\u201cDuh\u201d has become a word that indicates that we can\u2019t believe that people don\u2019t get it! Perhaps the hint of ridicule associated with \u201cDuh\u201d means that we shouldn\u2019t use it at vestry meetings! It\u2019s heartening to find that even Jesus\u2019 closest friend and associates didn\u2019t always get it. After the Resurrection some of the disciples asked Jesus whether he was now going to revive the political state of Israel and drive the Romans out. Jesus had spent a good deal of time describing the sort of kingdom he wished to establish. He\u2019d told them that the kingdom was not of this world. He\u2019d said that it was \u201cwithin you.\u201d They didn\u2019t get it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One can imagine the disciples\u2019 brows wrinkling as they tried to absorb words that didn\u2019t seem to make an awful lot of sense. Like most of the rest of us, we have enough of a job trying to figure out the things we see, feel, and touch. Things \u201cnot of this world,\u201d \u201ckingdoms within us,\u201d are beyond what we think we experience. It\u2019s easy for the \u201creligious\u201d part of religion to become a sort of Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, comforting tales but not anything we expect to experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lessons today focus our attention on how the first Christians thought about and experienced Jesus. These accounts were written many years after the events described. Almost inevitably, when one tries to write down details about something that happened in the past, one includes a good deal about what has happened since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the lesson from Acts, St. Luke, the non-Jewish historian, seeks to translate into the experiences of Gentile Christians things that happened when the infant church was completely Jewish. St. Peter tells the crowd that \u201cthis Jesus whom you crucified\u201d is both \u201cLord and Messiah.\u201d It\u2019s very hard for us to get into our heads what \u201cLord and Messiah\u201d means. We don\u2019t have kings or lords in the United States. We fought a Revolution about all that! People who say they are messiahs often need treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To Gentiles the word \u201clord\u201d meant the Emperor in Rome who claimed to be a god. By calling Jesus \u201clord\u201d the church was telling the Emperor that Jesus was their emperor, their supreme ruler. \u201cJesus is Lord\u201d was both truth telling and a challenge to the ruthlessness of political power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The word \u201cmessiah\u201d was used in a number of ways to describe a unique person who would bring to a head everything God planned for his Chosen People. By calling Jesus \u201cmessiah\u201d the church was announcing that God had finally revealed his plan for the human race in and through Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this is pretty heady stuff. How does it relate to us all today, as we struggle with relationships, work, and a world at war? In the account of Peter\u2019s great sermon and in the Gospel for today, St. Luke brings things down to earth for us. When Peter stopped preaching, those who believed gathered for the breaking of bread and the prayers. They were unified and energized as they gathered in the \u201capostles teaching and fellowship.\u201d Somehow all the teaching about who Jesus was and is comes to life when thought about and prayed about together and particularly when we share the bread and the wine. So often we think we have to understand and apply the faith alone, in some personal way. When we think like that, the church becomes something we attend, or leave, or grumble about. Perhaps we think of the church as a place to entertain and instruct our children. We \u201cchurch shop\u201d for a place that suits our needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reality the church is a gathering of \u201ccalled and chosen\u201d people, who seek to understand the faith together, share the journey together, and obey the commandment to \u201ctell others\u201d their experiences of Jesus as Lord and Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the crucifixion some disciples were walking away from Jerusalem. They were shattered. They\u2019d put their hope and trust in the man from Nazareth. After years roaming the country with this man who seemed so good, he\u2019d been arrested and executed. The disciples had now to go back home and face their friends, who might well say \u201cDuh.\u201d Now they\u2019d have to \u201cshop\u201d for another sort of religious experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stranger approached them and asked them why they looked so gloomy. They told him! The stranger began to explain how everything that had happened was meant to happen. He might have begun by saying \u201cDuh!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the disciples were now beyond sermons, beyond \u201cBible Study\u201d and \u201cEnquirers\u2019 Class.\u201d Just like Episcopalians, they hadn\u2019t lost their good manners. When the party arrived in the village, they invited the stranger to join them for dinner. When the stranger broke the bread and gave thanks for the wine, \u201cthey knew it was the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever since that time, Christians have found that in gathering together around the Lord\u2019s Table they meet the Lord and Messiah. This doesn\u2019t mean all their questions are answered or their problems solved. Some questions can\u2019t be answered and some problems can\u2019t be solved. That\u2019s hard for us to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet in the fellowship of the church what we hear read to us sometimes warms our hearts. In the communion of saints our hearts are often warmed as Bread and Wine become for us the very Presence of the Living Jesus who is the Lord of all and the Savior of all. Together, in the energy of Jesus\u2019 being, we gain the strength together to tackle the problems of our wider communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table-faith revives our church fellowships. In that revival we speak faith to those who have no faith, justice to those who suffer from injustice, healing to those who are no longer whole. We feed, shelter, and love those who can\u2019t manage the complexity of modern life. Then we discover that the Jesus we meet in bread and wine comes to us equally truly in the shape of the poorest outcast, repulsive in shape, wracked with disease.\u201d I was hungry and you fed me,\u201d he whispers. We know it is the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Anthony F.M. Clavier<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cDuh\u201d has become a word that indicates that we can\u2019t believe that people don\u2019t get it! Perhaps the hint of ridicule associated with \u201cDuh\u201d means that we shouldn\u2019t use it at vestry meetings! It\u2019s heartening to find that even Jesus\u2019 closest friend and associates didn\u2019t always get it. After the Resurrection some of the disciples…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,43,52,3],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-511337","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easter","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-easter-3a"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":22,"label":"Easter"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":141,"label":"Easter 3A"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473504,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511337\/revisions\/3473504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}