Third Sundayof Easter
Sunday 26th April 2020
As public worship has been suspended in a bid to limit the spread of the Coronavirus the service was recorded and made available online. That can be found here.
Easter 3
Luke 24. 13-45
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Introduction to the service
During the forty days after Easter, Jesus appeared to his disciples on different occasions and in different ways. His appearances usually took them by surprise, but filled them with joy. Often it was when he shared food with them that their eyes were really opened to his risen presence among them. May our worship today, in the words of today’s Collect, ‘give us such knowledge of his presence with us’.
1st Reflection
We join the two disciples as they wearily beat the path away from Jerusalem and all that had happened there during that first Holy Week.
They were probably of the same household, so it’s OK for them to be walking together! But I bet they were feeling confused and disoriented, afraid of being arrested themselves and desperately trying to make sense of all that had happened; all they had lived through. (Maybe some of us are struggling to make sense of the things we are living through too?) Suddenly they meet a stranger on the road who falls into step alongside them (perhaps at a 2 metre distance?) and asks them why they are so sad. As they pour out their story, so they begin to travel another path – one leading to healing for their damaged hopes and souls.
In the busy-ness of our normal world, how often do we notice the sadness of strangers and dare to ask them why? Perhaps rather more like the Priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan, we are more likely to avert our gaze, look somewhere else, and pass by on the other side? But Jesus shows us that by daring to ask the question and encounter the other person and their pain we can be catalysts to their healing. Do we have the courage to make time to reach out with the gift of time and a listening ear?
Jesus shows the power of simple questions to unlock the depth of another person’s story, the reality of their pain. There are so many stories of courage and pain and loss around at present…
But his simple questions stop the two disciples in their tracks. They unlock something, enabling the disciples to voice their sadness, and to begin to let go of the trauma.
“But we had hoped that he was the one.” Voicing their disappointment and loss is the first step on the path of letting go into new life.
2nd Reflection
Hospitality. It’s one of the casualties of our current situation, isn’t it. We can’t invite the neighbours or a friend in for a cup of tea or coffee, much less to share a meal. But my guess is that when this pandemic is finally past – or at least when normal life has been resumed, we are going to want to get together with others and celebrate!
The disciples had learned the practice of hospitality from Jesus. Breaking bread was a way of encountering, of meeting with one another, of including people that wouldn’t normally be included; the outcast; the unloved.
As the stranger made to go on with his journey, the two disciples urged him to break his travel and stay with them for a while. They opened the possibility of a deeper meeting of minds, and of recognizing Jesus in the taking, blessing, breaking and sharing of bread. Their eyes were opened! Breaking bread, sharing hospitality, opens our eyes to the presence of Christ among us. Which is why of course it feels so hard at present when we cannot do this outside of our immediate households. But just imagine how we will feel when we can meet again in church and break bread together!
Meanwhile we think of these symbolic acts – taking, blessing, breaking and sharing and apply them to the Scriptures. This takes us on a journey from head to heart, from thinking about God, to relationship with God!
What might that mean for you today?