Luke 24:36b-53
Easter 3 - Year B
Doubts continue past Thomas. Doubts even in the presence of Jesus Resurrected. Doubts even in the presence of joy (which, in and of itself, tends to dismiss questions in order to party).
The suggestion is that Jesus nibbling on sushi put their doubts away far enough that they could attend to some teaching. For me it is this teaching, not the fish, that finally moved the disciples past their doubting.
The big teaching is not just the historical facts and figures of their religious heritage, but that they were a part of it in a very particular way. "Witnesses," says Jesus. "Martyrs," says the world.
There is something about seeing Jesus Resurrected that helped them come to terms with their own following - being Jesus' body in the world will lead to martyrdom.
Maybe it wasn't so much doubt as scare that they were dealing with when they first refused to recognize the presence of Jesus Resurrected. They had done their best to avoid learning this lesson. Now they can't get out of it one more time. "Jesus take this cup from us." No? Then, OK. Witnessing Martyrs it is.
(Is it fair to substitute "Resurrected" for "Christ" - just what does "Christ" mean to you these days?)
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html
Hear Peterson's translation: "You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations - starting from here...."
How often do we need to learn about suffering? How often do we fail to acknowledge death? How often do we hear about repentance first without the context for it, forgiveness?
To wrestle with these three realities - suffering, death, forgiveness - is to come to real life, life real enough to witness to with everything we have.
So, starting from where we are, here, forgiven, we witness - "martures" arise!
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html
"Have you anything to eat?" When the response is, "Yes", the action is to share. In United Methodist circles this next Sunday is Native American Awareness Sunday. Hear this story:
Knowing Who You Are
by Ray Buckley
Director, Native American Communications Office
Some history-altering events happen quietly. Like Seuss-esque descriptions of Christmas in Whoville, we stand amazed that something has happened without much noise, without trappings. We are almost embarrassed. It doesn't fit the model. And then we hear the singing.
The story is simple. Yupik native people on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, separated from their Yupik relations in Siberia during the Cold War, began to make the trip across the Bering Strait in boats. As the exchanges increased, so did the intentional sharing of personal lives and personal faith.
Yupik People, or "Real People," still exist as hunting and gathering societies. They continue subsistence living on the land, islands, and sea of north-northwest Alaska and eastern Siberia. Their lives continue to revolve around the fish, caribou, polar bear, seal, walrus and whale.
In the past, St. Lawrence Islanders had traded seal oil and walrus for caribou products with their Siberian cousins in the Chukotka region. In a society that promoted sharing as a cultural foundation, it was normal that the Gospel would be shared as naturally as a meal or the rewards of a hunt. But there was also a determination. There was risk and danger. There was suspicion on the part of the Chukotka government, and neglect by many agencies and state organizations in the United States.
There were pressing needs. As economic conditions in Russia became severe, life in Siberian Yupik villages became difficult. Food was scarce, and many families were forced to eat their dogs.
In Anchorage, Alaska, Della Waghiyi, a beautiful, United Methodist Yupik elder, heard the reports from Chukotka. Della (whose husband, John, had been one of the first St. Lawrence Islanders to cross to Siberia by boat, after the Cold War) wept when she heard the news. Unable to eat, she contacted the Rev. Jim Campbell, a non-Native United Methodist pastor, and together with members of the Moravian Church, the ministry to Chukotka expanded. From the heart of one woman, to a small congregation, to a small missionary conference, God brought about a series of events that caught the attention of the world.
The quiet miracle is that most of the people directly involved in this story are Yupik. The faces crossing the Bering Strait are Yupik faces. They are American Yupik and Siberian Yupik. They would not think of themselves as missionaries as much as family. And family doesn't allow family to go without.
What has emerged quietly and strongly is something we have not yet seen in the history of missions among Native people. It is the emergence of a new church. Native voices, speaking through native culture, becoming the Body of Christ in a native society. In this process, neither the richness of Yupik culture nor the Gospel has been compromised.
There has been wisdom in the history of the Yupik Christians, who have not seen the leaving behind of those things inconsistent with the faith as synonymous with Yupik culture. Rather, they have believed that the work of God in their lives would produce a people of faith, and God has chosen to strengthen them as a people who hunt walrus, seal, and caribou, and at whose singing, the angels fold their wings.
Despite international conflict and forced separation, the Yupik have held tenaciously to their connectedness and their responsibility for each other. And that is shaping the emerging Yupik church.
Yupik culture in Siberia is being preserved both as self-awareness, and as means for economic development. The concept of communal sharing has expanded beyond the Yupik community to all people in need. The traditional values reflected in the relationship of people to creation as a whole, and responsible subsistence living, are impacting environmental policies. The Gospel is being preached, the hungry fed, the naked clothed and justice sought.
The church will be different, but it will be valid. It will be valid, because the provisional work of Christ is also for Yupik. And the provisions of Christ are for those who speak Yupik, choose a subsistence lifestyle and maintain a connected society.
Often, Native ministry emulates the larger church. We develop a bureaucracy, in the belief that ministry must first be regulated and funded. We must have jurisdictional ministries to prove that the church supports us. We wait for the apologies or the election of a Native bishop. We wait, sometimes quietly, sometimes not, for the credibility that comes with the recognition of the church.
The danger is that we don't often believe ourselves, what we are asking the church to believe. We're not quite sure that in this time, in this place, that the voices of Native people have something to refresh the Body of Christ. We are not quite sure, Native or non-Native, that God can do anything with just our obedience.
God is waiting for us to get in the boat.
When Della Waghiyi sings in Yupik, it is like the soft clicking sounds of knitting needles. The sounds are rounded and smooth with glottal inflections. There is a glow on her face. She is a person who seems intimate with her Creator. But there is also another sound. It is the sound of the loaves and fishes, in Yupik baskets, being broken once again, to feed as many as are hungry.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
You are witnesses of these things. What things? Our fear of the unexpected (a flight or fight response seems to be on a hair-trigger and very strong). One thing that helps manage that is an expectation of the unexpected.
We are also witnesses of joy and disbelief living side by side. Our tendency is to emphasize one side of that pairing, or the other. One thing that helps us keep perspective is to anticipate them both being present, even if one appears in the foreground and the other takes the momentary background. We don't need to make up a story that would prioritize them.
We are also witnesses of the importance of table fellowship, whether it be ritualized bread and cup or a piece of broiled fish (or my treat today of smoked salmon).
We are also witnesses of the promises and threats of the past coming to fulfillment. This makes us a bit hesitant about the pronouncements we make in this day because of their echoing into tomorrow and coming back to haunt in different circumstances.
We are also witnesses that we are but witnesses. No eternal truths here. We simply say what we have experienced. We don't need to fudge the truth to make G*D look better, ourselves look better, or our enemies look worse.
- - -
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http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
"...repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed...." (Luke 24:47)
"I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety." (Psalm 4:8)
These two lines play well together. In a season of resurrection we can spend time on the process (focusing on what we know - betrayal, injustice, torture, death - rather than what we don't know - visits to hell, empty tombs, experience of continuity even when not immediately recognizable) or on resurrection's intention - changing direction and forgiveness.
To lie down and sleep can also be to die. We can do so in "safety" when expecting to arise forgiven and with a changed direction.
When life is revealed we shall see it as it is - healed, changed, forgiven, onward from here - and we will participate in those same dimensions.
- - -
we see health or healing and
we shy away from their politics
to admit unexpected healing
that which we were not a party
raises our already high anxieties
to the point of denial of our senses
being out of touch with ourselves
puts us out of community with others
our wonder and amazement can turn on a dime
from loud praise to louder death to loudest peace
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Remembering the empty grave scene, after the Acts version of ascension we hear two guys in white as a Greek chorus telling folks to move on, there's nothing to see here, and as you saw him go so he will return.
Here in Luke we see a bit more about how Jesus went - opening their minds and blessing all the way home.
If we see Jesus in this fashion of open blessing, rather than the great police eye-in-the-sky waiting an opportune time to drop in to arrest and eternally imprison, then we need to pay attention to these signs of Jesus' return and our day-by-day living.
Where did you see openness going on this past week? Where was blessing present? Jesus was there, returned, remembered.
- - -
let's see
Jesus leaves
after opening minds
and blessing lives
disciples take their blessing
and bless G*D in return
in the temple blessing
still in the temple blessing
until it is a blessing cocooned
a potential blessing entombed
until two dressed in white
drop by to ask an explosive question
why are you looking up blessing heaven
when so much blessing is needed next door
kaboom
back to prayer-filled rooms
rather than inward looking temples
this slight movement
changes everything
neighbors must be encountered
in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria
opening of hearts and minds and doors
is again the order of the day
adding blessing to blessing
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
On this day of remembering ascension we do well to pay attention to footnotes.
* Other ancient authorities lack "and was carried up into heaven" (Lk 24:51).
* Other ancient authorities lack "worshiped him, and" (Lk 24:52
And so we read: "Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God."
This moves us to the same sort of abrupt ending of Mark that cries out for something more. This is a good place for Luke to end his story of Jesus and then to pick it up again to begin his story of Church.
This reading also helps us see the issue of "blessing" without the confusion heaven adds to this and almost every conversation of which it is a part.
Acts begins with a remembrance of Jesus speaking with the disciples for forty days about the presence of G*D, the freedom of G*D, the mercy of G*D, the new-beginning of G*D, partnership with G*D (or if you must, the kingdom of G*D).
This conversation reminds the disciples that they are still not experiencing these gifts of presence, freedom, mercy, new beginnings, or partnership. So the hinge question, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the king-dom to Israel?" This question represents the failure of the disciples to stand with Jesus rather than under him.
Confirming this is their response to Jesus being lifted up and out of sight (still without heaven being mentioned). They gawk upward. Two strangers need to remind them that Jesus will return in the same way, inexplicably, and if they keep avoiding one another and the world around them, they will have missed the next opportunity to, unexplainedly, share their experience of an amazedly unexplainable G*D.
To put the two passages together - It is time for us to rise, as workers/saviors of the world, to throw off our chains of gazing in the wrong direction, and to be a blessing.