Beyond the Patio

BEYOND NORMAL
Luke 24:36b-48

William H. Willemon of Duke University tells the story of a male physics professor appearing before his physics class wearing a red dress, with matching red shoes, hat and purse. He proceeded to lecture the students on some principle of physics for forty-five minutes while the stunned class sat there, dutifully taking notes.

At the end of the class, one student finally summoned the courage to ask, ” What’s with the dress, and the shoes, and the hat?”

“Glad you asked,” said the professor in the dress. “I wear this to demonstrate to you good physics is dependent on vivid imagination and a willingness to have one’s expectations disrupted by new data.”

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When I read of a resurrection appearance like we read this morning in Luke 24:36-48, I believe that the ability of the disciples to comprehend the reality that Jesus was with them after his death was dependent on vivid imagination and a willingness to have their expectations disrupted by new data.

Sometimes people get stuck in certain ways of thinking and doing things that it is very hard to change. It’s hard to see things a different way.

I like the story about the guy who was watching a couple of men at work in a local park. One guy would dig a hole and the other guy would fill it back up with dirt. This went on for about an hour. The guy who was watching all of this, finally, couldn’t take it any more. He went over and asked the workers why one of them was digging holes while the other one was filling them back up. One of the workers spoke up, “Well, you see, it’s like this. The guy who plants the trees is on vacation.

Once we have a certain way of doing things it’s hard to change. In 1899 Charles H. Duell, Director of the U. S. Patent Office said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Can you imagine an attitude more confining? For anything new to happen we have to go beyond our present perceptions. Yet those present perceptions often keep us in shackles so we cannot move beyond them.

To move beyond what we consider normal we need to be able to use our vivid imagination, intuition, and creativeness. We need to be able to dream, to meditate, to ponder and reflect

How could we read the resurrection accounts in scripture without the same imagination, intuition and creativeness. I believe that these accounts were written that way. How can we understand this resurrection narrative without looking at it differently than we normally look at another piece of literature. We have to look at it using all our faculties, with that way of knowledge that comes from within and though the eyes of faith?

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There is a deeper reality to this story that meets the eyes. It describes the disciples journey in faith. It also reflects the very early church’s journey in faith because this account was probably writing some 50 or 60 years after the event. It also says something about our journey in faith as we attempt to come to grips with the experience of the Risen Christ in our lives.

Let’s take a look at the story.

The presence of Christ

First of all the disciples are gathered together, probably for a meal. During this time as was the practice of the first Christians they shared bread and wine to relive that moment that Christ shared with them before he died, much the same as we are gathered together here for the Eucharist. It was then that Christ stood among them.

I believe our worship here each week begins when Christ stands among us. Our worship is not just singing hymns, praying, reading scripture, taking the bread and the wine. This is not just our weekly pep rally for the Lord . Worship is something beyond that.

You know It is quite popular for employees of certain companies to gather together for a pep rally before they begin the day. I used to have coffee in the morning at a coffee shop that was next door to a popular store that sold all kinds of electronic equipment.  On a Saturday morning all the staff would gather before store opening and I could hear the shouting through the walls. I could have sworn that the coffee cups rattled. They were getting worked up and enthused in order to sell more goods.

Our worship is different. Jesus said , “When two or three are gather together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”. That is true. When we realize that Christ stand in our midst that is when we know we are at worship but we have to see beyond what our eyes are able to perceive to experience that presence.

The presence of Christ can be comforting but it can also be scary. It was for the disciples in today’s Gospel. They were startled and terrified because they weren’t sure what they were experiencing.  The way that they described it was as scary as seeing a ghost. On the other hand they probably remained rather because they knew that they had to continue the work of Jesus in the world. Of course Jesus did assure them that they would be given power to do the work. Christ never gives us his work to do without the power and the means to do it but they were still filled with doubt as to how that was going to happen. This was their initial reaction to the change that was required of them. As time went on, they eventually discovered the strength and courage within to do the work before them.

It frightening to us because the presence of Christ can mean change in our lives. Look at St. Paul!. Meeting Christ on the road to Damascus changed his whole life and eventually the world. In these present days we bolt down our pews in our churches, build our churches like fortresses that can never be shaken, and give the impression that the Christian faith is the way to get everything tied down, definite, fixed, sealed in concrete, and never changing. The encounters of the disciples and Paul with the risen Christ suggests something far different. They never knew where it was going to lead. We don’t really know where it will lead.

Peace of Christ

One of the places it will lead us is to work for Peace in whatever way it opens to us.  What Christ says to the disciples he says to us “Peace be with you”. That is what Christ brings to us and our world, “Peace” which means Justice for all, freedom from all that binds us, well-being for all people. This is one of the great desires in the world today. A few years ago at the beginning of a new year a group at the Thomas Merton Centre began requests for a million prayers for peace. They received very quickly  a million and half prayers for peace. One of them was:

“Let us be people of justice, and act to bring peace to our lives. Let us learn non-violence and compassion, and together bring peace To our world.“

These people realized that they have a part in bringing peace.

When I read this I thought of a couple of quotations by the Dalai Lama:

Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free

Non Violence is not a diplomatic word, it is compassion in action

It is the old story that “it is no use praying for rain if you are not willing to pickup the hoe.” Peace is the great desire of the world today but if we are to have peace the change in the world will have to come through us.

The Transforming Power of Second Chance

The disciples had forsaken Jesus and fled at the time of the crucifixion. Christ brought them new life and second chance.

In a book on the life of Dr. Billy Graham (A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story), the author says that the primary reason for Dr. Graham’s lifelong, phenomenal success is that he preached “the transforming power of a second chance.” This is born out in the fact that the majority of the hundreds and thousands of people who came forward at Graham’s crusades were not first time converts but people coming to rededicate themselves to Christ.

We always have that opportunity with Christ. In fact I look at coming forward at every communion as a re-dedication and receiving new power from on high.

If we can come to this passage with the imagination that we are capable of, we can relive the disciples experience of being renewed in our relationship with Christ. It is recorded in the Gospel that after Christ appeared to the disciples, greeted them with peace, restored the relationship with them, ate with them, he then “opened their minds to understand the scriptures”. Part of that renewal is letting Christ open our minds that we may look at the scriptures with a new sense of hope, vitality and direction. We are like a person overhearing the conversation between Christ and others from another room, and then being invited in to share the conversation. It becomes real to us. It become our conversation – our story.

The work of Christ

The next thing that Christ does is to share his ministry with us, that is to express the love of Christ in every way possible. We are always sent out at the end of the service into the world in what we call the Dismissal with words such as “Go in Peace to Love and serve the Lord” We reply, “Thanks be to God”

John Wesley gave this wonderful piece of advice to the people called Methodists. He gave it both for inspiration and instruction. Wesley knew that our purpose in life is to glorify God. He wrote in his, Rule of Conduct:

“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.”

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This Gospel is dynamic. If we can come to it with a vivid imagination; if we can open ourselves to receive the new data that Christ’s presence confronts us with; if we can go beyond the written word and enter it as an experience on our Christian journey; then this passage can become alive for us. Our lives are all wrapped up in it. Our worship is all wrapped up in it. It is able to feed us in a ways that we could not have envisioned.

It will take us beyond normal.

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