Easter 3 Year A.A Sermon based on
In the name of Jesus; amen.
I want you to think for a moment about a meal you remember. What made it so memorable? Was it part of a celebration? Was it with family or friends? Did something terrible happen? Was there a fight? Was the food so good that your mouth begins to water when you think about it?
I remember the meal after my best friend’s mother’s funeral. Her parents were divorced, but had remained friends and even lived down the street from one another. Her father’s new wife hated to go to funerals and instead stayed at her mother’s house the entire day cooking and setting out tables and tables of food; wonderful, delicious food that we ate and ate while we talked about Phyllis and what life would be like without her.
I remember the meal I ate one birthday at a restaurant called Zino’s. I was a little kid, but I wanted a double shrimp cocktail and a coke. For some reason my parents didn’t want me to have caffeine that night and instead I ate my shrimp with chocolate milk.
I remember the meal at my wedding, though the only thing I got to eat was a bite of corn before getting my dress bustled for my first dance with my new husband.
Growing up I remember eating meals with my family. Sitting at the dinner table together seemed like a sacred time. When we became a 2 television household the second TV was kept in the kitchen, but we were rarely ever allowed to watch it while we ate.
Despite the fact that most families today all eat together for dinner on a regular nightly basis, the idea of sharing a meal together has significance.
The two disciples on the road that Sunday were headed to a village called Emmaus. We know the name of one of them: Cleopas. It would make some sense that the other disciple with him was his wife and that they were headed home after what was an emotional weekend in Jerusalem.
They had been followers of Jesus and while they weren’t part of the twelve who had followed him most closely, they had followed closely enough to have been called disciples. As they traveled to their destination they were doing what many of us might do in a long car ride home from a funeral: they were processing the events that they had just been a part of.
While they walked another traveler fell into step with them and struck up a conversation. “Hey, what are you guys talking about?”
Luke says that they stood still, looking sad until Cleopas, somewhat astonished that this stranger would ask such a stupid question, tells him everything.
They begin to walk again and the man, who they don’t recognize, begins to talk to them about the scriptures and he does it in such a way that they seem opened up to them, revealed, understandable. What he says makes their hearts burn within them in a way that they had felt once before.
Time seems to go by quickly as they talk together and when they reach the place where they are going they ask this stranger to stay with them, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”
What happened at the meal that you remembered?
Did any of you remember the meal that we share together?
The disciples prepared a meal, but it was the stranger who served it. He took the bread, blessed it then broke it open for them and their eyes were opened and they saw Jesus.
That simple act of breaking bread helped them to see the resurrected Christ.
The meal that we share with one another is many things: a sign of forgiveness, a thanksgiving for what Jesus did for us, and it is an eye opening remembering.
The wine we drink and the bread we share are Christ truly present with us just as he was with the two disciples that day in Emmaus.
Each time we go to the table we travel to Emmaus where Jesus blesses and breaks open bread for us to see him with us.
As soon as they see him he disappears. It’s the one supernatural thing that happens in this story. But he doesn’t leave them empty and wanting. In fact, the very opposite is true. They are filled with the knowledge of the scriptures and their hearts are burning within them.
And that very hour they return to Jerusalem to tell the others what happened to them. They go even though it is now dark. They go even though they just got home. They go even though their dinner is only half eaten.
Each time we go to the table we are fed with the bread that is Christ. We hear the word of God, we are fed with the body of Christ, and then we are sent back to Jerusalem to share the story of the meal where we remembered that Jesus is with us.
Amen.
I want you to think for a moment about a meal you remember. What made it so memorable? Was it part of a celebration? Was it with family or friends? Did something terrible happen? Was there a fight? Was the food so good that your mouth begins to water when you think about it?
I remember the meal after my best friend’s mother’s funeral. Her parents were divorced, but had remained friends and even lived down the street from one another. Her father’s new wife hated to go to funerals and instead stayed at her mother’s house the entire day cooking and setting out tables and tables of food; wonderful, delicious food that we ate and ate while we talked about Phyllis and what life would be like without her.
I remember the meal I ate one birthday at a restaurant called Zino’s. I was a little kid, but I wanted a double shrimp cocktail and a coke. For some reason my parents didn’t want me to have caffeine that night and instead I ate my shrimp with chocolate milk.
I remember the meal at my wedding, though the only thing I got to eat was a bite of corn before getting my dress bustled for my first dance with my new husband.
Growing up I remember eating meals with my family. Sitting at the dinner table together seemed like a sacred time. When we became a 2 television household the second TV was kept in the kitchen, but we were rarely ever allowed to watch it while we ate.
Despite the fact that most families today all eat together for dinner on a regular nightly basis, the idea of sharing a meal together has significance.
The two disciples on the road that Sunday were headed to a village called Emmaus. We know the name of one of them: Cleopas. It would make some sense that the other disciple with him was his wife and that they were headed home after what was an emotional weekend in Jerusalem.
They had been followers of Jesus and while they weren’t part of the twelve who had followed him most closely, they had followed closely enough to have been called disciples. As they traveled to their destination they were doing what many of us might do in a long car ride home from a funeral: they were processing the events that they had just been a part of.
While they walked another traveler fell into step with them and struck up a conversation. “Hey, what are you guys talking about?”
Luke says that they stood still, looking sad until Cleopas, somewhat astonished that this stranger would ask such a stupid question, tells him everything.
They begin to walk again and the man, who they don’t recognize, begins to talk to them about the scriptures and he does it in such a way that they seem opened up to them, revealed, understandable. What he says makes their hearts burn within them in a way that they had felt once before.
Time seems to go by quickly as they talk together and when they reach the place where they are going they ask this stranger to stay with them, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”
What happened at the meal that you remembered?
Did any of you remember the meal that we share together?
The disciples prepared a meal, but it was the stranger who served it. He took the bread, blessed it then broke it open for them and their eyes were opened and they saw Jesus.
That simple act of breaking bread helped them to see the resurrected Christ.
The meal that we share with one another is many things: a sign of forgiveness, a thanksgiving for what Jesus did for us, and it is an eye opening remembering.
The wine we drink and the bread we share are Christ truly present with us just as he was with the two disciples that day in Emmaus.
Each time we go to the table we travel to Emmaus where Jesus blesses and breaks open bread for us to see him with us.
As soon as they see him he disappears. It’s the one supernatural thing that happens in this story. But he doesn’t leave them empty and wanting. In fact, the very opposite is true. They are filled with the knowledge of the scriptures and their hearts are burning within them.
And that very hour they return to Jerusalem to tell the others what happened to them. They go even though it is now dark. They go even though they just got home. They go even though their dinner is only half eaten.
Each time we go to the table we are fed with the bread that is Christ. We hear the word of God, we are fed with the body of Christ, and then we are sent back to Jerusalem to share the story of the meal where we remembered that Jesus is with us.
Amen.
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