Third Sunday of Easter | a sermon

A sermon by Andrew Colman on Acts 3:12-19 and Luke 24:36-48.

We need to back up in our Gospel reading tonight. The things that they
were saying, which was tonight opening line, was their experience on the
road to Emmaus. Two disciples were walking talking about all the that
had just happened over the last week.

Probably trying to remember what Jesus had taught them during their
time doing ministry together... a bit of scripture here and there, a new
prophetic word from, tearing down and building up temples, and these
women... Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary mother of James... saying they
had actually seen the Lord in the Garden. All the while kicking up dust
as they made thair way to Emmaus.

Jesus, unbeknownst to them, came to and asked them what they were
talking about and responded by opening up the scriptures to them.
When he was finished, he was about to continue along the road without
them, but the disciples convinced him to rest with them that night. And
when he took the bread during their meal and broke it they finally saw
that it was Jesus. And poof he was gone.

Now, it was their turn to go and tell the other disciples. While they
were saying those things... Jesus himself stood among them and said,
"Peace be with you.”

And Then he did the same thing that he did with Peter and the other
disciples on the Road to Emmaus - he opened up the scriptures, he ate
with them, and then they were done in Jerusalem
it says that we're skipping ahead a little now, "He led them out as far
as Bethany, where he lifted up his hands and blessed them." Then up he went…

He taught, he ate, he blessed, he walked. That was basically his whole
ministry - his whole life.

He **ate and drank** from the Wedding at Cana to the Last Supper
and all of the meals in between. He fed thousands with just a few fish and loaves of bread.

     He **taught** In the temple to the chief priests and scribes even
as a child, in the streets, around tables, on the plain and up the mountain,
         He opened up the scriptures for the Devil while being tempted
in the wilderness.

     He **blessed and healed** everyone everywhere he went. He lifted up
Peter's mother-in-law from her fever, healed the man who was dropped
down through his roof, the woman who bled for 12 years...

         In the Gospel of John, we read, “The many other things which
Jesus did were every one of them to be written; I suppose that the world
itself could not contain the books that would be written. “
     And he walked. He had no other choice. Everywhere he went, he
walked, and it would be safe to say that as he walked, he was usually in
conversation.

         He walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, from Jerusalem to Bethany.
Jesus walked over 5,000 km during his three-year ministry.
             Jesus walked on water!
     And in all of these things, he was giving thanks to his Abba/
Father in heaven. None of these things came or went without Jesus being
in constant prayer with God.
     --
     This was his way,
When we hear Jesus say that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life -
this is the The Way.

         Walking, teaching, eating, blessing, Praying or better yet
             Praying, eating, teaching, blessing, walking, praying.
             Or praying, teaching, eating,  blessing, walking, or praying.

Really, it will be in whatever order is right for that particular moment.
     And it's different for every moment - like each one of us here -
different - either here or online - or listening later on the podcast -
different.
But there is one thing that is the same around the globe of people who
are hearing this now or years down the road - is that there is something
about the Life of Jesus - the Way of Jesus - the blessing of Jesus that
speaks to us - that blesses us.

         It will have been different for each of his disciples 2000
years ago; a fisherman, a tax collector, and the Mother of God would
have been following Jesus for very different personal reasons -
But there was something about him that spoke to all of them and the
billions who have followed since and all who will follow in the future.
Eat with one another, walk slow and listen to one another, learn and
explore the Divine Wisdom together, find peace and endurance in prayer,
bless one another…

No matter how different our motives and understandings are for being
here, Tell me which part of that way of life does not sound like a life
worth living.

Now, here, again, we need to be very careful. This week, I was in
conversation with a group of people called together to work on a book on
the theology of Preaching - and this week's topic was to discuss what it
means to preach the Way without reducing it to a to-do list.

Because to-do list spirituality - moralistic spirituality breaks down so
fast - For instance -Love your neighbour as yourself - go!

Like, we might not even make it home before we have an unkind thought or
word about that neighbour that just made a very poor driving decision.
In that case, if it's a to-do list spirituality—where the checkbox is
“love your neighbour” — then you would never ever be able to check that
box off because they're the ones who blew the stop sign and almost hit you!

Nobody in their right mind is ever going to try to follow a spiritual
to-do list that they know they'll never be able to start!

And yet Jesus is constantly telling people what to do - think of the
Rich man - Jesus tells him to sell everything and follow him - that is a
very clear todo for that person! So sometimes, individually, the need is
there, but we are not speaking to one another individually - gathered as
the Body of Christ trying to learn together The Way of Jesus. I think
that was a little tangent.

Right, so these things are not to-dos—eat together, walk together, teach
and learn, pray, and bless one another.

   They are not a list - because - you check things off a list,
     lists get completed,
     things to do -
         get done.

A Way - /The Way/ never ends - it's a whole shape of life.
Once you've blessed one person, you don't check “blessings” off the list
for the day!
God forbid! there may be another blessing waiting around the corner!

Once you've eaten with one person, you don't say done that for the day!
God forbid! There may be some incredible tiramisu waiting for you in the
Kitchen.

If we think of The Way of Jesus as a to-Do list, it is a burden to
complete. But if we see it as an invitation to a much more wholesome and
richer divine life, then the whole idea of burden completely disappears.

Yes, there may be - no, there will be - times when the walk of the
conversation or the meal is a very hard one - a burden itself, that’s
the carry the cross part; that particular blessing will be costly.

But as the world stands right now, with conflicts between nations,
within nations, between families within families, between churches
within churches,
The blessings, bridges, and conversations that we can have between one
another in love, end up being worth, in so many ways, infinitely more
than what they cost.

And set in the Way of Christ—they bear their own reward—at the very
least, we have participated in building up the Kingdom of God, acted as
the hands and Feet of The Body of Christ.
That alone, that in itself, is its own divine blessing.

Now these all of this happens in the last chapter of Gospel of Luke  -
Remember that Luke is the Physcian - he's the one who is keeping
everyhing in order In Luke one he says "using reports handed down by the
original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since
I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the
story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you."

     This is the outro - it's like Luke is saying - if you remember one
thing, remember this.

         The garden with Mary, walking, teaching and eating the road to
Emmaus, his appearing, teaching and eating with them in Jerusalem, and
then walking and talking with them to Bethany until blessed them and Acends.
Luke, as the physician he is, as the one who cares about the health of
Theopholis, the person to whom he wrote his Gospel, which translates as
Lover of God, so me and you,

     Luke, in his last chapter, has said to us - if you remember one
thing - remember this - the way of Jesus.

         Eat with each other, Give thanks and pray, walk with each
other, learn of Jesus with each other, and bless each other. [each of
these is its own sermon]

     Because in so doing we are partaking in the Ministry in the Life
Giving Way that Jesus began and will bring to its completion, not by our
own will, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, through each and every
one of us.