On this second Sunday of our Easter Season, we have a strange story of Jesus walking along a dusty road between Jerusalem and a small village called Emmaus.* BUT HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!!
Jesus meets a couple of former disciples who are talking about what has happened in the last few weeks but they don’t recognize him. BECAUSE HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!!
The three of them walk and talk and finally get to the village and the former disciples invite Jesus in to have some supper and stay the night but they still don’t recognize him. DARN IT, HE’S DEAD ISN’T HE?!!
As guest, Jesus is asked to bless the bread, break it, and share it. Suddenly, the two disciples see Jesus, recognize him; their eyes are wide open. HE’S NO LONGER DEAD BUT ALIVE!!
A lot is said and sung on Easter Sunday and in the Easter Season leading up to Pentecost about Jesus being alive and being seen by former disciples. Is this an actual literal miracle of Jesus being raised from the dead? Is it people of faith creating symbolic myths after the death of their beloved leader? Or is it cultural stories that no longer have relevance for us today?
In the United Church we celebrate openness to a variety of viewpoints, myriad beliefs, and diverse values. Because of this openness, sometimes the UCC is accused of being wishy-washy, of watering down faith, or having no faith at all.
We in the United Church are certainly not wishy-washy because it takes great courage and lively conversation to hold in tension diverse points-of-view.
We are not watering down faith because living in community with varied approaches is strenuous work.
We cannot be accused of having no faith at all simply because we don’t spout oneuniversalabsolutedogmatic approach to our values and beliefs. We are faithfully committed to having multiple approaches to spiritual expressions.
What this commitment to diversity does mean for us at Beach UC is that when we travel the road together, bless bread, and break bread together, we see the face of Jesus. When we travel the road of life together we don’t always agree on the direction, each of us reads maps and intuits a sense of direction in different ways. When we bless bread, we have language preferences—do we say God, the father, mother, spirit, son, lover, guy-in-the-sky, creator, etc. (Muslims have 99 names for God)? When we break bread together, who gets to sit at the table and who is not at the table? What kind of bread do we share: gluten-free, nut-free, wheat, rice, corn . . . ?
We are a diverse community at Beach UC with varied cultures. We have the culture of Kew Beach and Bellefair. We have cultures of age, young, old, and older. We have cultures of gender and sexual orientation. We have cultures of colour: black, white, yellow, pink, and grey—depending on how recently we got to Florida. We have cultures of heritage: ethnic as well as family dynamics. We have cultures of assumptions, for instance, how children should behave in worship, or which is the right Lord’s Prayer. We have cultures of power: who makes decisions and who is excluded from decision-making. These are just a few of the varied cultures we bring together when we worship.
Such diversity is a celebration because in whatever way we have traveled our road of life, we arrive on Sunday morning at a common destination in worship. We bless bread and break bread together as a community committed to our difference—and that’s when we see the face of Jesus. Alleluia!
*Luke 24:13-24, 28-31
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