Rector's Reflection: Life Unending, April 13, 2024

Beloved Members of St. Martin’s,

This Sunday’s readings have contained many words of comfort and strength for me in the last few days. We have had two of our beloved parishioners pass into glory this week, and I and my mother and sister have been dealing with the death of my younger brother. Meditating upon verses such as Psalm 4:6-8 speaks directly to the trouble and doubts that plague us when we experience trauma and loss. I commend these words to you for comfort and assurance in times such as these:

Many are saying, "Oh, that we might see better times!"

            Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O LORD.

You have put gladness in my heart,

            more than when grain and wine and oil increase.

I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep;

            for only you, LORD, make me dwell in safety.

All four of our readings this weekend speak to a lack of belief in response to being involved in pain and loss. Our gospel passage, from Luke 24, comes from the final chapter in the gospel of Luke. It starts with the women appearing at the tomb to help preserve Jesus’s body with spice, only to find that the tomb is empty and the stone has been rolled back. There they encounter two angels who tell them that the one whom they seek is not there (Luke 24:1-7). They then went back to the eleven remaining apostles and tell them what they see, but are not believed (vv. 8-11). Peter then runs to the tomb himself, and finds it empty (v. 12). This scene is immediately followed (vv. 13-13-35) by the encounter on the road to Emmaus. The two unnamed disciples in that tale once again go to the apostles and tell them that they have seen Jesus—and once again they are not believed. We then see then, today, Luke’s version of the events we hear last week: where Jesus suddenly appears to all the apostles gathered together.

Jesus’s first words, just as we saw in the gospel of John, is to bless his disciples and friends with peace (v. 36), and just like in the portion of John’s gospel that we heard last week, this is in response to their fear, their swirling emotions, and their doubt that erupts as a result. This response is natural and human—there is a reason why “I can’t believe it” is often our first response to shocking news like the loss of loved ones.

Jesus then commands those present to look at him- to truly see him, and to know that he is real (vv. 36-40). Of course, the first tendency is to think that they are looking at a ghost. Yet Jesus eating and drinking (v. 43) is meant to underscore that this is a living, breathing Christ that they encounter—ghosts have no need for food or drink. This also directly addresses the doubts of those who attempted to understand Jesus as never being fully human—disagreement s of which have continued in Christianity to this present day. Passages such as these underscore the humanity of Jesus, risen and fully alive, hungry and thirsty, bearing scars in his crucified, yet living body as signs of his survival and triumph over the grave.

This has important implications for all of us experiencing loss—if Jesus had a bodily resurrection, then we can anticipate the same thing for ourselves. If, as some claimed, Jesus was only a spirit in the shape of a human body, then Jesus’s ability to understand the human condition and bring it into the experience of the divine would be greatly limited. No, Jesus being both fully human and fully divine was a necessary precondition for our salvation throughout Christian theology to today. This is why you are encouraged to cross yourself at the words of the Nicene Creed as we affirm our faith :in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting.” Seeing the doubt of Jesus’s disciples and friends—and hearing Jesus’s words to be at peace and believe in his being with us in life as well as death-- helps us as we move from shock toward acceptance and faith that, in the words of the preface for the Eucharist at a Burial service (Book of Common Prayer, p. 382):

For to your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed, not ended…

That knowledge, and assurance, brings peace, for the disciples then and us as disciples now, indeed.

In Christ,

Mother Leslie+

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Music Notes from Denise, April 13, 2024

This Sunday will be the third Sunday of Easter when we read about Jesus dining with his disciples in Luke 24. I notice many TV shows and movies fixated on “Ghosts” these days, and I found it interesting that Jesus ate some of the disciples’ fish to prove to them that he was resurrected and alive and not a ghost! His message was for them to become a part of God’s kingdom by proclaiming his name and witnessing to all people that they encountered. Faith comes with a commission: belief in the resurrection means that the disciples must now be witnesses of the Gospel to the whole world. My music selections center around the idea of a shared meal with Jesus where we are all invited to partake. I’ve attached a photo that I took in Venice of part of a large wall mural of Jesus dining with many people from all walks of life.

Our Processional hymn will be Come, ye faithful, raise the strain. Greek poet John of Damascus (675-754) wrote canons for the major festivals of the church year. This text is John’s first ode from the canon for the Easter season, inspired by the Song of Moses in Exodus 15. One of the last of the Greek fathers, John became a great theologian in the Eastern church. The canon demonstrated how Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ’s resurrection. Song of Moses was used as a metaphor for Christ’s delivery of his people from slavery of sin and death, as used in stanza 1. Stanza 2 uses images of spring and sunshine as metaphors for the new life and light of Christ. (Psalter Hymnal Handbook, Hymnary.org)

For the offertory, St. Martin’s choir will sing the communion hymn, In Remembrance, by Ragan Courtney and Buryl Red. Courtney provides the context for the text: I wrote “In Remembrance” as a song to sing during the acting out of the last supper…I was a relatively new Christian, and all of my writings were erupting out of my newfound relationship with the Lord. I remember being concerned that the lyric was just a trifle and not at all up to the occasion. Then I heard Buryl’s setting and I wept. His composition ennobled the words. (Paul Hammond, Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) The hymn goes as: In remembrance of me, eat this bread…drink this wine…pray for the time when God’s own will is done…heal the sick…feed the poor…open the door and let your brother in. In remembrance of me search for truth…always love…don’t look above, but in your heart look for God. (1972 Broadman Press/Van Ness Press, Inc.) We will also sing the well-loved spiritual, Let us break bread together, as another song about sharing a meal as God’s family.

Our final hymn, That Easter Day with joy was bright, was written by John M. Neale (1818-1866) whose life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. (Hymnary.org) The hymn describes the Luke 24 story about Jesus meeting with his disciples, showing them his wounded hands and feet. Both the disciples and our response is: All praise, O risen Lord, we give to thee, who, dead, again dost live; to God the Father equal praise, and God the Holy Ghost, we raise!