Welcome to our Worship on the third Sunday of Easter. Our Parish Eucharist is at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and Revd Richard Hawkins will be preaching and presiding. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn this morning is "Jesus Stand Among Us & Here Is Bread"
Today's Gospel
Luke 24:36-48
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Reflection
"While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?'" (Luke 24:41)
Everyone has gestures special to them, those distinctive little things that they alone do: the raising of an eyebrow when sceptical; holding a coffee cup in a particular way; beginning a question with a certain tilt of the head. These things can be the stuff of both love and irritation, but actually most of them are the kinds of things that you don't really notice on a day-to-day basis.
It’s often only when you haven't seen a person for some time that you suddenly become aware of the little things that they do. Or they catch you by stealth when you're thinking about something else; maybe you are sitting quietly somewhere and you can hear someone approach; they suddenly cough in a certain way, and you know instantly who it is. Everyone has these gestures: the seasoning - the salt and pepper - of the way we express ourselves in the world, but it takes someone else really close to us to know and see them.
Perhaps, with their senses overworked after their post-crucifixion trauma, it was just such a gesture that woke the disciples up finally to the presence of Jesus in their midst. These bedraggled and devastated disciples had been through emotional hell, after all. Their beloved friend, the one who had filled their heads and hearts with such love, such hope of a new world and a new way of life, had been tortured and killed. We can only imagine their helplessness and grief, not to mention regret, failure and fear.
And then there had been these strange incidents. In the verses just preceding the ones we read today, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James, along with a few others, had reported finding an angel in the empty tomb, who announced that Jesus was alive - and more than that, they received a celestial lecture that this was entirely what they should have expected all along.
Peter had been to see for himself, but couldn't understand what had happened. And then there was this strange appearance to Cleopas and his compatriot on the road to Emmaus. There again they receive a lecture about their failure to understand that all these horrible events had to happen.
But the funny thing is - or perhaps it is not so funny, just normal human behaviour - none of these things seemed to really convince them. In the end it was not the appearances of angels that brought it home, nor the lectures, nor even the presence of Jesus himself. This all seemed to terrify and confuse them.
It was very simple gestures that really identified Jesus for them, that made the Messiah real. In our reading today, it was when he asked for and ate a bit of fish. On the road to Emmaus it was the breaking of bread. Perhaps it was because ghosts don't eat food, but perhaps it was because they were so close to Jesus that they instantly saw that the way he took food was quintessentially him. Suddenly, after all the drama, this simple gesture seems to open the disciples' understanding, and the mission of the Church can begin.
And this mission, of course, is one that we continue. It is a huge task and a daunting one and we spend a lot of time and energy talking ourselves into it. But perhaps we're barking up the wrong tree. The disciples were motivated to carry on their task not by lectures and angelic appearances but by a moment of true recognition brought about by the simplest of gestures. So perhaps we should be looking for the simplest, most commonplace things that will identify God to us. What they will be we don't know, but it's a good reason be attentive, because you don't know when this might happen and we are often so busy.
One of the messages of Easter is the opening of the eyes: the moment of true recognition that enables the beginning of the rest of the story. It is this we are looking for - the gesture that opens our eyes and allows us to claim Christ for our own. That makes us say, "This is the one!" "This is Christ to me!" Whatever it is that brings that moment, it is this that will pave the way forward to a new life and the beginning of the rest of our own story. It's a message of good news that beats the abundance of egg-shaped chocolate any day.
Our Prayers
Loving Father,
we thank you for the sacrifice your son made for us
to redeem the sins of us all.
Open our eyes to your presence in our lives,
Help us to recognise you in the day-to-day activities we experience
And the everyday wonders of the world.
From a simple blade of grass and the song of the birds,
For the love of our friends and family
And the successes in our lives, be them great or small.
Let us be thankful and proclaim the good news
That, "This is Christ to me!"
Amen
Our final hymn this morning is "The Strife Is O'er"
