Easter 3 (A) God’s Surprises
Easter 3 (A) God’s Surprises
Despite photographs from space showing our Earth in all of its spherical grandeur, there are those who tenaciously cling to the idea that the Earth is flat. There is even an International Flat Earth Club where those who can’t see the Earth’s curvature can find support for what they can see…. a flat earth.
Fortunately, we tolerate their claims with mild amusement and controlled smiles. We are not moved in the slightest way to condemn them like they did in medieval times by burning them at the stake. But, in the past (when the weight of the visual evidence was the other way around), it was dangerous to even suggest that the Earth wasn’t flat! Those who dared, were labeled Heretics and banished for their beliefs. But history has proved that it was their tormentors who were in fact guilty of heresy.
Heresy is not so simple as most people suppose. It has little to do with believing something that is wrong, or refusing to believe something that is right. It has to do rather with an over emphasis on something that is right at the expense of something else that is also right. From one perspective the Earth looks flat. That is right. From another perspective it looks round. That is also right. We are all in constant danger of curtailing the truth by our limited perspective.
In today’s Gospel we read the account of the two depressed and heartbroken men who were on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They are sad because all of their hopes in Jesus as the promised Messiah had vanished in the terrifying shadow of His cross. Then, they are joined by a stranger who proceeds (with the help of the scriptures) to put the events they had just experienced into a new perspective. Did not the scriptures say that the promised Messiah would suffer, die and…. rise again! Then at dinner the stranger rehearsed for them his action at the last supper. He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them saying, “This is my body.” They looked at the bread and they looked at the stranger… and before he vanished from their sight, He said it again… “This is my body!”
We are then told that they hurried back to Jerusalem to share with the eleven that they had see the Lord…. Risen from the dead! The eleven agreed and said, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.
The resurrection of Jesus, and numerous appearances as the risen Lord over a period of forty days, is the most thoroughly attested event in Holy Scriptures. Men and women who questions the ‘unbelievable’ in the same way we question unique events, were willing to steak their lives, and the lives of their families on the fact of the resurrection. Paul said, “If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we are of all men, to be most pitied.”
Still there are those who seek to dismiss it as legend or imagination. These same people are quite willing to accept Jesus’ kindly, and remarkably revolutionary, teachings in the sermon on the mount, but persist in trying to explain away the fact of His resurrection. The sermon on the mount is reported in only one place by a single New Testament writer. The resurrection, and the resurrection appearances, on the other hand, are reported by numerous writers in many different accounts on the basis of the evidence it is impossible to dismiss the resurrection without dismissing also the whole of the New Testament as a “tale signifying nothing.”
In His creation, God gave us minds with which to think, to reason, to understand, and to determine – which is what it means to be ‘made in the image of God.’ Now, to ignore that right, and that responsibility, is to deny our being as God has made us. But, to escalate that nature to a dimension in which we see ourselves as arbiters of God’s actions, and to say… for example, “I will not accept this or that plainly evident act of God,” is to make one’s self the determiner of what God can or can not do.
That is over emphasis on one truth at the expense of a counter truth and that’s heresy.
I am personally relieved that the church is no longer so quick to gather wood to burn those who would question the faith. It often happens that the most determined scoffers turn out to be the most ardent and convincing believers.
- Example) Tell a healing story where a reporter finds God in a spiritual healing.
My only requirement for serious scoffing is a sincere desire to discover God’s truth. Ask any question you want as long as you sincerely want to know the answer to that question.
The men on the road to Emmaus were open to scripture. They were eager to hear more from their teacher. They welcomed His fellowship, and then to their surprise and amazement, they found themselves in the presence of the living Lord. In His presence they felt an inner change (did not our hearts burn within us?) and they were filled with new hope, courage and energy. (They hurried seven miles back to Jerusalem at the end of the day). They knew there was danger, but they also knew that their teacher had conquered all foes including death.
Now, from time to time we all get into a state of despair. We feel overwhelmed by some problem, pain, or grief. Life seems meaningless and we find ourselves immobilized to do anything about it. what will help?
Be open to God’s word, stay lose to His Father’s fellowship, and believe His promise to be especially present with us in the breaking of bread in Holy Eucharist.
If you are reluctant to believe this because a minister is saying it…. believe it because so many people who, out of their troubles, have found new hope, courage and energy.
I can’t tell you how many times on hearing people share their story that I have heard myself say in response…. AMAZING! I do know …. that I have said AMAZING so many times that I fear it will grow trite. But until I find a better word I will continue to be amazed by God’s…... surprises.
One final point, more important than all the rest! God did not raise Jesus because Jesus was a kindly teacher. The divine sequence worked the other way around. God raised Jesus from the dead first, and then the kindly teachings leap into imperative significance in the light of their source.
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