Easter 3
Luke 24:13-35
4/10/05
“HeartBurn”
Did you get heartburn as you
listened to that gospel reading? I hope
you did. Oh, I don’t wish you any
harm; you know that. I don’t mean
for you to have that miserable feeling in your upper stomach that comes to some
people when they eat the wrong foods. And
you can’t take Tums or even some prescription medicine for it if you did get this
heartburn.
No, this heartburn comes
from an encounter with the living God. It
gives you this inner sense that something wonderful has come into your life.
It makes you feel satisfied in a way that you’ve never experienced
before, but at the same time also leaves you hungering for more.
It stirs a passionate love in you – love for Christ and for other
people. And this heartburn can only
change your life for the better.
Notice though, our two
disciples didn’t know they had heartburn right away.
They didn’t recognize Jesus until later, after the encounter.
This certainly seems strange. They
obviously knew about the resurrection. They
tell Jesus about it. But even with
Jesus right there, physically present with them, they don’t see Him for who he
is. They surely had the advantage
over us, as they could see and then believe, while we must believe and then see.
Of course, even with Jesus
physically present they didn’t see it all at first.
Maybe, they were too buried in grief over their loss to make the switch
to Easter joy.
Maybe, the resurrection
didn’t fit their normal human mind-frame – people just don’t rise from the
dead. Those resurrection stories
required a person to really think outside the box, go against what was known and
comfortable.
Maybe, none of this met
their expectations of a Messiah. People
had been waiting for many years for a Messiah who would be an earthly conqueror
and who would bring back the glories of
Maybe, they were just being
busy being human. Going along, doing
their own thing, and just not terribly aware of the world around them.
You know how that is. You
meet a stranger on the street and they ask for help – directions or a handout
– and even though you converse you never really see them.
Whatever was blocking their
vision, a major turning point comes when Jesus appears to be passing on and they
invite Him in. In the ancient world
inviting a person into your home was much the same as inviting him into your
family. A relationship is
established. It is this openness to
a deeper relationship that makes it possible for Jesus to reveal Himself.
And “when He was at the
table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished from
their sight.” Notice, that out on
the road, though Jesus revealed Himself in the Word as He explained the message
of the prophets, the disciples did not recognize Him.
It is only with this act that is the same as what happens at our altar in
Holy Communion or the Eucharist that they are able to clearly see Jesus.
The one enlivens the other.
Then, after reflecting on
what they have experienced, applying this knew knowledge to what went before on
the road, they hurried back to
In that one brief encounter
these two disciples’ lives have been changed.
From foot dragging despair to dancing Easter joy, from living in a tight
little box of old ideas to untold possibilities, from blindness to 20/20 vision,
from life as it was to life everlasting,
nothing will ever be the
same again. Christ is risen and real
life can begin.
I think leaving the second
disciple’s name out so that the listener can see him/herself in the story was
truly Spirit inspired. After over
2000 years it can be hard to get a really good case of heartburn over the Easter
story. (You might get the other
heartburn from the fried sausage and potatoes at our Easter breakfast though)
The story is so old and we’ve heard it so many times.
It just may not be that stirring any more.
Then we leave church on
Easter morning and there’s dinner to make, dishes to wash, kids to run here
and there, work to do, and demands, demands, demands.
No wonder we are blinded to Jesus living presence much of the time in our
lives. It’s really hard to see Him
with so many distractions all around us.
There are also the cultural
expectations that interfere with our vision.
We have been taught subtly to see Jesus as part of church on Sunday, but
not a part of the rest of our lives. In
fact, in some work situations (like teaching) we could get in trouble if we
tried to make Him a part of our normal routine. Your mother like mine may have
taught you that it’s not polite to discuss religion or politics in social
situations. We’ve learned well to
keep Jesus in a nice little box that can only be opened at church.
And maybe deep down inside
in a place we don’t even want to explore, we don’t even want an encounter
with the living Christ, because it might very well change our lives...and change
can be scary. An encounter with the
living Christ might change how we see things.
It might change our priorities – all kinds of priorities.
We may think we just can’t make the sacrifices that a faith changed
life, that heartburn, would bring about.
But, here is the Good News,
those changes are not ones made under the law, like
Thou shalt stop cussing.
Thou shalt be in church
every Sunday and
some days in between.
Thou shalt serve God by giving a tithe or by taking part in church projects or by doing good to others.
Thou shalt speak only well
of others instead of criticizing and complaining about them.
NO,
an encounter with the living Christ changes us from the inside out, not the
outside in.Inviting Christ into our lives as a relationship like the Emmaus
disciples did, opens us so that He can work within us gently, lovingly.
As we give up the need to maintain the illusion that we are in control,
the need to stay inside our little mind boxes, the need to keep an experience of
Jesus in our lives as an exception rather than a constant, we discover a joy
that is far more satisfying than anything we think we have now.
We realize that worship is not
about our being entertained, but about an engagement with God. This engagement
with God may be enhanced by music, slide shows, preaching or other factors, but
it is mainly due to our openness to encounter. And if we are not able at any
given time to open ourselves to Him, Christ will remain at the door waiting for
us to let Him in through our full participation in Word and Sacrament and He
will wait as long as needed.
Once we’ve let Him in
though, we hear the old Bible stories with new ears that show us how God is with
us in all that we experience.
We come to appreciate the
privilege of coming to the table with Christ as host and meal in His holy
supper. We come knowing that in the
breaking of bread our eyes too may be opened.
We sing God’s praise from
new songs with the same fervor as from old favorites, eager to show Him our love
in all our words and music.
We leave the church knowing
that Christ goes with us to guide and strengthen us as we continue our
lives in ministry outside its doors.
We look for more encounters
with the living Christ and for opportunities to know Him in new ways as we see
Him in the neighbor who needs our help with a project, the co-worker who needs a
word of encouragement, and even with the bum on the street who needs a hand-up
along with a hand-out. And we
discover that Christ is also present as we receive from others, sometimes in
unexpected ways.
Yes, if we invite Christ in,
if we allow ourselves to experience an encounter with the living Christ, it may
cause some minor discomfort. It may
stretch us and even scare us a bit, but it will surely give us a heartburn that
leaves us wanting more. And this
heartburn will be just a foretaste of the feast to come.
Amen.