May 4, 2014 – Luke 24:13-35
Luke 24:13-35
Opening our Eyes
Third Sunday of Easter – May 4, 2014
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I was at an event on Friday morning where there was an infant present.
I think she’s about 5 or 6 months old.
As I watched her I noticed that she doesn’t notice the same things I notice.
Well, she noticed some of the same things: she really notices people’s faces, for instance.
But then she would notice things that I normally wouldn’t.
The pattern of shadow and light falling across a table from its centrepiece of flowers.
The colours of food arranged on a plate.
The peculiar angle a chair makes against a table.
Infants take in so much of the world, right?
That’s how they learn, for sure.
And I think it must be wondrous to be able to take in so much.
But as a matter of survival, human beings, as they grow older, learn to filter out much that
seems extraneous and focus on the seemingly important and practical.
If we were always taking in every detail without filtering any of it, so the theory goes,
we’d be so distracted all the time we’d be prey to being hunted and killed.
And so we learn to filter out what seems extraneous, or impractical –
whatever does not lend itself to our survival.
But as a result we lose sight of a lot that is part of our world.
Our world diminishes as we grow older – and so we too are in a way diminished.
In my house we are fans of Sherlock Holmes in all his various incarnations.
Holmes is someone who has retained the ability to see things around him that
others filter out.
This is what makes him a great detective, right?
When Watson expresses astonishment that Holmes has deduced something from his
observations, Holmes becomes annoyed:
“You see Watson,” says Holmes, “but you do not observe!”
Most of his powers come in the first instance from observation, seeing things that escape others.
In a way, Holmes looks at the world like the infant, with eyes that do not just see,
but that observe everything.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus are having a tough time seeing what they need to see
this morning.
They are definitely more Watson than Holmes.
What does Luke tell us?
Jesus himself came near and went with them but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
When they express astonishment that their companion doesn’t seem to know the things
that have taken place in Jerusalem over the last few days, he asks them, “What things?”
And it’s here they focus like the good Watson grown-ups they are on the seemingly
tmportant, practical details of the story:
Jesus’ identity as a prophet, his betrayal by the Jewish religious leaders,
his death at the hands of the Romans, their dashed hopes, and the empty tomb.
That sounds like a pretty good summary of the story to us.
But their companion finds it lacking. [Yvette Schock in The Christian Century at
www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-04/sunday-may-4-2014]
For their companion is more Holmes than Watson!
As the Lutheran pastor Yvette Schock writes in the Christian Century this week,
He reminds them at length of the promises of redemption found in the scriptures. [ibid.]
Surely he reminds them of God creating life from a world that is empty and void, like the tomb.
Surely he reminds them of God creating a people from a rag-tag group of slaves.
Surely he reminds them of God leading the people from exile to home.
Surely he reminds them of God creating new life from death-filled situations over and
Over and over again in the scriptural story.
Surely he reminds them that God sees what often escapes us.
They see but they do not observe:
they can only see according to what the world has conditioned them to see.
They can only see a world where the dead stay dead, rather than
the scriptural one in which the dead enter a new world of resurrection and new life.
They can only see a world where the rich get richer, rather than
the scriptural one in which the rich empty themselves.
They can only see a world where might makes right,
rather than the scriptural one where love makes right.
They can only see a world of sadness and despair and no hope,
rather than the scriptural one pulsating with light and resurrection and new life.
They can only see a world where the vulnerable are in constant danger rather than
the scriptural one in which the vulnerable are valued.
They can only see a world in which the hungry poor stay hungry rather than
the scriptural one in which the hungry are filled with good things.
They can only see a world in which the sinful remain guilty and guilt-ridden rather than
the scriptural one in which the sinful are forgiven and granted new life.
They see, but they do not observe the signs of new life all around them that God works and
that scripture points out to them.
It’s only when that new life is given to them, when a stranger assumes the role of host,
gives thanks for God’s abundance, and shares that abundance with them that
finally their eyes are opened.
Finally they observe.
Finally they truly see: they observe the world of graciousness, of new life,
of the hungry being fed, of hope – the world Jesus had opened up to them:
finally they see that there is more to the world than they had seen.
Finally they see in Holy Communion that there is much much more to the world.
They see that hope had not died on the cross.
And that neither, finally, had Jesus.
He opens their eyes to observe the truth of their situation: thathe had been with them all along.
That he had come to them in their despair.
That he did not abandon them but came and sought them out even when
they abandoned their hope in God.
He was with them in their grief and in their abandonment – all along!
He was there all along – in their despair and in their hopelessness.
Even when they could not see him, he could see them: he was there all along.
In our house we also love the Bunny Planet books by Rosemary Wells.
The books tell of children who have bad days: everything goes wrong at school or at home.
What they need, says the narrator, is a voyage to the Bunny Planet, where the Bunny Queen
Janet tells them of the day that should have been, filled with goodness and
sunshine and warmth and safety and joy.
The thing is, though, when their journey to the Bunny Planet is over, at the end of the day they
peek through a small window or a small opening of some kind, and there they see,
in the night sky shining brightly, the Bunny Planet!
It was there all along, says the narrator – it was there all along. They just needed to look for it.
We just need a new vision, right? A new way of seeing.
Like the disciples we too need to have our eyes opened to the things God would have us see.
Most of all to the abiding resurrection presence of Jesus – in those we don’t normally notice.
You know, I’ve been working in this neighbourhood for 14 years.
But there are still those I don’t really see.
I can tell myself that it’s because I’m busy. That I have important work to do.
But what is important? Who is telling me what’s important? The world? Or God?
I think God tried to tell me something this week.
On Wednesday I did something I’ve been meaning to do for some time:
I went into a shop I’ve never gone into before, the El Izalco Mexican Market
just around the corner from us on Sargent.
It’s been there as long as I can remember.
Okay: I’m not gonna lie: I went in looking for a cocktail ingredient I was assured I could find
at a Latin grocery!
And sure enough! They had it!
I was helped very nicely by Sara and Rene,
who have lived and worked in this neighbourhood for many many years.
I told them I was the pastor of the church around the corner and they were delighted to know it.
We spoke of our children and we talked about the neighbourhood.
They told me they loved the neighbourhood, the variety of people in it, and
of how misunderstood the West End often is by people who don’t live and work in it.
The thing is, pastor, they said, there is so much life here.
Well, I said, there are lots of joys and lots of sorrows, here.
Yes, pastor, they said again, but there is so much life. And they are right:
because Jesus has joined himself to all suffering in the cross, there is now no place
where God cannot be at work bringing healing and new life:
and that is powerful good news: we just don’t see it!
When I paid for my goods and left, they gave me a blessing, right in the heart of the West End,
in a place I had not expected to find one, in a place I wouldn’t have looked for one,
a place I actually hadn’t looked for one.
And that moved me.
So I took the blessing – and I determined to pass it on and give it away.
I went with my blessing to St. Boniface hospital where one of our members is.
She was in a double room with the curtain drawn between her and
the person in the bed next to her – a person who also had visitors.
In any case, our sister is not well, and has some difficult decisions ahead of her.
We talked, and shared conversation.
Then we prayed together, and we prayed for healing and new life and the presence of God and
the work of the Spirit.
And then, before I left, I passed on the blessing I had received: May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy, may the Lord look upon you with favour, and grant you peace.
As I was leaving, the people behind the curtain peeked out at me and began cheering and clapping and giving me the thumbs up!
These people were hungry for a new view, for some hope, for some consolation,
for some assurance that there is more to this life than what the world tells us there is.
And truly my eyes were opened doubly on that day.
For it turns that not only do we need to have our eyes opened by Jesus to
the much larger reality of God and resurrection and new life and his presence with us –
just like the Emmaus road disciples –
and not only are there lots of people like the people behind that screen who we don’t normally
see who are hungry to get a glimpse of the new world of resurrection life and hope –
but we also need to take and share what we have seen and experienced and pass it on –
and in the process become those who open others’ eyes to the resurrection reality of
new life and new hope: we need to see ourselves differently as
bearers of that new vision! We need to see ourselves as God sees us!
As people capable of bearing the blessing of the new world to others.
After all, those disciples on that day didn’t just have their eyes opened,
they ran and shared what they had seen and experienced!
They went back to Jerusalem!
To the place of death and declared that actually it is the place of life!
They told what had happened to them on the road!
And that Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread!
They had their eyes opened and in turn helped open others’ eyes.
They didn’t just become smarter Watsons, they became Holmes.
They didn’t just become smarter disciples, they performed the work of Jesus.
So come have your eyes opened once again at the table:
Where the world sees scarcity you are invited to observe abundance.
Where the world sees suffering and brokenness, you are invited to observe God
working new life.
Where the world sees only guilt, you are invited to observe forgiveness.
Where the world sees only death, may you see resurrection.
And may you know that Jesus is alive and present and working – that he is here, all along.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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