Easter 3-A (4/06/08) Acts 2:14a. 36-41; 1 Pt 1:17-23; Lk 24:13-35

St Augustine’s, Benton Harbor Fr. Joseph Neiman

"Alleluia! Christ is risen!" we say at the beginning of our post-Easter celebrations of the Eucharist. We answer: "The Lord has risen indeed! Alleluia!" But do we really mean it? Can we, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, say along with the other disciples, "We have seen the Lord!"

Can you recognize him as they did in the breaking of the bread?

First some background. We have entered into the season on the Church calendar called Eastertide in English usage in which each Sunday is named Easter 2 to Easter 7. It includes the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, which this year will be on Mother’s Day, May 11^th. The season of Eastertide is linked to the season of Lent and together form a 90 day block of the Church year which moves back and forth on the regular calendar depending upon the date of Easter.

This year, as we all know, Easter was very early. It is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. The last time Easter came on March 22^nd was in 1913, and the next time will be in 2228. It could even be on March 21^st, but the last time that happened was in 1818, and the next time will be in 2285.

The major theme of Lent this year was preparing for Baptism. You see each season of the Church year has not only a specific theme related to the Gospel narrative assigned for that Sunday, but also to the meta-narrative, a larger theme which holds the specific themes together. This is frequently unnoticed as we focus week by week on what a particular passage from Scripture.

The meta-narrative of Lent this year was preparing for Baptism. The major theme or meta-narrative of Eastertide focuses on how we experience the presence of the risen Lord in our lives today. Week after week we will hear in the Gospel narratives ways in which we encounter or see the risen Lord if we have eyes to see (Mk 8:18).

Last week the emphasis was on experiencing the risen Lord in the actions of forgiving and healing. The Lord commands and empowers his disciples to forgive, and shows that in touching healing wounds doubting Thomas can discover or see him. I stressed last Sunday a simple but powerful way of looking at forgiveness, namely, what a wise monk said: "If we do not forgive someone, you allow him or her to live in your head rent free!"

There has been of late a lot of research in the social sciences showing how forgiveness sets one free and makes our lives more fully alive. "Research in recent years has shown that people who scored high on forgiveness scales had significantly lower levels of blood pressure, anxiety and depression, and relatively high self-esteem." Writing in the Journal of Moral Education, Dr. Robert Enright says, "There is a clear consensus in the journals that forgiveness is an important therapeutic goal."

This Sunday, the emphasis is on experiencing the presence of the risen lord in the breaking of the bread as the two disciples did on the road to Emmaus. Their eyes were open and they recognized him (Lk 24). Then the next week we learn we can experiencing the risen Lord in shepherding as the Gospel account of the good Shepherd is present to us (Jn 10). The same emphasis is found on the 5tkh, 6^th, and 7^th Sundays as well, each with a particular emphasis.

Let’s look at the breaking of bread and encountering in that experience the presence and power of the risen Lord.

Fr. Dan has done an excellent job in outlining on page 2 of your service booklet what our Sunday liturgy is all about. It is "the work of the people" (the meaning of the word "liturgy") focused on "thanksgiving" or giving thanks to God for all that we are and all that we have made known to us, as St. Paul tells us, "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6) in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

Marshall McLuhan, the great communications theorist of the 1960’s, told us: Obviously it was not a fish that discovered water. We sometimes have to get outside our common practices and see them differently before we understand them. Winston Churchill said something along the lines that we structure our buildings and then they structure us. With these two ideas in mind, let’s look at our Sunday worship.

The assembly of the disciples around the table of the Lord has become in our churches today, pews facing an altar area generally separated by a communion rail. When we gather around a birthday or anniversary party in our homes, we can see the joy on one another’s faces, and that helps us celebrate. We need to refocus our churches so we can see one another praying and singing, their faces, not just their backs. This helps us to discover, to see Christ present in one another.

Secondly on page 355 n the Book of Common Prayer, and on page 6 in your service booklet, we see the large print that says this first half of the Eucharist is about "The Word of God." The directions about Eucharist on page 406 stress that this first section about the Word of God should take place at one location: the pulpit or lectern or ambo as it is variously called. At that place there should be a Bible of "appropriate size and dignity" from which the Scriptures are read.

The role of the reader, be it lector, deacon or priest, is crucial since the whole first part of our Eucharist together hinges on truly "hearing God’s holy word." Then the priest or person assigned to give the homily tries to open us up to that inner voice of the Spirit who seeks to guide us into all truth. If the reading and preaching and listening are done well, then we can says as did the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"

After reaffirming our faith in unity with Christians through the centuries and around the world in the words of the ancient Nicene Creed, we raise up our prayers and concerns of the day in the Prayers of the People, sometimes with a confession rite included, and greet one another, especially – as your service booklet stresses – "the stranger and those we need to be reconciled with."

Then we move to the second half of our Eucharist together: The Holy Communion. [You will notice it in bold print on page 10 of your service booklet and on page 361 in the Prayer Book.] This takes place at the "table f the Lord" or the "altar." Fortunately in recent years our structures have been changed so the altar table is no longer against the back wall with a hugh superstructure. It is here, at the table, we see the more literal breaking of the bread.

Remembering what Winston Churchill said about our buildings structuring us, we find today many of our church buildings have the altar well lighted and high on a stage, so-to-speak, with the access blocked by a communion rail. Couple that with the rows of pews, something we inherited from the Reformation, and you have suggested to the disciples assembled that they are to sit and watch what the priest is doing in their name. The Pope will be visiting the US next week, and you may hear a commentator say something like: "The Pope will say Mass for the people at this place." This implies they are an audience rather than participants. Our liturgy or work of the people is called the Book of Common or ‘community’ Prayer for it is clearly something we do together, priest and people with all the other roles.

We start by bringing an offering, our tithes, along with the bread and wine to be used for communion. We sing praise to the risen Lord as we do, and then more formally in what is called "the preface" or introduction to the "the Great Thanksgiving" prayer itself. This opening preface ends with the hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy," reminiscent of the praise the great prophet, Isaiah, saw in his vision of heaven. It is found in Isaiah chapter six. The words and structure of both the preface and the Eucharistic prayer are related to what our Christian brothers and sisters prayed as recorded in a book, called the Didache, written some 75 years or so after the resurrection of Jesus.

Here is where it is highly appropriate to read the prayer (pages 12 & 13) along with the priest since he or she is simply saying out loud what we all should be praying together.

Finally, after joining in the prayer our Lord taught us, the Lord’s prayer, the bread is broken and shared, along with the cup, with each of the baptized disciples who present themselves at the table. The elements are presented as "the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven," and as "the Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation" to which we respond "Amen". Amen, by the way, means "so be it" or "let it happened." It is not just a period at the end of a sentence.

Back to the central question with which we began: can you recognize the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread? Can you see Christ in one another, hear him speak to you in the Scriptures and homily, and receive Him into your heart and soul in the communion? The risen Lord is truly present here with us this morning if we have eyes that see and ears that hear.

Our ears have been taught in our scientific culture only to recognize what we can touch, see, measure, weigh and so forth. Yet even at the nature science level we need disciplined eyes and ears. This pulpit is solid, well, not really. Scientists with other knowledge will tell us it is composed of cells with atoms whirling around a nucleus. This room is quiet except for my voice and a few coughs, yet as others can tell us, there are thousands of sights and sounds really and truly present here in our midst as a cell phone or short wave radio or television set can reveal to us. I see the sun (sometimes) rise in the east and move across the sky and set in the west. I see that with my own eyes, but not really. The earth turned, the sun did not move as we think we see. We need the testimony of others and often need to take it on faith that what they are telling us is true.

For your homework this week (I give homework and let the good Lord do the testing), practice disciplining your eyes and ears. When your cell phone rings, focus for a moment on the reality that the voice of the person with whom you are going to hear is actually present in the air in the room even though your can’t hear it without the aid of the device, the cell phone.

From that encounter with your cell phone, remember that others have told us that the tomb was empty, that Christ has risen indeed, and we can recognize him in one another when we gather in His name, in his words proclaimed to us in Scripture, and in the sharing of the bread and the cup with our prayers and praise together.

God bless you and keep you this day and always, and remember the good Lord has forgiven you all your sins, and loves you more that you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe it?