Easter 3 Luke 24 v36b-48
The women have seen Jesus but their witness is discounted. Even today we find that woman are discounted as legal witnesses in many countries. Then Jesus appeared to Cleopas and his friend(a woman perhaps?) on the road to Emmaus and they go back to find the disciples in Jerusalem, gossiping about their story. And suddenly Jesus appeared, through locked doors. Scary stuff! And he said “Peace be upon you"-Salam, Shalom. Peace be upon you and your household, a peace that passes all understanding.
So we have a ghost with a gaping hole that you can feel. Or maybe it's just a story, a comfortable way of resolving grief, collective transference. So to answer their doubts he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.
God comes to us at strange times and jolts us from doubt to faith. We will not have the experience that the disciples had of feeling the holes where Jesus was pierced but something else cuts through and we believe.
There are a number of resurrection stories. In all of them Jesus appears. In most of them he is initially not recognized. In all of them he gives his peace and in all of them (except the garden tomb) the setting is in the context of eating. There are eucharistic overtones. There may be a profound truth here that Jesus is always potentially to be found as we eat together.
Gods Spirit is with us everywhere and in everything we go through on our journey of life. God may bump into the middle of the chaos of your life even though we cannot feel the marks of the crucified body of Jesus.
This week coming back from Iona I read James Lovelock's latest book on Gaia. It too is scary stuff. Will there be a resurrection from this death we seem hellbent on bringing about? He gives us 30 years before the earth kicks back through devastating global warming. There will be deaths and there will be resurrection because it’s the rhythm of the universe and maybe our anthropological view of the universe needs to drastically change.
Down to earth today I planted 20 rooster seed potatoes 6x16x25 in the back garden in soil that is tough as old boots. So Im going to earth them up with a lot of loam as the potatoes come through. Green shoots in an arid context.
