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Sermon
Bill Day
Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen's, Newport PA
April 15, 2018
Third Sunday of Easter
//lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Easter/BEaster3_RCL.html
Have you anything here to eat? When looking about for inspiration for this sermon I kept coming across references to food and meals.
What is it about food and our connection to it? We know we need to eat in order to thrive. We eat when we’re hungry, to satisfy a physical need. Sometimes we eat when we’re not hungry, usually to satisfy an emotional need. But many times, the main reason we eat is because we are enjoying the company of others. If there is a celebration at hand, it is best accomplished with food. If there is a meeting to go to, snacks make it go more smoothly. If there is money to be solicited, having something to eat makes it easier to convince people to donate. Meals can also come to represent cultural and ethnic needs. Think about favorite foods and meals connected to family gatherings, Sunday dinner, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and any other occasion where food is central. Often a day is planned around our need to eat. An early breakfast for an early start to the day and lunch and dinner to follow at the appropriate time which reminds me of an instance where a three-meal day can, for those more fortunate, seem arbitrary yet ingrained.
My extended family was enjoying a vacation at Disney World and the meals were at once overwhelming and yes-expensive. The lodge where we were staying had a breakfast which could only be described as ridiculous-enough food to last all day. The parents decided that 3 meals a day were unnecessary So, we cut down to 2 on the sly. Things went well for a day or two. Then, as we walking on the second or third day my oldest stopped dead and asked of no one in particular- “Hey! Did I miss a meal???” And the teenage years were still on the horizon! How many times a day in how many kitchens across the land do children, young and old, tall and small, just stand there and demand to know, "What is there to eat? "
Yes-we are creatures of habit and eating is necessary, sometimes emotional, and often communal. Have you noticed the many times Jesus used meals to make a point? Of the post-Easter stories about the resurrected Jesus that are centered on meals? Just before the text from Luke in today’s reading is the passage describing the walk to Emmaus where Jesus was, at first unrecognized then invited to stay as the day was late where, at table, “opened their eyes when he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them”. Upon recognizing him he vanished from their sight. The two promptly returned to Jerusalem where they related their story to the eleven and their companions. It was at this point that the events of today’s reading begin with Jesus appearing saying “peace be with you”. Being startled he says “why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts”. By this point you could ask what is it going to take to finally convince them of the power of the resurrection? Then he asks “have you Anything here to eat”. That piece of broiled fish which he ate in their presence went a long way in getting them across the line.
Through the different accounts of the disciples realizing Jesus’ presence in the upper room -- without Thomas, then with Thomas present, and then again on the road to Emmaus -- we understand how they came to believe. Their witness to these events was written down so that we might believe in and witness to the incredible gift in Jesus -- and in our own lives as God’s children --without the need to see for ourselves.
As the service moves closer to the Eucharist I encourage you to think metaphorically of the aisle as your very own road to Emmaus remembering the words of the collect “O God whose blessed Son made himself known in the breaking of the bread: open the eyes of our faith that we may behold him in all his redeeming work”. Amen
