In the Gospel for today
the Resurrection Jesus is having a teaching moment with his disciples,
and we pick up something for ourselves in this,
if we also consider ourselves to be his disciples.
Do you see yourself as a disciple of Jesus, a student following him,
willing to be open to learning from him?
The setting for today’s Gospel reading
is what immediately follows the story
of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus
and their encounter with the Resurrection Jesus
in the breaking of the bread.
They had just returned to Jerusalem
and were telling the other disciples about this
when Jesus shows up, frightening them out of their wits.
And so he has to go to some lengths to assure them
that his physical presence is very solid,
and not a wispy spirit like a mirage or a ghost.
He gives them peace,
and joy is generated within them replacing their fear.
But they are still incredulous,
trying to understand what is happening before their eyes.
They cannot get their minds around it;
this is beyond comprehension.
And so the next gift that Jesus gives them
is that he opens their minds to understand the scriptures.
“These are my words,” he says to them,
“my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you
– that everything written about me in the law of Moses,
the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Throughout all of the Hebrew scriptures, all three parts
– law, prophets, and the writings –
the spiritual truth that is fully expressed in Jesus can be found,
and becomes more obvious
when it is seen reflected in the Jesus of the Resurrection.
But notice that Jesus is the one who opens their minds to understanding,
not their figuring it all out on their own
The spiritual master, the spiritual teacher
takes responsibility for the disciples
and does the work in and through the disciples.
For example, in the Gospel stories about feeding the multitudes,
the disciples were the ones distributing the bread.
It was in their hands that the miracle was taking place.
It was not the disciple performing the miracle.
The disciple is merely the instrument, the channel.
It was the Teacher Jesus who was doing the creating of the bread and fish,
working through their hands.
So it is with all who are disciples and followers of Jesus.
The true ministry and work that is done
in serving others in the Lord’s Name
is not the work of the disciple,
but work of the Spiritual Master who has sent the disciple.
All effectiveness in ministry is his alone.
Ponder that in your own ministry.
And last week with the story about Thomas and faith without seeing
and the charge to forgive and restrain sins
in the ministry of reconciliation,
the point was made that Jesus doesn’t leave
anything as important as our salvation,
to us and our response alone.
It was noted that faith is a gift, as well as a fruit, of the Spirit.
Even the faith that we think is our own
originates from the One who knows us best
and knows our great need in this area.
And now we see that likewise all our understand
is also within the scope of his management
and is also his gift to us, opening our minds.
Opening our minds first to something of what Resurrection is,
and then what he wants to effect through us
the proclamation of Good News,
to have your minds turned around – that’s what repentance is –
to turn around,
to stop going in one direction and get reoriented,
to have a changed mind – metanoia.
Through the Resurrection
Jesus is now able to work even more effectually through his disciples
beginning from Jerusalem and spreading throughout the world.
He opened their minds
to an expanded vision from the perspective of Resurrection.
If we also are disciples,
can it not also be said that in this process of discipleship,
our vision too will be expanded?
What might that be like for this congregation here?
As a big “for instance”
what might that be like for our calling process for a new priest-in-charge?
Are we all taking the calling process chaplain’s wise words to heart?
Ray strongly commended to each of us
To pray that beautiful calling process prayer daily.
And can we commit ourselves more deeply to the ongoing process of listening?
and to commit to continuing openness with each other
that fosters reconciliation and healing?
Can we see
that the Spirit of the Resurrection Jesus is very much present here
guiding us in this process,
just as surely as the disciples were guided and their minds were opened?
In today’s Gospel lesson
once the disciples’ minds were opened to the reality of Resurrection,
they couldn’t go back to the old way of thinking.
Catch a vision
and once that has happened you can’t go back.
Can we cooperate with the process?
Our Christian faith comes to us through revelation.
And it is not just revelation to those first disciples
who then wrote it down and taught it to others,
who taught it to others after them,
generation after generation.
No.
It is revelation to each and every person
through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus.
Can we cooperate with the process?
No great experience of blinding insight come to you, you say?
Revelation isn’t always a voice from heaven saying, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Think of your own experiences of what has made your faith come alive,
what insights, what discoveries,
the times you have read an old, familiar passage of scripture
and suddenly something new springs out of it into your awareness,
all these are indications of expansion of awareness,
the opening of the mind referred to here in this gospel.
Can we cooperate with the process?
And if you are like me, I don’t feel that I get it all yet,
that I want to be open to more revelation,
that I want to continue to be teachable,
and I will trust the Holy Spirit to teach me.
Faith has an open mind.
The Church exists because of the powerful Name of Jesus
that reveals to us that which saves us, that which liberates us
from all that binds our lives,
all that imprisons and confines our lives,
sin, fear, confusion, doubt .
There is a spiritual truth we need to get: form, and attachment to form,
blocks the ability to recognize reality.
Just as the disciples in the gospel reading for today
were attached to a framework, a form of perception about dead people and ghosts
that Jesus had to break up
to get them into a new framework of perception about resurrection,
in the same way there is an immense presumption in the Church
about the Institution continuing as it is,
& instead, we might say from current observation this isn’t working for the Church,
going through a destruction of a particular familiar form of being the Church
– and for its own good!
The testimony to the gospel, the declaration of what has been revealed to us,
is not, I would say, best served by how we have been doing church.
I am now speaking about the Episcopal Church in general.
The message, the core purpose of the Church, the gospel
will get expressed, despite our attempts that fumble
or get side tracked into more concern
about maintaining an institution or membership
or just about anything else.
The message, the core purpose of the Church, the gospel is about Jesus.
This is the reality that attachment to form blocks from sight.
So, may we keep firmly in mind that it’s about Jesus,
about the Resurrection,
about the good news of his saving Presence
to heal, restore, liberate, reveal
in service to all beings, bringing the Word of Life – Jesus.
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