Sunday Readings: Acts 3.13-15,17-19; 1 John 2.1-5; Luke 24.35-48
The two disciples returned to Jerusalem and explained to the eleven and those gathered with them what had happened on the road to Emmaus and how Jesus was known to them in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. Then Jesus said to them “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” – Luke 24.36-39
Jesus crucifixion ends the story his disciples thought they were living by following him. His resurrection begins a new story. It is a new day of creation, an eighth day. Sunday’s gospel is the third of Luke’s Easter stories. The whole company of Jesus’ followers have assembled. The Eleven are there, including the amazed Peter, who went to see the tomb for himself after Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James reported their experience. The women are there, their report no longer an idle tale. In the midst of sharing their experience, Jesus appears, greeting the community with peace and stretching their capacity to take him his presence.
Our time also calls for recalibrating who God is. Many disaffiliate from institution religion, some because of Church scandals, other because doctrines seem antiquated. Some find fresh insights in evolution that God’s creative love unfolds in the cosmos dynamically from inanimate to living and conscious beings. God addresses us as much from the future as from the past, luring us toward all we can become.
When have you experience Jesus present in the midst of the Christian community with whom you open the scriptures and break bread? How Easter centered is the story that you tell about Jesus?