Sunday, May 4, 2014, Easter 3 (full size gallery)
This was an unusual Sunday with the church "split" – 12 people up at Shrine Mont with Christ Episcopal and also St. Paul’s King George. That took both Catherine and Amy so there was no Godly Play. The rest of us were here duplicating Morning Prayer of last Sunday.
We had only 18 people, not totally surprising considering part of the congregation was up at Shrine Mont, the wonderful weather plus repeating Morning Prayer. Also Brad gave the choir a "skip" day . Even Dog and Duck were sleeping today.
The day with warm temperatures, a gentle breeze and plentiful sunshine was not only a great typical May day but certainly one of the best of the year. The leaves on the sycamore showed growth over the last week and another wave of flowers led by the Iris are appearing. The lilies were still fresh in the church and the light made the church especially beautiful today. Helmut presided and Bill was the lector. We did celebrate Nancy and Alex’s 31st wedding anniversary. One sad note is the ospreys were absent.
The readings are here as is the sermon
Willie Nelson had a hit a few years back with "On the Road Again" One of the lyrics went this way
"On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We’re the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way and our way"
These two companions in the Gospel reading "Road to Emmaus" from Luke may have been the best of friends but they were confused on which way the world was turning. They were going to Emmaus but there are real questions whether they were simply trying to get there or "get out of Dodge" – Jerusalem. That was a shoot-em-up and their man, Jesus seemed to lose.
This is one of the few appearances of Jesus to the ordinary, not to the disciples. These two may represent us. Luke 24 is often seen as a model of the journey that Jesus makes with us today. He opens our eyes, points us to the Word, and reveals Himself along life’s walk as the resurrected Savior and Lord.
But we have to be able to respond unlike these two companions at first. Resurrection calls for a response from us. We should always to expect to see Jesus along our roads we travel unlike these companions. We must open our eyes to Jesus action in the world in the ordinary. When we do, we will come to see His spirit working in our own lives. We will see new opportunities and possibilities as the two companions did. Religion becomes a form of action not an intellectual exercise.
In the story the two companions "hit the wall" and began to reach out – they were facing the stranger on the road! Note that Jesus doesn’t begin to teach until they have reached out through their story. This is a crucial recognition for the life of faith for them and for us.
They don’t see him until the bread was broken in the Eucharist. The fuel for the fire is the Eucharist. The Eucharist is soul food-God’s presence fills us, heals us, strengthens, comforts and transforms us.
To do what ? As Jesus has been a gift to us, we must be so for others. We just don’t hear the story on Sundays and Wednesday we must be the actors.
We are called to share what we have seen, heard, and touched with others. We, like the early Christians, are to witness to God activity in his creation, extending God’s love and joy to others in mission at St Peter’s.
We have many outreach ministries – from the prison ministries, community dinners and now Port Royal tutoring. Is this enough ? Is there still another road to take. There certainly is.
“How can we become more relevant to Port Royal?” We have to make St. Peter’s vital to the lives around us spiritually and support. We will be looking at this particularly in context of our buildlings on May 18 when Sally O’Brien of the Episcopal Church Building Fund visits us and discusses this after lunch. Please stay for lunch and help us decide our roads to build.