St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
April 14, 2024
Year B: The Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 3:12-19
Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
The Next Suppers
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Yes, it is still Easter!
Oh, the world has long since moved on, of course.
Stores have run their deep discounts to get rid of all that unsold Easter candy.
And, if we had Easter candy in our house, by now it’s probably all gone. Or, maybe all that’s left is the sweets we don’t like.
By now, the Easter baskets have been put away for another year.
The world may have long since moved on, but for us, for the Church, it is still Easter!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Although we’re now well into the Easter Season, I’m still digesting Holy Week. And for me, one of the most moving moments of Holy Week is the Maundy Thursday service.
If you can, you really should attend next year.
On Maundy Thursday, we turn our attention to the Last Supper.
Now, the Last Supper is the most famous meal ever, right?
It’s the meal we remember and reenact every Sunday when we gather here around the Table and receive the Bread and Wine, when we take Jesus into our bodies and hearts.
The Last Supper is the most famous meal ever, but on Maundy Thursday we slow down a bit and really focus on that night, on that solemn and somber gathering in Jerusalem, two thousand years ago.
For a while, Jesus had been predicting what was going to happen to him – rejection, death, and resurrection – but the disciples hadn’t understood.
Or maybe they just didn’t want to understand.
But gathered together on that night, the hard truth was sinking in.
Jesus uses these last few precious minutes to teach some most important lessons.
Despite Peter’s initial objection, Jesus washes the feet of his friends and says that this is how it should be among them – among us - that we should serve one another – that we must love one another, as Jesus has loved us.
Jesus blesses the bread and wine and promises to be with us each time we gather around the table just like this, each time we remember him.
And Jesus promises that he is going on ahead of us to prepare a place for us – the place of reunion – where, someday, we will all be together forever.
And Jesus says that he is the way to that place.
Jesus is the Way.
At the end of the Maundy Thursday service, after we’ve received Communion, when there’s not much left to say, we “strip” the altar – we clear away all the sacred vessels and linens, the crosses and torches – leaving bare our sacred space, symbolizing Jesus’ absence.
Soon it will be finished.
Or so it will seem.
For the past two Sundays we heard the Easter story according to the Gospel of John – first, Mary Magdalene’s discovery of the empty tomb and her encounter with Jesus in the garden, and then the Apostle Thomas doubting that the disciples had actually seen the Risen Jesus.
And now today we switch to the Gospel of Luke.
And Luke gives us a couple of unique Easter stories.
The first is the story of the Risen Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus – how the two disciples didn’t know that the stranger beside them on the road was Jesus – they didn’t recognize Jesus until they gathered around the table and he blessed and broke the bread.
In that story, Jesus immediately vanishes before any food is consumed and the two disciples rush back from Emmaus to Jerusalem to share with the other disciples the news that they had seen the Lord.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Which brings us to today’s gospel lesson.
Just like it’s still Easter for us, it is still Easter – it’s still the first Easter, actually, for the frightened and confused disciples in Jerusalem.
Suddenly Jesus appears and says, “Peace be with you.”
For all sorts of understandable reasons that we talked about last week, the traumatized disciples are startled and terrified.
In a world of horrors, good news is just hard to accept – hard to believe.
Just like we heard in John’s account last week, Jesus shows his wounds – the Risen Christ is still the same Jesus who was tortured and killed.
But, apparently because the disciples still weren’t totally sure that this really was Jesus, he asks a surprising question:
“Have you anything here to eat?”
And the Risen Christ proceeds to eat a piece of broiled fish.
The point, of course, is that Jesus is not a ghost.
Jesus is not a disembodied spirit.
The Risen Christ is still embodied.
The Risen Christ is transformed – people don’t always recognize him and locked doors are no obstacle – but the Risen Christ is still flesh, wounded and scarred - and eating broiled fish with his friends.
It turns out that the Last Supper was not the last supper.
As I’ve sat with this story this week, I’ve understood this meal – and since I can’t imagine Jesus eating alone, surely Jesus invited the others to sit down and enjoy some broiled fish, too – I’ve come to understand this meal as the “Next Supper” – the first of many Next Suppers with Jesus and his friends down through the centuries – the first of many Next Suppers, including the Next Supper that we will share here in a few minutes.
At the Next Suppers, something far better than broiled fish – something way better even than candy - is on the menu.
At the Next Suppers, we receive the Body and Blood of Christ – we receive the comfort and strength we need to go out and be Christ in our world – in our real life, flesh and blood, messed up but still beautiful, world.
At the Next Suppers, we are reminded that Jesus is the Way, the Way to the place of reunion with those who have gone on ahead of us - and the Way of Jesus is the way of loving service, the way of washing feet, the way of giving away our lives for others.
At the Next Suppers, we are reminded that suffering and death certainly do plenty of damage – we know only too well that the wounds really hurt and the scars remain – but, no matter how painful and sad life may get, suffering and death do not get the last word.
Because Jesus is alive!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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