{"id":1027,"date":"2020-04-29T16:49:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T20:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2020-04-29T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T20:50:01","slug":"break-thou-the-bread-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/29\/break-thou-the-bread-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Break Thou the Bread of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Break Thou the Bread of Life<\/h1>\n

\nA sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<\/h2>\n

by Rev. James E. Eaton, Pastor \u2022 \u00a9 2020 All Rights Reserved<\/h2>\n

\nThird Sunday in Easter\/A \u2022 April 26, 2020<\/h2>\n

\nLuke 24:13-25<\/a><\/h3>\n

\nWatch the Sermon on Youtube<\/a><\/h3>\n

A man is traveling, all alone. He happens to be walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus but he could be traveling anywhere, any time. He could be a poor man in a bus terminal: hard seats, harsh lights and a scratchy PA system. Over there, a family is rapidly speaking in a language he doesn\u2019t understand. Down the row, an old man is staring straight ahead. Loud, angry music and choking bus exhaust come in every time the door opens and a woman is arguing over the price of a ticket to Omaha with the agent. He could be a rich man waiting in an airport terminal, sitting at a bar with a drink he isn\u2019t really drinking in front of him. Perhaps his shirt collar is irritating his neck and as he tries to adjust it he thinks he really needs to lose a little weight. Maybe he\u2019s lost in thought about a meeting later in the day or maybe he\u2019s thinking that he wished he had something sweet like he meant to his wife instead of just \u201cSee you Thursday I think\u201d when he left this morning.<\/p>\n

A man is traveling, all alone. And on the way he bumps against two people ahead of him. You know how this happens? Traveling down the grocery store aisle, a small old woman stops and you realize she needs help reaching something on a high shelf. Maybe you\u2019re standing in a line and just to pass the time you smile at a child\u2019s antics or talk to a stranger.<\/p>\n

A man is traveling, all alone, and he comes upon two other men traveling; he walks into a conversation. They\u2019re discussing the news over the weekend, arguing about the meaning of the death of Jesus. They don\u2019t know the man traveling alone but as strangers on the same trajectory do, they include him in the conversation. He\u2019s trying to catch the sense of it and he asks them what they\u2019re discussing.<\/p>\n

Now there are two sorts of people in the world: those who keep up with the news and those who don\u2019t. Newsy people turn on CNN when they come home, newsy people watch six o\u2019clock and the eleven o\u2019clock news both and read the paper. Newsy people are always amazed when they run into the other sort. They are newsy guys so when he asks, they answer with some combination of smugness and incredulity, \u201cAre you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn\u2019t know what happened in Jerusalem this weekend?\u201d. He doesn\u2019t so they fill him in, they explain that Jesus of Nazareth was a mighty prophet who was put to death over the weekend by the power structure.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Sharing Together<\/h3>\n

They tell him their hopes: that he would redeem Israel. I imagine they tell him their fear as well, at least their eyes tell him, and the fact that they\u2019re putting as much distance between themselves and Jerusalem as they can. They fear that the same thing could happen to them, of course, but perhaps even more, they fear that the death of Jesus is the death of hope. They tell him about the women who found an empty tomb. But their steps speak too and tell him that though they once believed Jesus, they have used up their hope and don\u2019t have any left for this strange report from the women at the tomb. After all, they are on their way away from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The stranger holds up his end of the conversation. Perhaps to their amazement, once he\u2019s got the gist of it, he has a lot to say. He tells them they\u2019re foolish and he speaks about their faint hearts, the same faint hearts that have set them on the path out of Jerusalem, off to Emmaus. It turns out that he may not know much about the news but he has a lot to say about Moses and the other prophets.<\/p>\n

<\/a>God\u2019s Powerful Love<\/h3>\n

What does he tell them? No one knows, exactly. But I think he must have told them this: God\u2019s love is so wonderful, so powerful, so unlimited, it can\u2019t be stopped by the City Council any more than the tide. That\u2019s what you get when you start reading Moses and the prophets: over and over again they tell the story of how God loved and loved beyond loving, even when God\u2019s people were faithless and mean and small spirited. There\u2019s Moses wailing about the whining of the people, and God calmly ordering up manna and quail; there\u2019s Hosea talking about the sins of the people and God using the tender language of mother love to ask, \u201cHow can I give you up?\u201d There\u2019s Isaiah promising a new covenant and Jeremiah proclaiming a new day. There\u2019s Jonah sitting on a hill side smug and waiting for God to blast a bunch of Gentile Ninevites and complaining because when God has mercy and grants a stay of execution.<\/p>\n

A man is traveling, all alone, and he talks to two other men who are also lonely, because fear is a lonely business. We hope together but we\u2019re each frightened in our own way. All day long they talk about Jesus and the prophets and things that Jesus did and said and Moses and the love of God until it\u2019s getting near sunset. Now the roads out of Jerusalem are dangerous after dark and so, though the man who is traveling all alone doesn\u2019t have a reservation, the two he\u2019s met ask him to stay with them, tell him don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll get the motel to set up a trundle bed or something, just stay with us, walk with us tomorrow.<\/p>\n

That evening after they freshen up they all get together for supper. A simple meal: some bread, some wine. They\u2019ve been talking about Jesus all day and I suppose that they must have told the man who is traveling all alone about how Jesus would invite strangers and the lonely to his table, how he would bless the bread and break it, how he would give thanks and pour everyone some wine. And suddenly as the man who was traveling all alone is doing just these very things their eyes are opened and they see something they\u2019ve missed all day long: Jesus is risen; Jesus has been with them all along.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Who Is The Man?<\/h3>\n

Now you listened carefully, I\u2019m sure, to the story when I read it, so you knew it was Jesus all along. We all snicker a little at these silly people. We want to yell when they are talking on the road, \u201cHey, don\u2019t you know you\u2019re talking to Jesus?\u201d. Some of us are thinking: \u201cIdiots!\u201d. Every year in Bible class someone asks, \u201cWhy don\u2019t they recognize him? Did he look different?\u201d I suppose death does change a person.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not why they don\u2019t recognize him. I\u2019m not at all certain that the man on the road with them has the earthly form of Jesus.<\/p>\n

I think the real clue to this text is back where Jesus tells the story of people on Judgment Day. Remember them? He gathers a group of folks and says about the kingdom: \u201cYou\u2019re in! When I was hungry you fed me, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was imprisoned you visited me!\u201d and they look at each other in amazement and say, \u201cWhen did we see you in such a bad way, Lord?\u201d He answers, \u201cWhen you did it for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t recognize Jesus; they simply acted as Jesus would have acted, they acted as love instructed them to act. And the same is true here. These men have experienced the Risen Christ by welcoming someone, by feeding him, by sharing the cup of the new covenant with him. The man traveling all alone disappears; he becomes a part of a community. Together, they have learned to embrace new selves. Together, they have become the Body of Christ because they recognized Christ in their midst: in each other. \u201cBreak thou the bread of life, dear Lord to me,\u201d we sing; we forget that in the process, we\u2019re meant to recognize Jesus present.<\/p>\n

Now, I used to think this meant social action\u2014give out food, clothes, fuel, get the government to do the same. I still think those are good things to do. But I\u2019ve come to believe there is something deeper, something more wonderful. We can give stuff out to strangers but what God really hopes is that we will become a blessing to the people where we are, that we will do what God does, which is to make up little communities of care.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Communities of Care<\/h3>\n

That seems to be how God works. When God set out to save the world, for example, God did not create a new program, offer a policy proposal or hold an election, God went and whispered to Abram: \u201cCome be a blessing\u201d. When God gets to the next act and decides to come into the world, there\u2019s no processional, no entourage and no advance at all, just a baby and a family. And even when Jesus is on the cross, he can\u2019t help making one more family; among his last words, he turns to his mom and says, \u201cHere\u2019s your son\u201d, to a disciple and says, \u201cTreat her like your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes: even on the cross Jesus was making connections. That\u2019s what happens in this story: strangers meet, share a conversation and then communion and discover he\u2019s present and they are connected after all. So a bit of social action will not, I think, fulfill his hope for us. What he really hopes is that we will discover him in our midst, in each other. And, that by coming together, we will come to him. Anne Lamott says in Traveling Mercies,<\/p>\n

When I was at the end of my rope, the people at St. Andrew tied a knot in it for me and helped me hold on. The church became my home in the old meaning of home\u2014that it\u2019s where, when you show up, they have to let you in. They let me in. They even said, \u201cYou come back now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the resurrection means to me. The resurrection is what happens when we see Jesus walking, talking and realize he\u2019s right next to us. The resurrection happens when we take care of each other the way we would take care of him. The resurrection happens when we recognize Jesus.<\/p>\n

Now, you can\u2019t get this on your own schedule and you can\u2019t get it being a consumer. I mean: if you come to church the way you go to the grocery store, picking things off the shelves and then figuring you did your bit if you pay. It\u2019s not hard to feel sorry for strangers but it\u2019s very difficult to see Jesus in the people nearby because they are so annoying. They fail in the same way over and over. They don\u2019t take good advice. They don\u2019t follow directions. It\u2019s so easy to see how wrong they are and it\u2019s satisfying in a way too, until somebody brings up that darn proverb of Jesus about being able to see the flyspeck in your brother\u2019s eye but not the log in your own.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Fixed for Blessing<\/h3>\n

But there\u2019s a reason we are here together and the reason is to get fixed up so we can be the kind of people God hoped we\u2019d become. We don\u2019t start out that way and along the way, we tend to wander off the path and find all kinds of ways to avoid our true identity. I\u2019m not going to catalog all the ways we go bad because the ones that don\u2019t affect you personally would just make you smug and the ones that did would make you mad that I\u2019d mentioned them. The important point isn\u2019t that we make mistakes, it\u2019s that when we do, God is right there trying to clean up the mess and put us back together.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in this story too. Remember where the guys are going when the stranger first meets them? They\u2019re walking away from Jerusalem; they are, from the standpoint of Christians, going the wrong way. But what does Jesus do? He walks with them. He goes the wrong way in order to bring them around. He hangs in there, hangs out, until they figure it out. He\u2019s willing to go the wrong way round, to get to the right place.<\/p>\n

What about us? Where\u2019s Jesus here? Look around: take a very good look. Because the whole thrust of this story is that he is right here, waiting to be discovered. He will be discovered when we take up our vocation to care the way he does. A playwright once said, \u201cMan is born broken. He lives by mending. God\u2019s grace is glue.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we take up the vocation of mending each other\u2019s hopes and lives, comforting each other\u2019s fears and hurts, I believe we will see Jesus, I believe we will see him right here and it won\u2019t matter that we went the wrong way round because where he is will be our home and our heaven. It\u2019s just what he said: \u201cLo, I am with you always.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Break Thou the Bread of Life A sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY by Rev. James E. Eaton, Pastor \u2022 \u00a9 2020 All Rights Reserved Third Sunday in Easter\/A \u2022 April 26, 2020 Luke 24:13-25 Watch the Sermon on Youtube A man is traveling, all alone. He happens to be walking from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,3,69],"tags":[228,229,33],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter","category-sermon","category-year-a","tag-easter-3a","tag-luke-2413-25","tag-resurrection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1034,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}