Sunday Homily, May 4, 2014, 3rd Easter, A
Readings:
Acts 2, 14, 22-33, Peter stood up and proclaimed.
Psalm 16, Lord, you will show us the path of life.
1 Peter 1, 17-21, Conduct yourselves with reverence..
Luke 24, 13-35, The disciples were going to a village called Emmaus.
Mike's Homily
There was a short story written by Steve Blow in the Dallas Morning News on Easter morning. It was about a young man who belonged to one of the United Methodist churches, here in Plano. He was out walking some time before Easter on the east side of the church property when he found an old wooden cross in some deep brush leaning against a tree. It had become badly weathered, but he recognized it as the one the youth group used in its sunrise Easter services. Now, a decade or so later, after he had repaired, sanded and varnished the cross, it stood that Easter morning at the entrance of the church; later to be surrounded by a group of faith filled friends.
In the beginning of the reading from the John gospel of last Sunday, the eleven disciples had hidden together in an upper room; they had no faith in Christ. The crucifixion and death of Jesus had filled them with fear.
It is terribly important for us to be reminded of two things. The first is that the gospel stories are written as parables; the second is that after Christ returned to the Father in glory, the Church was given the Holy Spirit and the responsibility to be Christ in the world. Empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit, it was the Church who extended to the disciples in the upper room Christ’s words, ‘Peace be with you;’ as the Father sent me, now I send you;’ ‘receive the Holy Spirit.’
In faith, they believed! When Thomas returned he did not believe that Christ had come to them. He wanted proof! ‘Unless I place my hand into his side I will not believe.’ A week later, what the Church offered Thomas was not proof, but the opportunity to have faith. ‘Place your hand into my side to receive the treasure of the good news’.
In the Mark and Matthew gospels the disciples are told in like manner by the Church to follow Christ in faith by going after him to Galilee; for the beginning of the Mark Gospel, occurs in Galilee with the words, ‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God.’
The end of today’s parable from the Luke gospel complements last weeks reading from the John gospel, by also addressing the eleven in the upper room. It begins with two men who are being led by the Church as they attempt to come to understand God’s plan of salvation. Christ, through the Church, tells them that he is truly present to them in the liturgy of the Word and Eucharist.
Visualize the likes of Clare, Barb, Maureen, Mary Ellen, Bernadette, Dee and Marilyn, for example, at the tomb when the sun rises on that first Easter morning, only to find the tomb empty. ‘Didn’t he say that he would rise?’ ‘Don’t you feel his Spirit welling up within you? It would have been a faith experience for them, too.
Together they would have been the vision of angels rejoicing as messengers and teachers of the Word. If they had actually seen a bunch of angels singing and praising God, there would have been no faith. Their freedom to have faith would have been taken from them. It is faith that enables us to become Christ in the world.
So, we have gathered here today in faith, believing that it is by the power of the Spirit that the bread blessed and broken has become for us Christ; that the good news becomes for us Christ; that gathered in his name Christ is present in us, so that we can be Christ in the world.