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April 26, 2009--Third Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Texts: Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48

Sermon Text: Luke 24:36b-49

Powerfully Peaceful Steps

Every Easter Sunday morning it was a tradition in my household as a child that I would wake up to find a solid milk chocolate bunny. My parents didn’t go all out for other American traditions of the day, but before we went to Church, I was sure to get at least that one treat. I often would rush out the door with a huge chunk from the ears or tail stuck in my cheek!

I can’t tell you then how disappointing it was the day I awakened to find my mother had accidentally purchased a hollow milk-chocolate bunny. I barely remember the fact that it was a milk-chocolate bunny. What I remember clearly is the fact that it was hollow! I love my mother, dearly in fact, but I honestly wondered that day if she was somehow withholding her love from me. I wondered what great crime against humanity I had done to deserve such a turn.

Well, here we are a couple of weeks out from Easter Sunday morning. A Christian calendar somewhere insists that we still keep calling this Easter. In fact, this is the Third Sunday of Easter. But does it really feel like Easter? The cheerleaders among us say a hearty “Yes!” But many others of us, and good Christian folks I might add, would suggest that maybe we are beating a ritual drum just to connect the dots on the calendar. Is that how you feel? Go ahead be honest! If we had the solid bunny on Easter, do you feel like we are now pulling out the hollow one this week?

As a pastor, I am often amazed at how we compartmentalize our faith in Christ so that we know what to believe, but don’t always feel it. Or we feel strong in the Lord, but so quickly let our minds get pushed around by cultural influences. I wonder, what will it take for us to become holistically holy? What will it take for us to know the God of this universe, and to feel His presence in the basic and mundane details of a day like the Third Sunday of Easter?

Is the answer more philosophy? Is it education? Is it a little bit more money? We have to ask, is the answer a certain type of worship style? What is it that will make that change?

I love how we encounter Jesus in this Gospel. In John’s Gospel, Jesus greets us with “Peace!” But here in Luke something is different. Last week we discovered that John is looking to communicate to the disciple that Jesus is the very Son of God. It is because He is not only a man, but the fullness of the Deity, that we find hope for faithful living and loving in this world. Luke’s concern here, which does not stand in opposition to John’s focus but rather complements it well, is that this resurrected Jesus is especially the fullness of resurrected humanity. I mean, Luke goes to the point here of talking about the human process of seeing and believing. Luke presents us with a Jesus with a new body, and the promise of a physical eternity and hope. Luke even gives us the image of the resurrected Jesus eating a piece of broiled fish!

Here is the point of this message today: Jesus is so much more in touch with what it means for you to be a human than even you are. He knows why you cry. He feels your laughter. He is broken by your loss. But my friends--be at peace, because Jesus also promises His real presence in our lives.

In this passage, Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Father’s promised presence. They were to gather in Jerusalem, and to wait for the power for living. This wasn’t simply a head thing, a concept that they would soon understand. Jesus was instead talking very plainly about a realized resurrection presence that would change them. Though this text does not use the language of the Holy Spirit, it does however recognize the prophetic language of fulfillment that Luke earlier employs as he talks about the anointing in Jesus’ life to preach good news and proclaim freedom. We have to remember that it was Luke who later recorded the story of Pentecost, celebrating the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

So what will it take for us, so many years later, to receive that promised Spirit? As I asked earlier, what will it take for us to know the God of this universe, and to feel His presence in the basic and mundane details of a day like this? Do we need to wait until the Christian calendar declares this to be Pentecost Sunday? Or is such peace possible for a people like you and me today?

I rejoice in verse 45 as it says that Jesus opened their minds so they could understand. Oh, what grace! Knowing our human experience to the smallest molecular level, Jesus knew that the cloud of human thinking needed blown away. It is important to note, the disciples were not without response. The preceding passages give us a glimpse into a group of disciples who were pursuing a deeper understanding of the Lord. It is almost as if they were grasping for the understanding Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane as he finally surrendered saying “Not my will, but Thine!” (Luke 22:42, KJV).

I recall with you today the words of James 4:8 that says “Come near to God and He will come near to you” (NIV). That is the promise of a God who knows what it means for you to be human. That is also the promise of a God who knows what His humanity can offer to make you like the Divine.

So my friend, if there is one last lesson for you and me during this Easter season, may it be that no matter how the seasons of life change, or what the seasons themselves change into, by the solid presence of God among us there is hope that this is still Easter. And because this is still Easter, we are “still in one peace!”1 (P-E-A-C-E).


1. A closing line from an email once received by the author from Dr. Leonard Sweet.