Collect

 

Almighty Father, in your great mercy you gladdened the disciples with the sight of the risen Lord: give us such knowledge of his presence with us, that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;  through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

A reading from Acts   (2.14a, 36-41)

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.’

    Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’

    Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’

    And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’

    So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

 

Psalm 116. 1-8 & 12-end

1    I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.

2    Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

3    The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.

4    Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘O Lord, I pray, save my life!’

5    Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.

6    The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.

7    Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

8    For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

12    What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?

13    I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,

14    I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

15    Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.

16    O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving-maid.  You have loosed my bonds.

17    I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord.

18    I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,

19    in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.  Amen

 

A reading from 1 Peter   (1.17-23)

 

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

    He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

    Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

This is the word of the Lord.

        Thanks be to God.

 

Listen to the Gospel of Christ according to St Luke   (24.13-35)

    Glory to you, O Lord.

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognising him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’

    They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’

    He asked them, ‘What things?’

    They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’

    Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

    As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them.

    When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’

    That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’

    Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

 

This is the Gospel of the Lord.  Praise to you, O Christ.

 

Reflection - AE

Do you ever have that thing happen where you’re walking along the road, maybe a busy pavement, Abergavenny or Crickhowell on a Saturday, by the bakers’, and for some reason, you’re not thinking of something else, or in my case I’ve forgotten my glasses, but you pass someone and only realise afterwards that it was someone you knew.

 

That’s embarrassing. You were’t looking properly. possibly mildly upsetting. 

 

More upsetting, imagine a small child, staying safe at home with a babysitter, and her parents come in to say goodnight before going off to a fancy dress party.

 

Dad, being a dad, hasn’t bothered about that too much, and looks just like Dad.

 

Mum, though, has taken it more seriously, and standing there is a complete stranger, holding Dad’s hand in a way a stranger shouldn’t, and that can be traumatic.

 

Only when this person says the child’s name, holds her hand, and touches her cheek like her Mum always does, does it suddenly become alright, and the three are suddenly properly together again.

 

Being with someone properly, in a way that can be felt, takes more than just presence on its own:  it needs presence with attention, participation, open-ness to seeing differently, not just as we expect, or even as we hope.

 

These two disciples walking to Emmaus did have a disadvantage, because we’re told somehow their eyes were kept from recognising Jesus.

 

They were busy being sad, telling their story, discussing their own understanding of what had happened at the crucifixion, which to them then looked catastrophic, and were unable to see the risen Christ standing right beside them.

 

We can’t be too harsh on them.  That same day Mary Magdalene had mistaken Christ for a gardener.

 

In hindsight, they realised that when he chided them and interpreted the scripture for them, their hearts and spirits were beginning to warm, to turn, to respond and participate.

 

In time, they did recognise that the resurrected Christ was there, was with them, walked beside them, was real.

 

Their eyes were opened, and in the blessing of the bread, the breaking and sharing of it in the presence and participation of that table, in fellowship, they realised he had been there all along.

 

What we have to ask ourselves now, though, is what do we need to do to open our own eyes, to see that Christ is there beside us too.

 

Of course prayer helps, and taking the time, even just a few minutes, to properly listen, to being open, ready to participate, even see things in a way we don’t expect, to allow God to be with us.

I saw Rana on Friday, back at home and well on the road to recovery from his stroke.

 

He told me he had been very upset that another man in the Grange, who unlike Rana drank, smoked, was properly overweight, was discharged, but why did he, Rana, have to be there?  Why, God, had this happened to him? 

 

Even Jesus, on the cross, felt something similar, “Father! Why hast thou forsaken me?”

 

With hindsight, though, he hadn’t, and as the Trinity God had been there in the Holy Spirit, who maintained the connection with Jesus to bring him to the resurrection.

 

With hindsight, also, Rana understood.  The stroke had not been God’s doing, but it happened.  When it happened, though, Rana was in church, with Moseena there and people who got him to hospital.  The doctors were there, and treated him quickly.  He was not in bed asleep, or at home alone, when he might have just taken an aspirin and gone to bed, either of which would have been catastrophic.

 

With hindsight he realised he had the best outcome possible.  God had been with him after all, when he looked at it openly, not just as “Why me?”

 

We all have to take time to maintain our important relationships, our active presence, participation.

 

Like the fancy dressed mother reconnecting with the distraught child, like the person you blanked in the street, like us when we feel God’s abandoned us;  we need to look differently, reconnect.  God has been there all along, waiting for us to catch up.

 

Amen

 

Living God, your Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread:  open the eyes of our faith, that we may see him in all his redeeming work; who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.  Amen.