Christ Lutheran Church
1701 Arroyo Chamiso
Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775
(505) 983-9461
Sunday
spoken eucharist - 8 am
bible study - 9 am
sung eucharist - 10 am
Wednesday
services begin at 7 pm
healing service (1st, 3rd)
evening prayer (2nd,4th)
eucharist (5th)
April 26, 2009
Third Sunday of Easter
Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48
36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate in their presence.
44Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you - that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus' Appearance Among Them (... in spite of Lectionary Confusion)
+ In nomine Domini. Amen.
When you think of Easter, what comes to mind? You might answer:
The Resurrection of Jesus
Going to Church
Flowers
Eggs
Bunnies
Candy
Chocolate
New Clothes
Ham
… but also maybe:
End of Lent
Celebration
Springtime
Rejoicing
Snowstorms in April
Allergies
Those are all good answers. But what now if I ask you what comes to mind when you think of the Season of Easter? You might answer:
Taxes
Looking forward to the end of school
Being outside
Planting the garden
Deciding on Colleges
… and, maybe you would say …
The time from Easter Sunday to the Feast of Pentecost
… and you might just answer …
Easter is a season?
Yes, Easter is a Season, like Christmas which is not just one day but 12, ending on the Feast of the Epiphany; Easter is not just one day but 50, ending on the Feast of Pentecost (this year May 31st).
We don’t usually think of our religious calendar that way … we tend to go from Celebration to Celebration, from highlight to highlight. We tend to not-concentrate on the time in-between. We want to hasten to the next Holiday … so, Valentine’s Day cards and candy appear before the end of the Christmas Season and before too many months go by stores and shops will begin to display Christmas Decorations (be vigilant, because you know that when you record such a “sighting” and turn it in to me, you will be entered into the annual “Anachronistic Awards” which I give out on the First Sunday of Advent … this year November 29th … which means it’s only 8 months until Christmas (!) … but who’s counting?)
My point is that while the high celebrations are wonderful, spectacular, enjoyable, festive and magnificent (just think back two weeks to Easter Sunday here in our congregation) … it is in the Seasons of the Church Year that we find the breadth of meaning and the depth of faith … it is where our answers lie, as the Story is told and learned and absorbed into living.
So, today, we find ourselves immersed in the Season of Easter … in fact, to be accurate … it is the 15th day of Easter, the 3rd Sunday of Easter.
On this Sunday and throughout the Season of Easter we are presented with an ordered collection of biblical stories about the Appearances of the Risen Jesus … it is the whole theme of Easter, it is what Easter is about … not only for those who took the time to relate these stories in the 1st Century, but also for believers down through the ages right to our time.
We could, of course, ignore all this and simply talk about what Jesus, the Risen Crucified One means in our life … and that has merit … but each and every time we do that, we find ourselves asking the question … “Now which Jesus is this, whose story we are telling? What happened to him, such that we are still telling his story today? What was there about him that makes this story a living story?”
And so we turn to the earliest accounts that we have … and we find them in the Letters of Paul (which date to somewhere around the middle of the 1st Century) and to Gospels (which are spread out in the last half of the 1st Century).
So far, so good … but then there is a problem. The problem lies in the readings themselves, or rather in the selection and order of the readings that we see each of these Sundays in Easter. And once again we realize that we are living with the Common Lectionary, a book shared by most Christians of the western tradition.
If you were to miss Easter Sunday, and last Sunday and come in this morning to the worshiping community and tune your ears to the Gospel reading … you would be very confused as to what was going on. It’s what I call Lectionary Confusion.
The Gospel (which is from the Gospel According to Luke today, in this year that we call the Year of the Gospel of Mark) begins this way:
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Now if you came last week and heard the account of Jesus appearing to the Disciples (the story of Thomas, who first is not there, but then is the second time Jesus appears) … then you might assume that this is simply a continuation of that story. But … that story was from the Gospel of John.
Today’s Reading is from the Gospel of Luke, and it’s in the context of a different story altogether … this is why we put the Bibles in the Pew Racks so that you might take a moment before worship begins, or even during it, to look at the readings in the Bible and see for yourselves what the context is … what comes before, what comes after.
You can do that now, or I can tell you. Today’s reading picks up on the appearance story of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel where two people are walking to Emmaus and suddenly they find a third has joined them … the risen Jesus, but they don’t know that it’s Jesus.
You remember the story, it’s a good one!
They are walking along, Jesus asks them what’s happening, they look bewildered … are you the only one around her who doesn’t know what has taken place? And they tell the story about Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, burial … and then they hint that some of the women who knew him went to the tomb and found that it was empty.
And then they come to the house where they were going to stay, and they invite their mystery friend to stay with them, and at the meal, Jesus takes over, blesses the bread and all at once they know who it is. But in that moment, Jesus vanishes from their sight.
They realize what has happened, leave the house, run to the house where the disciples are gathered, and tell them the whole thing, and then while they and the disciples are there discussing this … our Gospel reading for today begins:
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
You see, it would make a lot more sense to stay with one story/one gospel and just read out the Easter narratives through the whole Season of Easter, but the problem is in this year, the Year of Mark, there are no appearance stories … you remember that from Easter Sunday (or you should remember that!). At the end of Mark’s Gospel, the women come to the tomb, find it empty, meet the angel, learn that Jesus is risen, and they run away (at least in the original ending of the Gospel).
So this year, since the Easter Season goes on for 7 weeks, the Lectionary has us fill in the space with appearance stories from two other Gospels, John and Luke. That is, until next Sunday, when we will skip back to the Gospel of John and be with Jesus and his followers in the last meal that they shared together, listening in on the conversation and the final words Jesus says to his disciples during that meal.
You see how confusing it is?! When I become Ruler of All Things and especially the Lectionary decisions, I will change this … but for the moment we are left with what is before us, these stories, this year.
And I hope you linger through these 7 Sundays and listen carefully … because two things are presented to us, and they both have to do with Jesus, they both have to do with what the resurrection means for us …
The first is that Jesus lives. He is alive in the story. He is alive in the apostles. He is alive in the women who found the tomb empty and spread the story. He is alive in us.
The second thing is this … I always have the Confirmands write three things in the front of their Bibles:
1. The first thing is to listen. (Not talk, not pray, not anything but … listen.)
2. The second thing is: I am a child of God, loved by God; I always have been and always will be.
3. The third thing is: there is nothing that can ever change #2. No matter who I am, what I have done, what I will do … God will always be there to accept me, welcome me, love me.
That is to say the second thing in this Easter Season is … forgiveness. It is all about forgiveness. No matter who we are, no matter what we have done, no matter what we think of ourselves … God through Jesus promises to hold us, welcome us, accept us, forgive us, bring us back to each other, and to the community of faith where Jesus lives.
+ Deo Gratia. Amen.
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III, Pastor