Acts 2: 14a, 36-41 Psalm 116: 1-4
1 Peter 1: 17-23 Luke 24: 13-35
Grace and peace to you from God our creator and Jesus our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.
They were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. We’ve done a great deal of that over the course of the past week. What does it mean, we have asked one another and ourselves, that Osama bin Laden is dead? This man who is responsible for the deaths of over 3000 people on 9/11. This man whom we have hunted down for almost ten years. This man who was the head of a terrorist organization. What does his death mean for us? Yes, like those two men on the road to Emmaus we have been talking about all the things that have happened.
I told someone earlier this week that it is not always easy to be a person of faith at times like this. Many of you know that I am the proud mother of a United States Marine. I have two good friends who are chaplains in the United States Army. Our men and women in uniform, from all branches, are in my prayers daily. And as much as I believe that killing is not God’s desire, is not what Christ taught, if I thought that the death of Osama bin Laden would mean that the many thousands of people who have died during our ten years of searching, that all who perished in 9/11 had somehow been avenged, maybe, just maybe I could abide this particular killing, this assassination. But they are still dead. And yet, perhaps his death means that no more will die in war, as people of hope we can pray that this is true. It is important for us to talk to each other about all the things that have happened.
One of you emailed me this week and asked if I thought God wept over this particular death. My answer was that I thought God wept more over this particular life. God’s desire for Osama bin Laden, who was created in God’s image just as surely as each of us were, was that he would lead a full rich life, walking in the ways God had intended at the dawn of Creation. That he and that we would be caretakers of the earth and of one another. That he and that we would seek justice in ways that made the world brighter and safer for each passing generation. That he and that we would seek not revenge, but mercy, not darkness, but hope. And so, I think that if we imagine that God weeps over us, just as we knew that Jesus wept over Jerusalem and Lazarus, then I would imagine that God weeps over how terribly wrong Creation has turned. Yes, it is important that we talk about all of the things that have happened.
In this story along the Emmaus road, the two walking there tell Jesus that ‘some women’ of the group astounded them when they reported seeing the risen Lord. Of course, reporting this “Jesus is alive” sighting was exactly what Jesus had told those women to do. And we know that the women were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and these two walking along the road knew their names as well. But in this story, they are simply ‘some women’, unnamed and unvalued. And in the story we have been talking about this week, there are also unnamed women, one of whom was killed. Every time I heard the news stories on Monday, I wanted to ask who this woman was. I wanted to shout at the reporters to at least do some investigative reporting and find out who she was, why she was there, and what her name was. Instead, she joined a long line of unnamed and unvalued women of Scripture, whose contributions to society of the time or to the events of the day would be overlooked or at least not properly credited. How can we pray for this woman’s soul if she is not named for us? Of what value was her life if we cannot name her. Did they pause before they took her life, too? Was her life so expendable? After all, she had no name. It is important that we talk about, and name, all of the things that have happened.
Here’s another thing that stuck in my mind and heart this week. All of those who died in this attack, including Osama bin Laden, and all of those who have died in the ten years since 9/11 and all of those who died in those attacks, had mothers. I could not help but wonder what his mother thought when her son became such a tyrant and terrorist. Had he been the neighborhood bully? A quick Google search revealed the sad truth. His mother had been the fourth wife of a powerful, wealthy man, who had too many children to count. Osama had been kept from her, raised in his father’s compound, but scorned by all of the other children and wives, and called “the son of a slave” as his nickname. The only tenuous relationship he had was with his father, and his world came tumbling down when his father died, ironically in a helicopter crash, when Osama was ten. He was then sent to live with his mother, with whom he never fit in. It is, important that we talk about all of the things that have happened.
It is also, I think important that we, as people of faith, make some connection about our identity as Easter people, as followers of Christ to the way we respond to events of the day. I don’t mean that we need to set a good example, although there’s nothing wrong with that. What I am talking about is how it is that we search for the risen Christ in these and other situations. How does our response indicate who it is that we place our faith and trust in?
Recently I was reading the accounts in Scripture of post resurrection appearances of Jesus. And I noticed this interesting thread: in every case, the people to whom Jesus appeared were not looking for him or they did not recognize him. Instead, he appeared to them…he found them. He found disciples locked behind closed doors because they were afraid of retaliation. He found Mary Magdalene weeping in the garden. He found these two along the road to Emmaus, talking about all the things that had happened. And he sought them out. And in these cases, there were ways that they realized it was Jesus. In the case of the disciples locked behind the doors it was when he shared the peace with them. Peace be with you, he said. And they knew it was him. And in the case of Mary Magdalene in the garden, she recognized him when he called her by name. And on the Emmaus road, they did not recognize him until he had gone to their home and broken bread with them.
As Easter people, then, as people who follow and believe in the risen Jesus Christ, how do we know him? Where do we see him? Do we see him when we speak a word of peace to one another? That’s why we share the peace instead of just saying “good morning”….because we see Jesus in the exchange, in the face of the other. Do we know Jesus when we are called by name and truly known for who we are? Called by name in baptismal waters, and for some of us, again at our confirmation. God’s children, all. Or do we know Jesus in warm hospitality, which was a key component of the early church. Or is it in the breaking of the bread, the sharing of a meal or of this holy meal where Jesus is known.
And how does that knowing Jesus affect our response to the events of any day? How does that knowing Jesus affect our response to our child who is dawdling and will be late for school again? How does our knowing Jesus affect our response to the need for volunteers or the stewardship drive at church or the victims of natural disasters or the death of an evil terrorist? It is important that we talk about all the things that have happened.
This is not a sermon about politics, and if you have heard it as such, I hope you will come and talk to me. This is a sermon, rather about how critical and vital it is to the community of faith that we talk about things that happen. Whether they are events of global importance or whether they are, as one of our shut in members told Mary this week, simply that we are lonely and wish someone would come and have a cup of coffee with us. Such conversation, is essential and necessary for the development of the body of Christ. And, who knows, while we are talking, we might just meet someone along the road that we don’t recognize, but who knows us even better than we know ourselves. Let’s invite him to stay with us, just like those disciples on the road to Emmaus did. Then, when we have eaten with him, received the bread and wine, then our eyes will also be opened and we will be strengthened to go and share the good news with all we meet.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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