Wider Road and Table

Sermon by: Rev. Mary Alice Mulligan, Ph.D.

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35

Last Sunday, we heard Rev. Dave tell us about appearances of Jesus reported in the Gospel of John. The first one on the evening of Easter and the other a week later. Today we switch over to the Gospel of Luke to hear about another appearance still on Easter evening. If we listen carefully, we’ll hear two sort-of-shaky followers of Jesus, going home after witnessing the horrors of the Crucifixion and then hearing the odd report from certain women that the tomb was empty. Their dejection is replaced by joy when the stranger they have welcomed into their home, breaks the bread. They realize he is none other than the Risen Christ. Their immediate response is to return to the Jesus community in Jerusalem. Please stop here and read Luke 24: 13-52.

Paintings of the Resurrected Christ almost always give a clue that Jesus is no longer regular flesh and blood. If the three characters are walking the road, one of them seems to be floating slightly. Or at the table, Cleopas and his partner look absolutely normal, but the artist puts a glow around the head of the one holding the bread. In resurrection paintings, we can always tell who is Jesus. But wouldn’t it be great to have a painting depicting the change in the followers after they encounter the Resurrected Christ? Think of the couple from Emmaus. They are not major characters in the Gospel story. They are not Peter or Mary Magdalene or John the Baptizer. They are previously unheard-of, insignificant Cleopas and his unnamed partner. But experiencing the Risen Jesus changes them, drives them right back to Jerusalem, to the very center of the story. Luke uses them to remind us that just as death could not hold Jesus, the presence of Christ can empower anyone for great work.

Jesus widens the circle. The Risen Christ reaches out, far beyond the handful of close disciples. He ignores social convention and religious rules, to stretch the boundaries of inclusion. Consider his actions. In the ancient world, women could not be legal witnesses. But look. Whom does the Resurrected Jesus appear to first? Women. Then at Emmaus, Jesus appears to Cleopas and his housemate/ partner. Is his partner another man? A woman? Jesus doesn’t care. The Spirit of Christ calls anyone, even women, into mission regardless of social mores.

Priscilla and her husband led one of the first house churches. Priscilla is always mentioned first; she is obviously the leader. Then Lydia welcomed Paul and became an evangelist to him. In the third and fourth centuries, women went into the desert to meditate and pray in numbers equal to those we refer to as the desert fathers. In the Middle Ages, women religious became leaders over monasteries, often in settings where one side was reserved for male monks and the other for female nuns. with a woman over the whole place. Amazing! Jesus was happy to break people out of their social restrictions.

Although right after the Resurrection some people were pretty firm that followers of Jesus must come from within Judaism, we remember years earlier the first people to recognize the King of the Jews had been born were Zoroastrian astrological priests, the magi. Gentiles! After the resurrection, evangelists realized it was impossible to keep gentiles from responding to the Good News. Scripture shows Cornelius, the Philippian jailer, the Ethiopian eunuch were converted. And thank goodness preachers didn’t stop, because most of us come from Celtic or Druid or some other pagan people.

Fortunately, Jesus was not interested in keeping a tight fence around the community of believers. He wanted to burst fences, tear down walls, smash any roadblocks. Shaky believers were every bit as important as stalwart witnesses. Rich, influential people were not the only ones welcomed into religious leadership. Jesus used poor people, sickly, blemished, broken, smelly, dishonest people, who were all welcome. Even a convicted insurrectionist thief on a cross. All welcome. Jesus insists on widening the circle.

But then followers connect to each other. New believers rightly reach out to the community of faith. When a person starts to believe there may be something to this Jesus story, their next step is to get with other believers. No wonder Cleopas and his housemate immediately take off, back to Jerusalem. The Spirit draws us to each other, for strength and support.

In the modern era, think of Pope Francis. One of his first decisions was not to live isolated in the palatial Papal apartments. Instead of being surrounded by a select few of the highest-ranking church officials, as long as his health allowed, he lived among other believers; eating daily with other priests. And although it drove his bodyguards crazy, he wandered out into the crowds to interact with normal church people. He heard about actual life and could discuss faith questions with real people.

Keeping connected with a community of faith keeps each of us grounded, less likely to go off on some cockamamie escapade. We need each other. Some years ago, after reading the Bible on his own, a young man struck up a conversation with a waitress at the deli he visited several times a week, telling her he had gone down to the river the night before and baptized himself. The waitress asked him if that wasn’t unusual. “Doesn’t someone else have to put you under the water?” “Jesus was there,” he replied. The young man lived alone; he had no faith community; no one to bounce ideas off of, except a non-Christian waitress. Something important was missing. He needed a community of Jesus’ followers to help him.

When some religious question stirs within us, we can’t trust we will find a legitimate answer alone. Look at the group on the front of the bulletin. In one of life’s difficult settings, they are drawn together, arms around each other, trusting the presence of the Risen Christ among them as they pray together. We should each have such a trusted group to support and challenge and encourage us in the faith. A Christian faith group keeps us balanced. As we mature, we rightly stay connected to the faith community.

But then we widen the circle, too. One of our jobs is to open the edges of the group to include even more folks. We take a cue from Jesus and stretch the borders. Back in the 19th century, people in the United States often worshipped separated by race. White people on the ground floor; African Americans in the balcony – and not just in the South. Martin Luther King Jr. called 11:00 Sunday morning the most segregated hour of the week. And it hasn’t changed much.

Or remember how people with HIV-AIDS felt unwelcome in most churches. If others knew a person tested positive, they were shunned. People refused to take Communion after them; some were asked not to return. Even in places where no one was outwardly rude, persons who tested positive for HIV often felt silently unwelcome. But then, some churches began educating members about AIDS. People learned there was no basis for such fear. Various congregations let it be known that no matter how ill a person was, they were welcome to worship, to sing, to break bread, and to pray as full participants in the congregation. What was particularly encouraging was when people started wearing those buttons, “My church has AIDS.” Those congregations understood: who we are as church, in part, are members with AIDS.

Churches are made up mostly of ordinary people, like Cleopas and his partner, like each of us. The stars, like Peter, Mary Magdalene, Pope Francis, Martin Luther King Jr., Nadia Boltz Weber – they are the minority. Normal folks are the majority in every congregation. Strange, broken, imperfect, sick, goofy, us. So there has to be room for the other strange, broken, imperfect, sick, goofy next people. Since Jesus spread his arms to embrace everyone, we have to realize, no one is excluded. We do not have the right to avoid anyone who might come.  The church moves in an outward spiral, getting more and more inclusive. So, as we follow Jesus, we widen the circle.

Because the Spirit acts through community. The working of the community comes from God’s Spirit. The truth is, we wouldn’t make it for long without the presence of God among us. Early believers were called “people of the way;” what one commentator called “the people of the journey.” When a bunch of people head out on a journey together, after the first flat tire, bout of carsickness, or just fatigue at how someone “is” while they travel, the fun is over. Things can get unpleasant quite quickly. So, for a very diverse group trying to figure out what it means to be followers of a dead/resurrected rabbi who might be Son of God, the people of the journey could fragment pretty quickly, if not for the Holy Spirit, the power of God working to keep them together.

For the early church, the Holy Spirit guided them through all their differences, to forgive each other’s idiosyncrasies, and helped them focus on whatever their missions were. Which is how it is with us, too. When St. Andrew came up for air after the worst of COVID, a few of the faithful pillars of the church didn’t return; but new faces appeared who were suggesting some new leadership steps, but some of the old leaders didn’t know them. The Governance Restructure Committee was suggesting changes some of us weren’t sure about, and the ending of worship and the continuing mask issues made some of us uncomfortable. And who are these new people? Some among us could have blown a gasket, but no one did. Because the Holy Spirit continues to bind us together as a community and empowers us to do amazing ministry together. It must be the Holy Spirit.

Of course, St. Andrew is not perfect. We don’t have every answer, because the Spirit is not a housemaid who takes care of every detail for us. Instead the Spirit empowers us to do the work, to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ, to be an even more diverse and active congregation.

If we can go back to the front photo again, one of the reasons I like it so much is because through the Spirit, these men have created a Christian community, which, if there is going to be room for any of us, they have to open up the circle to let us in. They have something we need, and my guess is the Spirit enables that faith community and every church to widen their circle. Each faith community exists as church because the Spirit is active within us.

The Resurrected Christ shows us how to expand the circle to enlarge the ministry we do together. And as long as we stay connected to each other, the Holy Spirit will fill us with the power to keep widening the circle.