Our Gospel opens today right after the two disciples
return from the Emmaus road encounter and everyone is talking about what
happened in how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread when he
suddenly appears in the room.
The experience is unexpected and terrifying for they
think they are seeing a ghost. Yet he
asks them “Why are you afraid?” He
basically explains to them this is what I have been talking about all along…if
you were paying attention. I mean I told
you “that everything ever written about me in the law from Moses, the Prophets,
and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) Then Christ opens their minds
for so they can finally see and understand all that was written about the
Messiah.
Rev. Michael Marsh states “It’s not enough that the
tomb is empty. It’s not enough to proclaim, “Christ is risen!” It’s not enough
to believe in the resurrection. At some point we have to move from the event of
the resurrection to experiencing the resurrection. Experiencing resurrected
life begins with recognizing the risen Christ among us. That is the gift of
Easter and it is also the difficulty and challenge described in today’s
gospel.”[1]
The problem here is the actual sudden appearance of
Christ in the room. This is what I call
a Breaking in. Christ/God is constantly
breaking in, breaking into the everyday experience of normal people. Basically that is what much of the Old
Testament is about. God walks in the
Garden of Eden. God shows up in Josephs
Dreams. God appears in a burning
Bush. God comes as a still small voice
to Elijah.
So what is the shift here? What is the Difference? There is the obvious shift in that God has
taken on the Mantle of Humanity to live and experience all we experience. God walked among people for 33 years and
offered wisdom and counseling and example of how we should live. God was and is among us.
Reverend Marsh goes on to state “With Jesus’
resurrection, however, God shatters human categories of who God is, where God’s
life and energy are to be found, and how God works in this world. Resurrected
life can never be comprehended, contained, or controlled by human thought or
understanding. Jesus’ resurrection compels us to step outside our usual human
understandings of reality and enter into the divine reality.”[2]
The invitation here is for us to participate in the life of Christ as Christ
participates in our own.
This isn’t a God in heaven breaking in and then
leaving us again to our own devices.
This is a living God who has experienced our experiences and as we live
in Christ and Christ lives in us so are our own experience is God’s experienc.
“The resurrected life of Christ, it seems, is revealed in and through the
created order. It is not, however, bound by the created order. Rather, the resurrected
body and life of Christ unite the visible and invisible, matter and spirit,
humanity and divinity. On the one hand Jesus has a real body. On the other hand
it is not subject to the natural laws of time and space. It’s not one or the
other. It’s both. It is a new and different reality.”[3]
This newness, this different reality is a unique and bold relationship between
God and man and no longer is God some far off in heaven judge watching over
creation like a man contemplates a chess board deciding what his next strategic
move will be.
This is now a God that we have a relationship
with. This is a God we have permission
to seek out. This is a God who invites
us into a loving relationship. To live
as a people of the resurrection and yet we are often blind to that. We often have other things and other ways
blocking our vision. We are a people of
the world and cling to the earthiness as much as possible. We actually fight the invitation to see
ourselves as beloved children of the resurrection. Reverend Marsh refers to
this as “being bound to the created order”.
You see “the degree to which we have allowed
ourselves to be bound by the created order is the degree to which are unable to
see resurrected life and holiness in this world. We bind ourselves through our
fears, our sorrows and losses, our runaway thoughts and distractions, our
attachments and addictions to things, people, and even beliefs. Sometimes it’s
our unwillingness to allow or trust God to grow and change us. In binding
ourselves to the created order we lose recognition of and the ability to live
in the sacred. That’s the very opposite of resurrected life.”[4]
In other words in the beginning there was light and
dark and so on. Then there were the Law
and the Prophets. In the world in which
Christ and his followers lived in there was a hierarchy and an expected order
to life and people and things. But God as Christ broke through all that so we
could live better stronger lives in a beloved relationship with God. Part of
that beloved relationship is recognizing that God is with us, Literally Emmanuel.
“The resurrected life of Christ reveals that all
creation and every one of us are filled with God, holiness, divinity. Nothing
can bind or supersede the grace that is given us through resurrection:
unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness, and unconditional life.”[5] We are called into experience more than just
God breaking in but a resurrected Christ.
This resurrected Christ is with us day in and day out, revealing God’s
grace to us, all we need to do is look and see, touch and feel, and then
know….know that God is here.
The Gospel says that Christ opened their minds to
understand the scriptures. “He said to them ‘this is what is written: the
Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and a change of
heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name.”(Luke
24:46) Living life in the resurrected Christ we have a changed heart and
life. We live to proclaim that there is
nothing you can do to separate you from the love of God. In the resurrected life there is nothing but
forgiveness, if, if we allow ourselves to feel, to learn, to know the
resurrected Christ.
“Christ our God longs and desires to open our minds
to understand the scriptures, to understand all that has been written, spoken,
and revealed about him in whatever form that happens and has happened. That’s
what Jesus did for the disciples and it’s what he does for us. This is not an
academic or intellectual understanding. That the disciples are witnesses does
not mean they now have all the answers. It means they now have the life Jesus
wants to give them. They are witnesses based not on what they know, but on who
they are, how they live, and their relationship with the risen Christ.”[6]
I have said the secret to being a Christian starts
with telling the story. This is what we
do as a congregation every Sunday. We
tell the story as it is written. But
there is a second part of that story, the second part of the story of the
resurrected Christ is you. How you live
the resurrected life, how you seek out and Find Christ in your day to day life
and allow that to manifest in this world and that, as Paul Harvey would say, is
the rest of the story.
So the challenge before us is to seek out the Christ
that doesn’t just break into our lives but is with us every day. We are not to look to a God that is there to
offer us an answer to a prayer, or a miracle on a special occasion but to see
and live out the resurrected Christ in our daily lives. So where is the
resurrected Christ in our daily lives?
Where are some of the places it is easy to see a vibrant God in our
lives?
Reverend Marsh goes on to say “I don’t know how this
happens. I can’t give you a set of instructions or a to-do list. That would be
like giving you a set of instructions on how to fall in love. The resurrected
life is not acquired it is received. It happens when we risk unbinding
ourselves from the usual ways of seeing, living, and relating. This is not a
rejection of the natural order. It is allowing the natural order to open to and
reveal something more. That’s what happened for the disciples with Jesus’ hands
and feet, with his flesh and bones, and the broiled fish. They saw and
recognized something about Jesus and in so doing they saw and recognized
something about themselves; holiness. It happens for us too.”[7]
I think this may be where I disagree with Reverend
Marsh…you see there are a set of instructions, there always has been. Through Christ’s teachings and way of being
we get a foundation. Christ shows us how
to live, how to pray, how to eat and how to love. Yes I said Eat, Pray, Love! No I do not mean
the movie, I mean this is the example of how to live a resurrected life as it
is shown in the way Christ walked on this Earth.
I want you to “Think about a time in your life when
you lost track of time. I don’t mean you forgot what time it was, but that you
were so awake, so present, that you entered a new world. Think about a time
when life seemed more real than it ever had and you touched or tasted life in a
way like never before. Recall a moment when your heart opened, softened, and
you knew you were somehow different. Remember that day when you sensed
something new was being offered you; possibilities that you did not create for
yourself. They just opened up. Reflect on that moment when you realized that
you were ok and could again start to live. Those are the moments when Christ
opens our minds to understand. They are moments of awe and wonder that leave us
in sacred silence. They fill our eyes with tears. We weep, not from sorrow or
pain, but the water of new life. They are the moments in which we say, “I never
want this to end. I don’t want to leave this place.”[8] Oh
what a blessing.
One of the desert Fathers, Markios the Great,
believes that when we are with the resurrected Christ we, ourselves become that
self-same light in the world. He says; “If you have become the throne of God,
if the heavenly charioteer has ascended within you and your soul has become a
single spiritual eye and has become completely luminous, and if you have been
clothed in light ineffable and fed from spiritual delights and drunk from
living water, and all your inner life has been tested and proven in hope, then
all the truth you have started to live the eternal life, even in this present
age, and your soul has found its rest in God.”[9]
You see what he is saying is when we make that
connection with the pure light, or touch that pure moment when we are so aware
of everything around us. In those
moments where time seems to stand still and we experience everything as a
glorious lighted moment of God. “In each of those moments the one who is fully
alive and risen, the Christ, is calling us to see and recognize him, to join
him, and to discover our new life. This is the authentic self we long to
become, the self that we already are, and the self we are becoming. This is
resurrected life.”[10]
In the resurrected life, in living in the here and
now and trying to be fully human, fully alive in the way that Christ was, we
become a light in the world. You are the
light of the world. When you rest and
live in God it is God that is seen through you.
You are the face, hands, and feet of Christ in the world. Nothing new
you have heard it here before. This
isn’t about something new; it is about allowing Christ to open our Minds that you
may see and may understand.
To quote the desert father again; “When the soul
becomes totally radiant and covered in ineffable beauty of the glory of the
light of Christ, it comes to share in the very life of the divine Spirit to
such perfection that it is changed into the very chamber and throne of God.”[11]
We are invited and we do share in the very life of Christ a life that lives
here today just as real, just as present to us as it was to the disciples over
2000 years ago.
We just have to take the time, make the time to
practice seeing, to practice hearing God now today. How this is done is different for each one of
us. Some people like contemplation in action.
Some find it through studying the scriptures. Others find it through expressions of song,
music and dance. I cannot tell you any one way is best but, what I can tell you
is that you must seek out and find your way.
Where is your secluded room? Where is your place that Christ is going to
pop in on you? Do you take time to
reflect and see where you might have seen Jesus today? Do you ever stop and just pause in the awe
and wonder of being alive?
We have the story of Christ and the apostles. We have the writings of the apostles. We have the writings and reflections of the
desert Mothers and Fathers. We have
great teachers like Henri Nouwen, James Finley, or Thich Nhat Hanh. You need to find your own path.
There are retreat centers surrounding the Los
Angeles basin that offer days of silence or opportunities to stop and be with
God in prayer through Guided retreats. There are centers that offer classes in
painting sculpture or weaving. I asked
you the other week do you play and pray?
There are professional spiritual companions who will talk with you and
walk with you and help you discover how Christ is walking with you today.
In todays centering prayer/song we heard Eddie
Vetters sing:
I
feel part of the universe...
open
up to meet me
my
emotion so submerged...
broken
down to kneeling
what's
listening?... voices they care...
had
to somehow greet myself... read myself
heard
vibrations within my cells... in my cells
Singin'
laaa...
my
love is saved for the universe...
see
me now I'm bursting
on
one planet so many turns...
different
worlds
singin'
laaa...
fill
my heart with discipline...
put
there for the teaching
in
my head see clouds of stairs...
help
me as I'm reaching
the
future's paved... with better days
The future is paved with better days, not because
Christ died but because Christ Lives. So I challenge you to leave here today
and pay attention to the world around you.
Listen for Gods still small voice.
How is God calling you into a deeper life, a richer life, a resurrected
life? Once you find it, where will it
lead you? I look forward to hearing the
rest of the story from you. Amen!
[1] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[2] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[3] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[4] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[5] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[6] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015, http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[7] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[8] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[9] John Anthony
McGuckin, The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul's ascent,
from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives (Boston,
Mass: Shambhala, 2003), Digital eBook.
[10] Michael K.
Marsh, “You are Witnesses” – A Sermon on Luke 24:36-48; Easter 3B, April 22,
2012, accessed April 13, 2015,
http://interruptingthesilence.com/2012/04/22/you-are-witnesses-a-sermon-on-luke-2436-48-easter-3b/.
[11] McGuckin, The
Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul's ascent, from the Desert
Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives.
