Getting Lost in the Woods

  Luke’s gospel is rich with resurrection experiences. * First, are the women who go to the tomb, only to find the rock has been rolled back and are greeted by two angelic figures proclaiming Jesus had risen.  Then Peter, the only apostle to listen to the women’s report, runs to the tomb and finds it is empty, except for the linen shroud that had wrapped Jesus’ body.  Later that same day, two disciples were on the road to Emmaus when they encountered another traveller, a teacher, who opened up the scriptures for them.   They invited the traveller to stay with them, and as they sat down to eat together, the traveller broke bread, blessed it, and then,  “...their eyes were opened, and they recognized him” .  Soon after, the eleven apostles meet the risen Christ, as seen in today’s lesson. Luke goes to great lengths to describe the physicality of the resurrected Jesus.  He seems to appear out of thin air, and the disciples assume he is a ghost, an apparition of some kind.  He tells them t

Ordinarily if I were the preacher on Maundy Thursday, I would invite us to reflect on the sacred beauty and inherent vulnerability of the foot washing ceremony.  Yet tonight’s service is as much about Jesus eating the Passover meal with his closest friends for the last time.   Using the bread and wine of the meal to create a sacred memorial of his Body and Blood, the sacrament of his presence with them.   In a year where a global pandemic has required us to fast from communion, somehow this piece of the story feels more poignant than ever before.  In our lesson from 1 Corinthians, Paul reminds us of Jesus’ words that final evening: “...the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’