3 Easter A April 30, 2017
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Acts 2: 14a, 36-41 + Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19 + 1 Peter 1: 17-23
Luke 24: 13-35
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!
On a recent episode of the television show 60 Minutes, anchor Scott Pelley told the stories of how the some of the parents of those twenty little first grade students killed in Newtown Connecticut were managing to make their way through life almost five years later. The interviews were poignant….hard to watch. It brought to mind the fear of every parent….that somehow we will not be able to keep our children safe. We teach them from an early age: don’t talk to strangers, stop drop and roll, say no to drugs, don’t drink and drive. Even on the days when I can barely manage a prayer for anything else, I always, always…every single day….pray for the safety and well being of my children. I’ll bet some of those Newtown parents did too.
We heard these words from the Psalmist today: I love the LORD, who has heard my voice, and listened to my supplication, for the LORD has given ear to me whenever I called.
There’s a problem with my daily prayer for protection and safety for my children. I know this. I have an advanced Master’s degree in theology, in the study of God and how God has acted and does act in the world. And I know how God does not act. God, as you have heard me say on multiple occasions, is not a chess playing old white guy in the sky….saying “today I will cause this to happen. Today I will protect this child, but not that one. Today I will heal this person but not that one. Today these children will die in a classroom, but all of the other classrooms, at least on this day, will be safe. Today this young woman will be attacked and assaulted in broad daylight, but this one will not. Today, these children will have enough food, but these children will go hungry.” That God is a capricious God and not how a God of mercy acts in the world. So this is the problem with my prayer for daily protection….because it presumes that God will intervene and act on behalf of just specific people, those whom I have named in my prayers.
I love the Lord who has heard my voice and listened to my supplication, for the Lord has given ear to me whenever I called.
Well, okay. The Psalmist does not actually say that God answered his supplications, only that God heard them. Only that God has listened. Only that when the cords of death wrapped about her, when she came to grief and sorrow….God was there. Only that in the midst of heartbreak and sadness and pain….God was there, listening.
Our Gospel reading today also begins in lament and heartache. It is the story of two heartbroken disciples walking along the road. The One whom they had followed and loved and believed in had been killed. All of their sorrow and pain, all of their despair and grief is summed up in this one phrase: “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” But we had hoped that Jesus was the one we had heard about and longed for and believed would come to save us. But we had hoped…and now he is dead.
But we had hoped.
How do we fill in the rest of that sentence for ourselves? But we had hoped that….what? Because we all have them….hopes for life…our own or those we love….that do not come to pass. Hopes that disappear as quickly as a diagnosis or a car accident or a violent attack. Hopes that vanish along with a dream we never pursued or words we spoke when we should have remained silent. Hopes that seemed to stay just out of our reach, no matter how hard we tried.
But we had hoped.
But we had hoped that we would find better jobs when we came to Seattle. We didn’t realize that we couldn’t afford to live here…said the young men sleeping in our church doorway.
But we had hoped that when our beloveds were at school they were safe…said the parents of the 237 students and teachers killed on school campuses since Columbine.
But we had hoped that walking in broad daylight with people around would be a safe place for our daughter to be, said your pastor and her spouse.
But we had hoped that the black sons of worried mothers would be safe when they walked home in their neighborhoods said the mother of Tamir Rice and far too many others.
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
And Jesus walked along, listening to the disciples describe their hopes for Jesus and hearing them tell of how he had been killed….which is such a great thing to imagine….how they did not recognize him and how he listened to them without revealing who he was. Because he could have just said “Hey! It’s me!” Instead he reminded them of what had been written about the Messiah in Scripture, of what they knew. He reminded them that they knew that his life would eventually lead to his death. When he was finished reminding them, it seemed that he was going to move on and the two disciples invited and encouraged him to stay with them. As they prepare for the evening meal, and they gather at the table, Jesus picks up the bread, blesses and breaks it and gives it to them and then…then their eyes were opened. Then, they recognized him. Then, they knew who he was.
For these two unnamed disciples, and we know from the reading that they were not part of the remaining eleven, because they return to Jerusalem to tell the eleven, the text says. So, for these two unnamed disciples, who could be any of us, Jesus does not diminish their pain. In fact, it could be argued that he raises more questions than he answers. He does not take away the hard thing that has happened to them.
And here is the most important thing: the theological understanding he offers them….when he interprets all that was written about him in Scripture….that is not what opens their eyes. That is not what makes him known to them. It is not until he takes bread and gives it to them that they realize that he is with them, even in their heartache.
Where is God in the midst of our pain? Where is God when the children we have prayed for since before they were born are hurt or killed? Where is God when our loved ones leave or our dreams die? Hasn’t God heard our prayers?
Beloved of God…our prayers are received and heard by the God who loves us. God walks with us in every moment of heartache and in every grief and pain. God walks beside us, even when we don’t realize it and God accompanies us through the deepest darkest places.
And the way we know this is not through theological arguments, although a sound understanding of God is the very best grounding. The way we know that God is with us is found in the very body of Christ. It is in the body of Christ as it forms in community and holds one another up…as we bear one another’s burdens. As we take meals to people who are hurting. As we sit with the grieving. As we reach out to the heartbroken.
And God is with us in the sacraments….in water that washes over us like God’s abundant mercy. In bread that when it is broken and blessed and shared is the very body of Christ…broken for us.
God hears our every prayer. And because of the brokenness and sinfulness in the world and because our bodies sometimes just don’t cooperate…..hard things happen. Bad things happen. Our hearts are broken.
And we might think, really? Really, God….where ARE you in this? But when we look around, we will find that God has been walking alongside us all along, and we didn’t even know it.
Thanks be to God, and let the church say…Amen.