Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on April 6, 2008
(Third Sunday of Easter, Year A, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Acts 2:14a,36-47
Psalm 116:10-17
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35

I used to have a great memory, almost photographic. I could meet someone in passing, be introduced to them and years later see them in a crowd, and recall their face, name and other particulars. This used to irritate my friends to no end.

As for information, if I read it or heard it somewhere, I could recall it verbatim, and give you the source with the page number and paragraph if necessary. This used to irritate my teachers to no end which in turn irritated me because as a result, I usually ended up in trouble.

Now, it seems like I have trouble remembering which day it is. Or if I see a face that reminds me of someone, I can’t place the name or the face. Sometimes I even forget whether or not I’ve said something, which always gets me into trouble because rather than taking the chance on saying something twice and playing the fool, I don’t say anything and play the idiot instead.

Now I’m not calling the two disciples in today’s Gospel fools or idiots because they were dealing with something altogether different; the resurrected Lord! The fact is that we don’t know much about what a resurrected body entails except what we learn from Scripture; a resurrected body, although familiar, is not recognizable, at least not at first; a resurrected body is not subject to time and space in that it is able to transport from one place to another instantly, and it can pass through locked doors; however, a resurrected body is spiritual but not phantasmal; it can be touched and is able to take nourishment but we mustn’t cling to it. In short, a resurrected body is similar but different from a physical body.

Plus today’s Gospel tells us that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Now this could have been part of God’s design but it’s not hard to imagine considering how mentally distraught they were. Their entire world had been altered in the last three days. The man that they had followed as disciples for the past three years, and who they had hoped would be “the one to redeem Israel” had been arrested, beaten, and crucified. They suddenly found themselves like a boat adrift upon the open water without a rudder or a sail. And when the stranger who is Jesus asks them what they are talking about, they just stand still and look sad! Their eyes were probably red-rimmed from tears of sorrow. And besides that, there was this other story circulating around that when the women went to care for the corpse they had been met by angels telling them that Jesus was alive! So between the spiritual, mental , and physical realities, it’s no wonder that they didn’t recognize Jesus.

That is they didn’t recognize Jesus until they invited him to stay with them and join them at the table. It wasn’t until Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Now this action must have been very important to the writer of the Gospel because it is mentioned twice. Besides at the evening meal, when the two disciples returned to Jerusalem, they told the Apostles “what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

When we gather each week for the Eucharist, during the Canon of the Mass, we believe that in some mysterious way, incomprehensible to us, Jesus becomes present in the elements of the bread and the wine. And we further believe that by consuming the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus is literally being made known to us physically, and through the grace imparted by such, we are spiritually nourished and sustained, together becoming one body; he is us and we in him.

But it’s not just in Church that this occurs. It also takes place in our homes. In the passage from Acts, we read that “they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts.”

When we invite Jesus into our hearts and homes while sitting at table with our family and friends, and ask his blessing upon the food, he is making himself known to us and is present within our midst, giving us the spiritual nourishment of gladness and generosity as well as physical sustenance.

But as important as this action is, notice that in Acts, the breaking of bread is couched within other actions necessary to discipleship. It says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship,… to the prayers” and to spending much time together in the temple. This means that they regularly gathered together in worship, prayer, and education. This passage encourages us to participate in all of the worship services that the Church offers, especially Eucharist. It encourages us to regularly collectively study the scripture, and the apostolic faith once delivered. It encourages us to earnestly pray for one another either corporately or individually. It also upholds the importance of gathering together in fellowship, whether it’s coffee hour after worship, a potluck for a special occasion or even bagging food for the hungry children of the world. When we do these things, Jesus is made known to us.

The reason our memory becomes fuzzy with people’s faces and names, and other pieces of information we may have read or heard is that we are no longer in regular contact with these people or items. If we want to remember them we have to consciously maintain contact with them. It is the same with Jesus.

We have been introduced to Jesus through our baptisms, through Sunday school, through Confirmation, and through our first Holy Communion, but as we grow older and distance ourselves from the things mentioned in today’s readings, Jesus slowly fades from our lives and memories.

We have found that one of the ironies of this life is that as technologically advanced as we are in the field of communication, our sources of information have been reduced to 30 second sound bites, and our relationships have been condensed to brief emails, and abbreviated text messaging. We do not share our lives with each other as we once did in the past. Consequently, our culture is manifest with the results of this kind of behavior.

However, if we cultivate and nourish the discipline of worshipping together, praying together, learning together, and breaking bread with each other as often as possible not only will Jesus be made known us on any road we walk but we in turn Jesus will be seen in us and we will see and recognize the Christ in everyone we meet no matter where we go.

As we so aptly prayed in this morning’s collect, “O God whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread; Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work.” Lord, give us thy grace that it may be so. Gloria Patri