“Then Their Eyes Were Opened”
“Then Their Eyes Were Opened”
a sermon by Rev. Sonja Dalglish, M.Div. for Weslaco, FPC
May 8, 2011
Scripture Focus: Luke 24:13-35
Other Scripture: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Focus – What does the text say?: The disciples did not recognize the risen Jesus until he broke the bread.
Function – How does the text influence us today?: We can be around obvious truths yet never see them until they are pointed out to us.
Recognizing the Grace in our Lives
One of the things I do apart from church is that I belong to a women’s memoir group based in Austin called the Story Circle Network. I belong both to a reading group that reads a different memoir every month and a writing group that writes about different stories in our lives. Memoirs and autobiographies are different kinds of things. Where an autobiography details a person’s life from birth to death, a memoir is more concerned with the meaning of some aspect of a person’s life. A person might write several memoirs about different aspects of their lives. For instance, if the memoir was about an artist, it might begin with the first awakenings of the artist’s spirit within the young person, then talk about how the artist’s eye was developed, including teachers and important events in the person’s life in relationship to the art. The entire memoir would be seen through a lens that would emphasize all things that would pertain to the life as an artist. If the same person grew up in a large family, a separate memoir might be about life in that family. Perhaps a third memoir could be about life at college.
An important part of every memoir is finding the light and grace in your life, finding the blessings and the meaning of events for you. What makes a memoir enjoyable is the light and the grace that shine through the events, even when there might be suffering and pain. What makes a memoir worth reading is seeing how another person faced life with courage and dignity. This helps us to see better how we can face life and find the grace in our own circumstances. In this way, memoirs are a lot like the Gospel stories, more concerned with the meaning of events than their chronological order or getting every detail correct. They tell the story of the meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Sometimes, we have trouble recognizing good news or blessings. People in Jesus‘ time were no different. Cleopas and companion certainly had trouble recognizing Jesus and the good news that he had conquered death. They had trouble understanding the meaning behind the events that they had lived and witnessed until Jesus appeared explained the scriptures to them. We are fortunate that we can read this account and see what it meant to them to have the grace of understanding what the events meant. Until redirected, they focused on the destruction of their hopes. They were so traumatized by the bad news of the previous three days that they did not recognize him until he broke the bread with them at the table. This can happen to us as well. We can at times be so focused on some problem that we might not see the light that is also shining through these events. What does it take for us to recognize when God is working in our lives for our good? I think it takes a different way of looking at our lives. Luke says that the disciples eyes were opened. Another way of saying it is that they looked at things through a different lens.
Example of Life and Grace
Dr. Alan Lewis had published on the Motherhood of God. He presented the paper at a women’s conference in Scotland. I think it was their equivalent of Mother’s Day. This paper was not well received. A sea of white hair rose up in front of him and held up umbrellas and purses. Instead of thanking him kindly for his insights into the nature of God, the elderly Scottish ladies bashed, shooed, and booed him from the conference room.
Just in case you may be thinking of doing the same to me, let me say that Dr. Lewis was in good company when he spoke of God as Mother. I put up only a few of the theologians who referred to God in this way: Clement of Alexander, Pope Gregory, Origen, Irenaeus, and John Chrysostom. And this is just in the first four centuries of the church! These are some pretty big names among the early church fathers. The Hebrew scriptures use both male and female imagery of God, as do many of the parables that Jesus told. The model of a good parent, either mother or father, is revealed in the loving, forgiving, and creative nature of God. The best mothers will have these characteristics.
Austin Seminary had taken note of his paper. Dr. Lewis accepted the offer from the seminary and prepared to move his wife and son to Austin. He had the mandatory chest x-ray before the flight. Just as he was starting his new position, the news came that he had lung cancer. Because they found it, they could treat it and give him several more years of life. In that time, he was able to finish the first and second drafts of his book on the theology of Holy Saturday – the day that Jesus lay in the tomb. Because the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus, it meant that God also experienced death. I’ve put a link to that book on the blog, Hope Talks.
No matter how traumatic it was for Dr. Lewis to be battered out of that room, it opened him to the possibility of moving and teaching someplace that might be more open to a variety of understandings about God. Without this event, without the immigration and chest x-ray, his life would have been shorter, and he would not have been able to write his theological book about the Theology of Holy Saturday, the day that Jesus lay dead in the tomb. Now, this is a tightrope I walk. These things were used for good – but that doesn’t mean it was right for people to be rude and it doesn’t mean that the cancer was God given, but it does mean that God could use these two things.
Two things that could have been considered bad news resulted in Alan Lewis being able to write his book of theology, as one reviewer called it, his Magnum Opus. His memoir could be about one who had cancer, was an immigrant, or as someone who was given the time to complete his important work. That lens acknowledges the power of God in his life.
Disciples on the Road
When we see the mystery of Jesus meeting the disciples on the road, we can begin to imagine how God can meet us as well. God meets us wherever we are on the road of life. We do not have to stop. God meets us even as we are moving.
The disciples are on the road, walking home after the crucifixion. We do not know why they are traveling home instead of staying with the others in the upper room. They sound depressed as they talk to each other and then to Jesus who appears and walks with them. One pastor I know constructed a whole sermon around their statement, “We thought he was the one.” They had pinned their hopes to Jesus and were disappointed that he had been killed.
Their hopes died with Jesus. Their eyes were clouded with the glasses of grief. They had lost their leader. They were so downcast, they could not recognize Jesus, even as he walked and talked with them. They did not recognize him until they were seated at the table with him and he broke the bread and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened. This reminds us of the Last Supper. It reminds us of Jesus giving his body for them in the crucifixion. We remember all this each time we, too, come to the Lord’s table. We remember it each time we come into the church and see the table. It reminds us of who we are and who gave his life for us.
What Does This Mean for Us?
As disciples of Christ, we long to see Jesus and to follow in his footsteps, follow in the Way. We long to see and understand our lives as being touched by God and having meaning. We want to live for something more than just everyday life. We want to experience God and be part of a larger plan for creation. If we want to see and walk with Jesus, Luke gives us clues as to what we should do:
1) We should continue to read and study scriptures. It was through reminding the two disciples what the scriptures said that Jesus was able to help them through their grief to see God’s plan. We need to wear the lenses of faith to see how God is working in the world and in our lives. Studying scripture will help us to learn to see the world and ourselves the way that God sees it.
2) We should approach people and the world with love. God acts through love. We see this in Jesus’ life and teachings. We see it through his actions that led him even to give his life for others. The church is a community of people who have been brought together to serve God by loving and giving to others. When people look at you and your life, will they see the love of God flowing through you?
Conclusion
You are important to God. Recognizing that is part of the struggle of seeing things clearly through the lenses of faith. It is so easy for us to look at ourselves and feel so unimportant in the world of 6.5 Billion people. It is easy for us to be depressed or inferior because we are not as beautiful or as smart or as rich as so many other people. But when we measure ourselves that way, we are wearing the wrong glasses. Those thoughts come from the values of the world. Take off those glasses and put on the lenses of faith. Open your eyes.
Sometimes we do not understand when our work is not valued by others. We may feel we need to move on, change places, change professions, change the ways of looking at our lives. Open your eyes to see the people around you and how important you are to others. God wants to make you a blessing to this world. Do not expect to always understand at the time. But with prayer and attention to the understandings that come from scripture, you may see things differently.
One last story: In the 1800’s, in Germany, there was a cathedral with a wonderful pipe organ. A man in very ordinary clothes knocked and asked to come in. He was refused, because the cathedral was closed. He was insistent and begged until the janitor finally let him in. He asked if he could see the front of the church. At first, the janitor said no, but the man begged until, not only he was shown the front of the church, but was allowed to sit at the organ. The janitor told him not to touch the organ and turned to continue cleaning the church. Soon the sounds of the organ filled the church. The nondescript visitor played such beautiful and difficult music that the janitor was astounded. The regular organist was not nearly as good. After playing better than any organ concert, the visitor stopped and walked down the aisle to the door. As the janitor let the guest out, he asked his name. The man answered, “Wagner.” The janitor said to himself, “I almost turned away the master.”
In your life, light and grace will shine. Sometimes, the Master comes to us and walks with us in ways that are so ordinary that we do not recognize him. May God be our vision. The disciples‘ eyes were opened on the road to Emmaus. May God open our eyes, too. Amen
—————–
References:
Personal conversations and class lectures with Dr. Alan Lewis in the Fall of 1993.
References of the Church fathers who spoke of the Motherhood of God are from a google search on the internet. Their dates of life are from Wikipedia, with the exception of Alan Lewis, which is from memory and may be wrong.
The story of Wagner was told to me by my good friend, Cheryl Brockman.
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 8, 2011, the Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Gospel Luke 24:13-35
13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
First Reading Acts 2:14a, 36-41
14aBut Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them,
36“Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
Psalm Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1 I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”
12 What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
16 O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!
Second Reading 1 Peter 1:17-23
17If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
22Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
