reality and we miss the truth.

 

We all can be guilty of this.  We base our reality on what we have experienced… it is only natural, but we need understand that our experience and that of every other human is limited.  We need to find our reality in something that is bigger than us, beyond us, and more true than us… we need to base our reality in the one who said he is the way, the life and the TRUTH. 

 

The two disciples were on the road to Emmaus talking about how Jesus had been crucified and discussing that some of the women had claimed Jesus had risen from the dead.  Based on their limited experience, they were undecided as to whether or not this was something to believe.  On the positive side, Jesus had raised Lazarus, a widow’s son and a young girl from the dead and had healed many.  On the negative side, people weren’t usually risen from the dead, and the people who Jesus raised from the dead did not die the violent and extreme death that Jesus did.  Also, if Jesus had that kind of power, why would he have gone through allowing himself to die on the cross?

 

Now, in the light of this logical thinking about Jesus, we can understand why Jesus said to the disciples, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”

 

We have our own understandings and presumptions about Jesus.  If we were born into a Christian family or attended a Christian school, we might know quite a lot about God and think that we pretty much know all that there is to know about him.  In my experience with children who I have taught singing, and those that I was involved with many years ago with school based retreats, state school student have been a whole lot more open to hearing about Jesus than private school students.  And some of those Religious Instruction teachers did a mighty fine job in laying the ground work.  So, what is going on?

 

I fully support and acknowledge the good in having private Christian schools, but it simply can be a fact that some of those students feel that they know all there is to know about God because they have had this particular education.  Maybe we need to teach them the Jewish theological understanding about God… and that is that we could study God all our lives and never know more than a microscopic, tiny fraction about God…. But if we want to know and try to know, God is pleased.

 

What are your thoughts about Jesus’ opinion of the Pharisees?  They were the religious leaders… the experts.  And their arrogance in thinking that they knew more about God than the others, led to many of them missing the coming of the Messiah – AND actually crucifying him.

 

There are some things that needed to be understood about Jesus.  Firstly, he was indeed the Messiah.   This is part of the message from Peter to the Jewish people as he preached on the day of Pentecost.  How would you feel to be in their shoes?  They were the very ones who crucified Jesus.

 

Secondly, but most importantly, as Peter explains, "Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."

God made him both Lord and Messiah.  God made Jesus, Lord.  He gave him every authority and we know from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians that God has given Him a name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in the whole universe and every tongue will confess that Jesus the Messiah is Lord.

 

There is a very important aspect here, that we in our lives, need to also acknowledge Jesus as both Messiah and Lord.  We know that Jesus came to die for us and bring us back into an unconditional relationship with the father, but have we bowed to the Lordship of Christ?  Have we acknowledged that Jesus is the Lord and King… the authority in our life?

 

The Israelites to whom Peter was speaking reacted to Peter’s message by being greatly convicted and asking what they must do to be saved.  Now, understand that these were potentially good, law-abiding citizens.  They were being told that they were responsible for crucifying the author of life because they didn’t recognise him – and they agreed, that this was correct.  They got it wrong and crucified an innocent man… the Messiah. 

 

The Holy Spirit convicted them and they repented.  Repentance is not just a feeling of sorrow for doing something wrong, but more correctly, it is to change your mind.  To repent is to change our thinking from being centred around justifying our actions, to then do a complete turn around and agree with God, that we actually are a people who need his grace, mercy, forgiveness and love.   The Good News?  That is what God does… lavishly he gives us grace, mercy, forgiveness and love.

 

The question is, do we still fail to recognise Jesus?  Where do we expect to meet Jesus?  At that prayer meeting, retreat or service?  Good…  we will… but remember, he is always with us.  And guess what?  We also meet Jesus in the most unlikely of places.  Remember, he is a friend to sinners and people of ill repute.

 

Recently there was a scripture from Jeremiah that struck me.  It was about those who trust in flesh not recognising the hand of the Lord when he came to rescue.  I think the same goes for everything.  If we place Jesus as both Lord and Messiah in our lives, we will begin to recognise Jesus in the places where we would once not have expected, and we will know that the presence of God is always with us…. Just sometimes we don’t notice it as much as other times.

 

Most importantly, we need to have our own Emmaus walk experience, where we speak honestly with Jesus about our faith and our doubt and ask Jesus to open our eyes so that we see him.  We acknowledge and agree with God that we need a saviour, a Messiah, and submit to the Lordship of Christ.  He promised to send his helper, the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth – God with us always.  May we know his presence, feel his presence and trust in his presence and love beyond all our own understanding and may our hearts burn within us with the affirmation that we know the truth.

 

EASTER SUNDAY 2023 What if God was one of us???

In the year 1995 a song hit the charts, What If God Was One Of Us, by Joan Osbourne.  These words are part of the song: If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see -If seeing meant that you would have to believe -In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints - And all the prophets?

 

Today is a good day to ask those same questions.  Would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe?  How would it impact your life if you were to meet the risen Christ in the flesh?

 

Our Gospel reading tells us that the two Mary’s went to look at the tomb.  There was a violent earthquake, as an angel of the Lord came and rolled back the stone, and the guards were afraid.  The angel begins with a typical Angelic greeting, “Do not be afraid”. 

 

The angel announces that Jesus had risen from the dead, just as he had said that he would.  Risen from the dead?  What does that mean?  What does it mean for us in the year 2023?

 

There are many things about our faith that are difficult to believe, but if we believe the resurrection, we understand that God is powerful and can do ANYTHING.  Some try to make sense of resurrection within our human limitations, imagining that Jesus was only partly dead and recovered.  But this was a man who was so very dead that while on the cross, instead of the soldiers breaking his legs to ensure his death, they found him already dead.  Therefore, just to be really certain, they pierced his side and blood and water came out.

 

Now, they say that this water is a sign of the pericardial effusion- The capillaries leak watery fluid into the tissues and this results in a build-up of fluid around the heart and lungs. However, what all this says to me, is that Jesus gave absolutely all his life for us.  He shed all his blood and he was most certainly, beyond any shadow of a doubt, dead.  A friend recently reminded me of the Mel Gibson movie, The Passion, and how it left her so disturbed.  She remembers there being SO much blood.  Jesus’s death was horrific and after all that, they pierced his side, how could it be that he was then alive on Sunday morning?  What do we believe happened?  Is it something worthy of belief? 

 

It is a fact that Jesus was born and lived.  This fact and the fact that he worked miracles, is recorded by non-Christian sources and most notably by the Jewish historian, Josephus.  I wish that this was taught in every school as the most important part of history because so much of our society has been impacted by Jesus.  Our naming of the year, is proof of Jesus’ reality.  We can call this the 2023^rd year in the common era, rather than the year 2023 AD – Anno Domini meaning of our Lord…** meaning 2023 years since the birth of Jesus Christ, - We can deny this fact by calling it the common era, but we still need to ask the question of what happened in history to have the years named this way.  And the answer is, that the years were counted from the time that Jesus was born.  Many people in 2023 don’t think about or even realize this fact, and most believe that you can believe in Jesus if you want, or not believe if you don’t want.  This is silly.  It is like saying you can believe in the sun if you want… or not if you don’t want.

 

We do believe in Jesus.  More than that, we believe he was more than a good moral teacher, more than a legendary, historical figure, and more than a wise leader.  We believe that he is who he claimed to be, the Son of God, the Messiah - the Saviour who died to redeem us -to buy us back.  But wait… there is more.

 

It is important that the angel was the one to roll the stone away.  The fact that there was no miraculous saving of Jesus from the cross left many wondering if Jesus was indeed approved by God.  Jesus had been condemned to death – pretty much by the church, and crucified as a criminal for claiming equality with God.  An angel from heaven rolled the stone away as an important sign that Jesus was indeed the victorious Messiah.  He achieved His earthly mission and was innocent of any crime.  He is the rightful King of heaven, approved by God the father. 

 

We began our service today with many readings telling the story of mankind from the fall through to the miraculous exodus of God’s people out of Egypt.  This is important, because these tell the story of why we needed a saviour, and how God had prepared the way and always knew that he would send us his son.  The exodus of God’s people from Egypt is more than a record of an event, it is a prophetic sign of what Jesus would do.  In the book of Exodus, God’s people living in Egypt were desperate to be saved from their slavery and at the climax of that story, they were saved from the angel of death by the blood of the lamb.   A perfect lamb was sacrificed and the blood of that lamb was placed over the doorway.  The Angel of death passed over the households where the blood was found. 

 

This event tells us the significance of the Messiah’s sacrifice.  Jesus became that lamb of God during the feast of Passover and was sacrificed for us.  Jesus’ blood covers us and saves us from death…  Spiritual death, and most importantly from the second death, which is eternal separation from God. 

 

While the very real life and existence of Jesus is a fact, we may think that the resurrection is a matter of faith, however, there were eye witnesses.  It is quite reasonable to weigh up all the facts and the testimonies and make an informed decision for believing in Christ and the resurrection.

 

You may be familiar with Anne Hegarty from the show, The Chase.  She is a devout Christian who claims that she looked into the evidence for the Christian faith, she admitted: “I couldn’t come up with any arguments against it.” She states , “For me, the most important bit about Christianity is when Jesus says: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ I keep focusing on the word ‘truth’. Some people believe things because they find them comforting, but… I have to know that this stuff about Jesus actually happened. And I do believe it happened – because you couldn’t make it up. It seems so plausible to me.”

When Anne meets people who don’t believe, all the arguments do is strengthen her faith, because “I know that I can defend it… in my mind, Jesus is the incarnate God -God in a human body – that’s central and essential to me.”

 

It is only natural that we will struggle to understand some elements of our faith, because God is supernatural and he is beyond our comprehension.  That this God should be so concerned with us, that he would suffer and die for us, is phenomenal! ….and today, pondering the resurrection, we are challenged to ponder the implications.  Do we accept the greatness of God?  Do we acknowledge that Jesus rose from the dead… not as a ghost, but bodily rose?  The tomb was empty and no body was found.  What does this mean for us, other aspects of our faith, and what does it mean when we contemplate God’s ability to intervene in our life?

 

Those women at the tomb experienced something incredible…. So incredible that not all the disciples believed them.  It wasn’t the fact that it was women telling them about the resurrection that caused their doubt, but simply that this was somewhat hard to believe.

 

”The women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. “

 

The tomb was the place of death and the women were running from it.  They were afraid, yet joyful.  These were a people where death was a fact of life.  It isn’t death that they were afraid of, but life, and all that a resurrection might mean for the future of their life, their religion and their own personal understanding of life.  As Joan Osborne puts it, would you want to see, if seeing meant that you would have to believe?

 

It is worth our reflection.  This abundant and eternal Life that Jesus brings us, means to change and move from the known, familiar and comfortable, to a new way of thinking about faith, a new unknown way of being.  It can be quite frightening to embrace the resurrection because we need to move on from who we were and become who God is calling us to be.  The old ways are the tomb… it may be familiar and comfortable, but it isn’t where life is.

 

Face to face with Jesus, the women fall at Jesus’ feet and worship him.  Change is inevitable.  They have met the risen Lord, they will never be the same again.  When we encounter the risen Lord, it is inevitable that we become changed also.  Something inside us comes alive.  It is the Holy Spirit of God, who moves us.  It is exciting, but also a little unsettling and a little frightening.

 

For us who have been Christians for some time, we are still changing as we continue to experience the risen Christ.  “Jesus said to the women, “Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.””

 

The angel said, “Do not be afraid”, and Jesus said, “Do not be afraid”.  In spite of our fear, we are encouraged also, to not be afraid.  Today we are called to respond to the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. 

 

Just as the women were called to go and tell the brothers to go to Galilee, where they would see Jesus, we are called to tell others the truth about the resurrection… the truth about Jesus, and invite them to places where they can also meet the risen Christ.  Don’t be afraid, but continue to be changed by living in the reality and presence of the risen Christ.  Know that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us by the Holy Spirit.  How amazing is that!  I suspect we don’t yet realize a fraction of the amazing life that God has in store for us.

 

Very soon we will have a renewal of our Baptism vows.  In baptism we are united to Christ.  We are the children of God and we rejoice in the gift of the Holy Spirit.  God lives in us. The risen Christ, with the power of the Holy Spirit is with us, and if God is for us, who can be against?

Jesus has risen from the dead and that power of God is in us through our baptism.  Jesus came and died for us so that we might have life and have it to the full… in the ever after but also in the here and now.   God’s desire is to truly bring us to life… here and now, as individual people, but also to bring life and goodness to our church and community.  May we live in this reality and celebrate it this day, for Christ is risen, Alleluia.  He is risen indeed, alleluia, alleluia.

It Is Finished.... But the story isn't ! Good Friday reflection 2023

Good Friday 2023 April 7

The story is not finished.  We stop for a while to strive to grasp all that has happened and try to comprehend what it means.  We do this naturally, when significant things happen to us.  We must pause and take stock before continuing, and this is what we do today.

Today is a day most holy.  We are remembering a sacred and significant event, of such extreme, far reaching and eternal significance, that if you try to perceive it, you can almost sense all of nature taking pause.  But the story is not finished.

On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished”.  The Greek word written in our Bibles which has been translated, rightly, as “It is finished”, is Tetelestai.  This is something we might cry as we reached the top of Mount Everest, or reached a destination that we had to work hard to achieve.  It is a victory cry.  Mel Gibson in his movie, Braveheart, cried “Freedom”, as they killed him.  It was a victory cry that claimed ultimate victory, as his spirit was not something they could take, even if they killed him.  Jesus’ victory cry is “Tetelestai”, “It is finished”.  The story is not finished.  Jesus is not finished.  Yet the victory cry of Jesus was, Tetelestai – It is finished.  Why was this his victory cry?

Jesus’ life had a specific central purpose.  There were many things that Jesus achieved and many wonderful things that he did.  There were many restored relationships with God and there were people who were healed and even raised from the dead, but there was something that Jesus needed to accomplish… something more specific and central to the purpose of Jesus.

Jesus came to be the Lamb of God.  Jesus came to be the sacrifice to atone for our sin.  But why?  Why did he need to do this?  Why was it necessary?

God created us and gave us free will.  An incredible gift of God!  He gave us autonomy and independence and gave us every good thing.  However, not only the very first man, Adam, but every one of us since, has chosen to try to be our own god – controlling our own destiny.  In doing so, we have brought back the chaos that existed before God’s spirit brought order.  And, we have unwittingly been bowing down to the one who rules this world – Satan, and been following him and his ways.  Without God’s intervention, we belong to Satan.  And we need to be, “Redeemed”… a word that we hear often, but may not realize that it means, “buying back”.  It is about God buying us back after our allegiance was unwittingly given to Satan.   (MERCY WALKED IN)

I belong to a number of different groups of people; church, school, dancing, basketball and Street Chaplaincy… to name a few.  It doesn’t matter what group I go to, there are people who don’t get along.  That is natural, as we are all different, but these people sometimes try to control others to a point where the friction causes real pain and destruction.  This is sin. 

Adam and Eve sinned because they disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the fruit of a particular tree… that tree was the knowledge of good and evil.  They wanted to be like God and be able to judge what was good and what was evil for themselves.  Pretty much, this is the fruit of that same tree, which causes conflict today.  We disagree with each other about what is good and evil, but we all declare ourselves to be like God and have the authority, able to make the judgement.  

As life seems to be becoming more complex and stressful, many, many more people are declaring themselves the experts of their own destiny… but unfortunately others stand in their way, as that destiny interferes with their own.  We feel it is our right to be able to do all that we want, regardless of real or perceived barriers, and we fight for those rights… but they are often at odds with someone else’s rights.  More and more people are angry with each other and hurt by each other and disillusioned by this changing world where everyone’s world view is different.  People are actually more and more becoming confused to the point that they are becoming depressed.  What, after all, is the meaning and purpose of life?  And that dark chaos, which exists in the void of God’s Spirit, becomes glaringly obvious and prevalent.

We need help.  We need a saviour.   Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Being crucified, submitting to humanity for a crime that is ours, not His, was not an easy thing for Jesus to do.  Jesus is the Son of God… but God incarnate … taking on human flesh and limiting himself, so that he felt all the things we feel and can understand all that we experience… yet He is without sin.  None of us can be good enough to reach heaven… or be acceptable to God.   But Jesus is… and he redeemed us, paid the price of sin for us, by dying on the cross.   Jesus was baptised – emersed, into the sins of the world and, as the perfect human, he took the sin of the world to the cross.  

Unlike us who try to justify and blame, Jesus remained silent and accepted a life sentence that he didn’t deserve…. He was crucified for claiming to be the Son of God. – the truth.  We, by our actions and sin, show that we too claim to be God – This is what was the fruit of the tree in the garden of Eden.  The irony of it, is that Jesus rightly is God, but he took the punishment for us – for the humans, claiming god status, and for love of us, he accepted death on the cross.  This atonement for our sin was Jesus’ ultimate goal… not that he enjoyed it at all – but with one last effort he cried the victory cry, proclaiming to all the spiritual powers and principalities, “Tetelestai!  It is finished.”

Jesus achieved his life’s objective in taking upon himself the punishment that should have been ours.  We all have sinned and need to know that Jesus washes us clean by his sacrifice.  Tetelestai… It is finished !  However, the story isn’t finished.

The Greek tense for this word Tetelestai, is apparently in the perfect tense, which implies that when Jesus cried out "It is finished," he meant "It was finished in the past, it is still finished in the present, and it will remain finished in the future."  The Good News for us all is that this is accomplished once and for all.  The purpose, is so that there is now nothing standing between us and the love and acceptance of God…. And there is more to this story…

The story isn’t finished because we will celebrate the resurrection on Sunday, but also the story isn’t finished because the story needs to become a reality in our life.  A great preacher once said, “Jesus didn’t come to earth to atone for your sins”.  It sounded like the preacher was speaking a heresy and a complete contradiction to all I have just said, but wait for the rest of what they said;  Jesus came to bring us life.  For Jesus to bring us life, he needed to deal with the sins of the world. 

Scripture tells us that Jesus came so that all who believe in him might have life. Scripture also says that, those who received him, those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  

Jesus came to bring us life.  However, to do this he needed to make atonement for our sin.  How do we respond to this?  John the Baptist called people to repentance.  To turn from their sin and to be baptised as a sign of their new way of life.  God has given everything to us and God the son has given his life.  Can we surrender our will and our lives back to God?  Can we use our free will to submit to the will of God, our king and saviour?  Can we admit that we don’t know what is truly Good and Evil, and be willing to trust in God’s better judgement, striving to trust him and his ways?  Can we give all that we are to God?

Today, take some time to reflect on the love that God has for you. So much love that, if you were the only person on this earth, Jesus would have gone to that cross just for you.  Imagine you have a stone in your hand.  It has a little weight to it.  Just like our sin, it can weigh us down.  The stone represents us, our sin, our burdens and our will.  It represents both the good and the bad, all that we are and all that we hope for.  

In a little while we will carry in a cross.  You will be invited to come to the cross for your own reflection… and at that time you will be invited to pray, to thank Jesus for his sacrifice and you can, if you like, take your stone, which represents all that you are, all that you have – those burdens, the failings and your hopes and dreams.   You are invited to lay it all at the cross – to give it all to Him, who gave all for you.