I sat at my dining room table on Thursday morning, after the weekly sermon walk, ready to start writing. It’s my practice to write at home as the church is noisy, normally.
My mind was a whirl: Psalm 116: I walk before Yahweh in the land of the living, verse 9: Luke 24: The Road to Emmaus and Jesus breaks the bread. Such a familiar story, what else is there to say? Death surrounds us in this pandemic, what does resurrection mean? I had just finished reading
Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life
Eugene Peterson; originally published in 2006, then again in 2020, a year after his death, with a new forward written by Eric E. Peterson, one of Eugene’s sons.
This bold claim: quote, “For the Christian, every meal derives from and extends the Eucharistic meal into our daily eating and drinking, tables at which the risen Lord is present as host.“ unquote
What? Every meal? Oh dear. In our household there are 3 or 4 questions asked each night: talking dinner, or reading dinner, or TV dinner and now with the weather getting better, or porch dinner? The first and the last may be, may be could fit Eugene’s criteria, but the middle two? Reading and especially TV? I don’t think so. I don’t think Jesus hosted our meal on Wednesday night as we watched Kim’s Convenience on Netflix.
Anyway, just then, who shows up on my front porch?
Josh, my friend without a home. As he placed his order for bacon, scrambled eggs and toast, I chuckled to myself. “Hmmm, Eucharistic Meal, uh? Cooking with Jesus as the host?” I asked a prayer of blessing for Josh’s well being privately, served him and listened to the report of his daily life—inside a motel room until the end of May. He chatted quite a bit for him, some about his mental struggles with hearing voices, paranoid about the people who live on either side of him. His lungs gone bad from smoking, “but it keeps me sane” he said, with a smile.
The Country of Salvation
My challenge to you? As you plan, prepare, bless and serve your Sunday meal today, be it only to yourself, or your shelter-in-place family, or maybe a bigger dinner via Zoom, imagine it as an extension of this first communion of Jesus, Cleopas and his companion, his wife. Take note: Emmaus can hardly be found on a map, its out of the way location disguises this powerful resurrection presentation. Recognize your own mixed emotions—joy at gathering, grief for the world, ignorant of the presence of Christ seated at the head of your table.
We know this. We live in the land of the living, but its no vacation paradise. Rather its a pandemic with rising fear, deepening despair, holding hope as it all slips away. This is the land we are to occupy with Christ’s resurrection at the forefront of our imaginations.
For resurrection is not about escape to some vague skyward structure with daisies and sunlight all the time. It is the work of Sabbath - of the new creation being shaped and formed in us by God. The original Adamic lump of clay received its life by the breath of the Holy. Jesus breathed on his disciples, this same breath. We are given breath by this same Spirit. The work is not for our benefit, to make us feel good about ourselves. It is God’s handiwork, God who brings to completion that which began at our baptism. It is rooted in Jesus rising from the dead, now the 8th day of creation. It is the enormous vision of shalom for the whole cosmos, every living thing, every dead thing, every thing will be at peace.
We catch glimmers of this holy other world when we are able to engage our sense of wonder. To stand back in humble adoration and say, “My Lord and My God” like Thomas and Mary Magdalene, as they notice His deep wounds. We claim, “I believe in the resurrection of the body...” in our Apostolic Creed. It is the Body of Christ, corporately, but the scandal of this particularity is we mean Jesus, born of a Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried,He descended into hell, and on the 3rd day, is alive. He’s alive. He is risen. Indeed. In some way his corporeal existence is brought into the God-head where He prays for us, loves us, holds us before the Father. It is Jesus’ Spirit that we receive to sustain us until that day.
The Country of Salvation
It is a counter-culture stance, as its a plural, we, rather than something based in my individualistic striving for competence and technical know how. Our culture produces what Peterson calls, quote, ‘the ropes of Sheol’ that tie around our ankles, binding us to the Devil”. Unquote. Empire I call it. Conformity, idolatry, betrayal form the scaffolding of this deathly life. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the unbinding of humanity, like Lazarus.
He doesn’t come along to unbelievers, pop up like a ghost, and shout, “Boo, its me!” To scare them into believing. Jesus engages His disciples in deep and rich conversation, based in Scripture, their 3 years of daily life, their gathering as a community of Resurrection friends.
They had hoped He was the one to set Israel free. They had been shaped and formed by Torah, to honor the Sabbath, to keep it holy, the 10 rules, Passover in Jerusalem every year. The story of the Exodus primary - ‘why is this night unlike any other?’ They were chosen by God. They lived under oppression, the Roman Empire bearing down on them to conform, to kneel at their gods & idols, to betray the Covenant of Abraham and Sarah. Freedom etched deeply in their longing for new life. As they walked along the weight of defeat was heavy.
Jesus’ interpretive words gathered into a lecture we all want to hear - how all of Scripture points to Himself as Messiah, Savior, Son of God, here to redeem the sins of the world. His death is not the end, no. It is the mysterious pathway God chooses to raise up eternal life—death and defeat—slavery in Egypt, exile to renewed Israel, now a homeland in Jesus’ name, The Country of Salvation.
To live fully in this new country we must participate in the practice of resurrection. It is not like practicing the piano or updating your golf swing. Rather it is entering into a new world that is first shaped by creation - wonder, imagination, creativity- then marred by sin and depravity - only to be redeemed by the final sacrifice of the Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. It is akin to a doctor who takes up the practice of medicine, its healing arts or a teacher who takes up the practice of education. It is an encompassing view of life that allows for wonder, creativity and mystery. It takes hold of us via the Holy Spirit and reshapes us into the Body of Christ. It includes a sight line that sees the whole thing: all the pain and sorrow and brokenness and hatred in the world, yet is able to see just a bit farther, some kind of cross-beamed light. It is not the ways of the world, it is the ways of eternal life. This grace began on that road to Emmaus and the church has participated in it, week in and week out, with sacraments and song, Word preached and prayed, hands held and lifted up until today. Perhaps two of you will say, “were not our hearts burning within us when He was talking with us and scripture was opened to us?”
The Country of Salvation. Amen