New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
(Year B: The Third Sunday of Easter,
18h April 2021)
In daily life, what is it that gives us
joy?
How do we know real joy when we experience
it?
These are simple but extremely important
questions to ask ourselves from time to time. In all our busyness and distractedness
we can miss what is really important in life.
But, ‘Joy’ is not so simple to define.
Let’s say we know it when we feel it.
We hear a lot about being happy or being
satisfied in life. We hear about the pleasures of the good things in life and
the great blessing of health for those fortunate enough to have it. But, we don’t hear so much about ‘joy’; it
lurks somewhere on the scene but it is more elusive.
Indeed, we might be just a little guarded
about using the word ‘joy’ especially when it might be associated with what
might be termed a ‘religious’ experience. It is not difficult, perhaps, to be
carried away by emotions especially when accompanied by music, group sentiment
and expectations of something great and wonderful. Too often people can be
misled by mere feelings or gullible claims of uplifting of the spirit. Yet, we
should not disregard the importance of feeling and shared feeling whether in an
explicitly religious context or otherwise.
God is not so remote and so other-worldly
that it is not possible from time to time to experience or ‘see’ a chink of
light for a few moments. If we have
never been moved by some emotion in the context of shared love, common worship
or an act or a word of kindness, then we have never fully lived as Christians.
Living the Christian life surely means meeting with the living Christ in the
very ordinary and wonderful things of life.
The mystery of our faith did not stop on
Good Friday and evaporate in some mist of heavenly apparitions to the early
disciples of Jesus. No. When Christ rose from the dead, he showed himself in
very physical ways to his disciples. Whatever the precise historical detail of
the events following the first Good Friday we can be sure that the Risen Christ
is not some phantom of religious imagination and feeling. The Risen Christ is
present today wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
It was about 8.45pm on the evening of 24th
May, 1738 when John Wesley, the person most associated with the Methodist
movement which sprang from what, nowadays, we call Anglicanism, had an
‘experience’. This was in Aldersgate, London, while someone read from Luther’s
Preface to the Letter to the Romans.
Wesley wrote of the experience, afterwards, that, "while he was
describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I
felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for
salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even
mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
‘I felt my heart strangely warmed’ wrote
Wesley.
Have we had an ‘Aldersgate’ moment in our
lives? Have we had a few?
There is one way of checking in our
subjective feelings. We should not travel alone. Where two or three are
gathered – as on the road to Emmaus, there stands a loving presence – Jesus in
the midst of us (Matt.
18:20). Church (‘gathering’) is everywhere if only we could open our eyes. The surest sign of God’s Holy Spirit
is the joy that is placed in our hearts. It is like a burning fire that lights
one step ahead and protects from everything else around us. However,
discernment, care and spiritual companionship are
essential to test every fire. Not every fire leads to God or comes from
God.
The resurrection stories nearly all involve
an encounter between the Risen Lord and a group of disciples. The Risen Christ
is revealed in the new communion called and blessed by his Name.
And today in 2021 we are witnessing these
events. What happened on the road from
Emmaus as well as to Emmaus is that Someone walked into our lives –
unexpectedly. It was a natural encounter, so it seemed. Then in conversation
with this stranger our hearts were lit up and something sparked deep within us.
Jesus spoke about the words of scripture. But in doing this he joined a
conversation among the disciples. Such was the joy and the warmth experienced
by the disciples that they felt an irresistible urge to share what they had
experienced with other disciples. And this continues today among us. ‘Joy and
amazement’ (verse 41) together with ‘peace’ (verse 36) are the fruits of such
learning and encounter.
There is something that we have seen and
have touched and have experienced…
It is the joy of having met – really – the
living, Risen Christ.
(words above = 820)
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Further reading: notes and questions,
verse by verse
Preliminaries
The story in this Sunday’s extract from
Luke’s gospel follows on from the ‘Emmaus Story’ where Jesus walks along with
two disciples and ends up staying the evening with them before disappearing.
The Risen Christ turns up, unexpectedly, and departs similarly.
36: Jesus
Appears to the Disciples
While they were still talking about
this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with
you.”
While the disciples conversed with the
witness who had met the Risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, Jesus stood among
them. His message is Peace. Christ comes not to condemn or to judge but to
heal, to set free and to give Peace – real, lasting peace and not the sort of
peace this world promises but fails to give.
37-43: Not
a ghost
They were startled and frightened,
thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled,
and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is
I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you
see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And
while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked
them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of
broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
A common feature in all four gospels is a
strong emphasis on the physical risen body of Christ. There is eating together
with displays of wounded hands, feet and sides (Luke goes for feet and hands,
only). The gospel writers are anxious to dispel any notion that the Risen One
is a ghost or a phantom of collective or individual psyche. Christ is one of us
among us but in a way that is altogether new and that defies space and time
limitations. The disciples have entered
into a new reality where Christ is present to them in their midst and within
their hearts. We read in the Acts of the Apostles (thought to be written by
Luke) that (Acts
10:40-41):
God raised him on the third day and
allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by
God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
44-46: Opening
up the Word
He said to them, “This is what I
told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is
written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then
he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written:
The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
Jesus spoke about the words of scripture.
But in doing this he joined a conversation among the disciples. In other words,
he spoke with them more than at them. This is how we learn from others – others
who speak with us and not down to us, or up to us or at us. People who speak
with us in active conversation bring out something new and old within us. And
this is educare – to educate.
47-48: Witnesses
to joy
and repentance for the forgiveness of
sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem. You are witnesses of
these things.
The cause of our joy is
Jesus – the Christ who has died and is now risen. We are witnesses to his freedom.
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