This sermon was preached on April 14 and 15, 2018 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Connellsville, PA. It is based on the
readings for the third Sunday of Easter, year B.
...
Do you like ghost stories? I don’t particularly like them,
and have not ever experienced a ghost or spirit as some have, but you can’t
live in Gettysburg for four years and not hear about ghosts. There is a whole
industry around “ghost tours”, where actors in period costumes – rough woolen
jackets, or hoop skirts and bonnets – lead groups by lantern light through the
battlefields and cemeteries at night, stopping periodically to tell the stories
of civilians and soldiers killed in the time surrounding the Battle of
Gettysburg in 1863. Gettysburg has been featured on ghost hunting tv shows, and
many people chose to visit precisely for the hope of encountering a ghost.
I was thinking about this because in today's Gospel reading,
Jesus’ disciples are convinced that they are seeing a ghost when he suddenly
appears among them that Easter evening. He arrives shortly after the friends
from Emmaus come in, the ones who unknowingly walked with the risen Jesus,
invited him home, and saw him revealed in the breaking of the bread. Upon
recognizing him, Jesus disappeared, and the friends immediately went back to
Jerusalem to tell the disciples about the encounter.
I find it interesting that of the two possibilities – that Jesus
is resurrected or that Jesus is a ghost – the ghost is the more believable
scenario! But Jesus meets his disciples and friends in their fear and doubts
and helps them see that he is not a ghost, but rather their risen Lord and
friend.
First, he invites them to look at his wounded hands and feet,
retaining even in resurrection the scars from the nails that pierced him.
“Touch me and see;” Jesus says, “For a ghost does not have flesh and bones as
you see that I have.”
And then, since this wasn’t quite enough to dispel their disbelief
and questions, he asked them for something to eat. They gave him some fish,
which he ate right in front of them – because of course a ghost wouldn’t be
hungry or able to eat!
And if those actions still weren’t enough, Jesus began to teach
them, opening their minds to understand the Scriptures, sharing the stories of
God’s faithfulness, redemption, and love shown to God’s people Israel. This
same mercy and forgiveness is for the whole world, and the disciples are called
to be witnesses. Moved from doubt, grief, and fear, the disciples rejoice and
are sent out to share the good news that they have seen and heard.
I wonder if there are ways we, too, are skeptical that Jesus is
really alive and really with us. Ways that anything, even ghosts, seem more
possible than a resurrected Christ.
Like he did for the disciples, Jesus meets us in our fear and
doubts and helps us see and experience for ourselves that he is really alive,
our risen Lord and friend.
First, he invites us to look at his body. We are
the Body of Christ, and individually members of it. We are his hands, and feet,
and voice, proclaiming the good news in word and deed, living examples of the
love of Christ for all.
As the Body of Christ, we gather food to be distributed by
Community Ministries to hungry people in our community. As the Body of Christ,
we purchase and give away clothes, and shoes, and backpacks to kids in our
community as they prepare to go back to school. As the Body of Christ, we pray
for one another, send encouraging notes, offer a listening ear, bring meals and
give rides. This is what the risen Body of Christ looks like – not a ghost, but
a living, breathing presence out in the world.
It is not insignificant that the risen body Jesus presents to the
disciples still bears the wounds from his crucifixion and death. This is a
reminder for us that another place we encounter the risen Jesus is in our own
times of woundedness and suffering. Our Lord who suffered and died on the cross
comes to us in our suffering. We have the promise that he will never leave us
or forsake us, the promise that we are not alone in the midst of whatever we face,
the promise that we are dearly loved, wounds and all.
Next, just as the disciples saw the risen Jesus as he ate with
them, we too experience the presence of Christ in the meal we share at God’s
table. In this bread and wine, Christ’s body and blood, we receive salvation,
forgiveness, and new life. In this meal we are united by Christ and in Christ
to be his risen body in the world, bound together by the love of God. In this
meal we are strengthened and nourished to be witnesses.
All this is not for our own sake, but rather for the sake of the
world, led by the God who loves us deeply and accompanies us always. The Jesus
we encounter in one another, in our wounded places, and in the bread and wine
we share in the Eucharist is indeed not a ghost but really real and really
here, among us and out in the world. This is wonderful good news, and we go to
share what we have seen and heard, as witnesses of the risen Christ.
In what times or places have you experienced the presence of
Jesus? Where and how can you share that story?
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