Spring Bursting Out, Easter 2 , April 7, 2013 (full size gallery)
Easter 2 is sometimes known as "Low Sunday." The name "Low Sunday" is sometimes said to derive from its relative unimportance compared to the solemnities of Easter Day. Sometimes the first 8 days of Easter are called the "Octave of Easter." Traditionally, the newly-baptised would receive baptismal gowns that would be worn until this day.
In any case we only had 37 this Sunday. We welcome Catherine’s parents this weekend. They had been in NY this weekend at the "Women of Achievement" luncheon, honoring Catherine’s sister for the work she had done in the Moravian on school dressing day.
We also deviated from the Gospel by not highlighting "Doubtful Thomas", substituting the Road to Emmaus story also from Luke. It dominated both the cover of the bulletin and the sermon. Here are the scheduled readings.
Today could be marked as the first real Spring Sunday. The magnolia was in full blook and the sunny weather in the 60’s was closer to spring than it had been in several weeks.
We thank Elizabeth Heinbach for doing coffee hour "solo". It featured quiche, patries, cookies, fruit, various cheeses and hams.
Here is a timeline of the Post Resurrection sightings of Jesus. You can see the Road to Emmaus story, the focus of Easter 1, appears late on Resurrection Sunday:
Two people were going to Emmaus 7 miles from Jerusalem. We don’t know why . Were they fleeing ? Were they meeting others ? They obviously knew Jesus but did not recognize him along the away. We only know one of their names.
“But their eyes were kept from recognizing him”
The reality is the disciples were looking at a man who happened to be traveling along the same road they were. They did not see Jesus because they did not expect to see Jesus. And they felt isolated and possibly depressed because of the recent events. They were without hope. They were in flight from what they thought was reality.
Jesus comes along and begins walking with them, but there’s no indication given that they greeted him or even acknowledged His presence with them until they answer Jesus’ question—-what are you two talking about?
The two people walking to Emmaus made it clear that they had heard about the empty tomb and they knew the stories the women were telling about seeing angels—but instead of sticking around town to learn more details or to see if it were true—they were trudging their way towards Emmaus.
Their assumptions led them astray They assumed that death was irreversible and so when another man joined their company they had already pre-determined that it couldn’t be Jesus.
What these two were guilty of was believing only what they wanted to believe about the Messiah. The prophets had taught that God was going to send a Messiah—and they believed it. In fact they had hoped Jesus was the one. But you see, after Jesus had been killed they gave up on that idea—because it didn’t mesh with their thinking and it didn’t jive with their beliefs about what would happen to the Messiah and what the Messiah would do. Although the prophets had made it clear that the Messiah would suffer and be killed—they had chosen not to believe those things about the Messiah.
Jesus led them back. But Jesus was invited to stay with them and He accepted their invitation and joined them for supper. At one point in the meal Jesus took some bread, said a prayer of thanks, broke the bread and then passed some pieces to his hosts. In that moment something clicked inside and they realized that this wasn’t just any man they were sharing dinner with. Was is the way he prayed, the words, the bread ? We don’t know
Whatever the case, the end result was reality soaked in. This was Jesus, He was dead and now He’s alive again. They now knew the stories they’d heard about Jesus being raised from the dead were true. Because here He was with them. The moment they realized it, Jesus miraculously vanished from their sight.
The heartburn of despair had been replaced by a new burning faith. These two were re-energized. They might have been dragging on the way to Emmaus but they were ready to run back to Jerusalem. Before their faces were downcast. Even though it was late, very possibly dark by now—they immediately raced off to Jerusalem.
The lesson is not to prejudge Jesus and expect to find Jesus in the most unlikely places, such as war torn country like the Congo. Our work is to step up the plate and become like the two friends at the end of the lesson, energized, ready to move forward back to Jerusalem, rather than away. Always question assumptons.