Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 26 April 2020, is the Third Sunday of Easter.
The Readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:
The readings: Acts 2: 14a, 36-41 or Isaiah 43: 1-12; Psalm 116: 1-3, 10-17; I Peter 1: 17-23; Luke 24: 13-35.
There is a link to the readings HERE. But please note the advice about the cautious use of translations of Psalm 116 in the notes under that reading.
‘The Road to Emmaus’ … an icon by Sister Marie Paul OSB of the Mount of Olives Monastery, Jerusalem (1990), commissioned by the Canadian theologian Father Thomas RosicaIntroducing the readings:
Our Easter readings continue with the Gospel story of the Supper at Emmaus, and readings from the post-Pentecost sermon of Saint Peter and from I Peter.
These three readings challenge us to think about what faith in the Risen Christ means for us today. Instead of turning on Saint Peter when he tells them about the Crucifixion, the people in Jerusalem ask him what they should do. In the epistle reading, Saint Peter tells his readers that being children of God means we should be living a new life in Christ, marked by our mutual love which is genuine and comes from the heart. Instead of being transfixed in the room in Emmaus after their encounter with the Risen Christ, the two disciples return immediately to Jerusalem that night to share the good news.
Both the reading from Isaiah and the Psalm are timely reminders that we should not be living in fear, but that we must continue to trust in God.
Acts 2: 14a, 36-41:
This first reading continues Saint Peter’s Pentecost address, part of which we heard the previous Sunday. As Saint Peter comes to the end of his address in Jerusalem, he interprets the experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
His words, telling the crowd they are responsible for Jesus’ death, shocks the people, who are ‘cut to the heart.’ But, instead of turning on him, they ask what they should do. He urges them to repent, to be baptised, to receive forgiveness and to receive the Holy Spirit. This is a promise open to everyone God calls and everyone who calls on God.
Many people responded that day in Jerusalem and welcomed Saint Peter’s message, so that about 3,000 people were baptised and joined the disciples.
Later we read how they devoted themselves to learning from the apostles, to fellowship, to taking part in the Eucharist, and to prayer, which is a continuing, lived Emmaus experience.
Isaiah 43: 1-12:
God tells the people through Isaiah that are not to fear for the future: he has and will rescue and save them. They are his, his people and he will be with them even when in times of grave danger, even dangers posed by waters and rivers, fire and flame.
They remain precious in God’s sight, so precious that God will gather them back together from the ends of the earth. They will be known as God’s people, he will be their Saviour and they will be his witnesses.
Psalm 116: 1-3, 10-17:
In Hebrew, Psalm 116 is an acrostic poem. This psalm also provides the motto of the City of Belfast: Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamus is the Vulgate translation of Psalm 116: 12 (NRSV and NRSVA): ‘[What shall I return to the Lord] for all his bounty to me?’ (see Psalm 116: 10 in the Book of Common Prayer, p 729, ‘How shall I repay the Lord for all the benefits he has given to me’).
It should be noted that caution is needed in preparing this Psalm for use in worship or in a Bible study group because of the numbering of the verses. The Lectionary the Book of Common Prayer and the Church of Ireland Directory presume the Lectionary translation and the version of this Psalm in the Book of Common Prayer (see pp 728-729). However, the equivalent verses have different numbering in the NRSV and NRSVA, where they are verses 1-4 and verses 12-19. It is always advisable to check the numbering of Psalm verses in any translation of the Bible we are using.
The psalmist tells the congregation God has heard his voice and has helped him in his time of distress and anguish. Now he will call on God for the rest of his life. Once he was near death, but when he called on God, God delivered him from death.
Despite the troubles he faced, he kept his faith in God. How can he repay God for saving him? He will make an offering in the Temple pray to the Lord in thanksgiving, in the presence of God’s people, the worshipping community.
God is now like a child or lowly servant in God’s presence, but God has freed him and brought him into his presence.
I Peter 1: 17-23:
The author of this epistle has urged his readers to discipline themselves and to prepare themselves for Christ’s second coming. They are not to fall back into the pagan ways of their ancestors or their own lives before becoming Christians, but they are to separate themselves from these ways.
Now, in verses 17-23, Saint Peter explains what being a child of God requires. We must hold God in reverent fear and worship him, not by making offerings in worldly ways but by living this new life in Christ, who was perfect, just as the lamb sacrificed at Passover was without blemish (see Leviticus 22: 21).
We are to live lives that are marked by genuine, mutual love, in which we love one another deeply from the heart. In Christ, we have been born anew – for a discussion of this concept see my notes on the meeting between Nicodemus and Christ HERE – and our new, living relationship with God lasts for ever.
Luke 24: 13-35:
The readings from Saint Matthew’s Gospel, which continue through Year A in the lectionary cycle, have been interrupted in recent weeks for some of the key Resurrection narratives in Saint John’s Gospel.
This morning, they are interrupted yet again, this time by a Resurrection story in Saint Luke’s Gospel that is well-known and well-loved.
It is later on Easter Day, the day on which Mary Magdalene and the other women visited the tomb and found it the empty tomb. That evening, as two of Christ’s followers are walking to Emmaus, they talk about the startling events that day.
One of these two is named Cleopas, the other remains anonymous. Eusebius, the first church historian, says Cleopas was a relative of Jesus; there is no reason whatever to believe that his companion was another man; in many cultures, this might he read as a woman.
While they are walking, these two are joined by Jesus on the road, but they do not recognise him. When he asks, ‘what things?’ their reply shows the limitations of their understanding of who Jesus is. They realise that he is a prophet, ‘mighty in deed and word,’ perhaps like Moses. But they have not yet realised that he is more than this. They have been disappointed; they expected Jesus to deliver Israel from Roman domination, and to see the kingdom of God on earth.
Three days have passed, but despite Jesus’s statement that he would be raised from death, nothing has happened. Although the women told them that he is alive, when Peter and John went to the tomb, they saw only an empty tomb.
Jesus then tells explains to them how the Biblical prophecies and God’s plans have been fulfilled.
The meal may be compared to the three visitors having their meal with Abraham and Sarah at Mamre. This is also a post-Resurrection Eucharist, for Christ ‘took bread, blessed and broke it’ (verse 30). Then ‘their eyes were opened’ and the Risen Christ is ‘made known to them in the breaking of the bread.’ Faith comes to them not through the Bible study they have had, the logic in their arguments and discussions, or even in the offer and acceptance of hospitality, but in the sharing of the Eucharistic meal.
Instead of staying overnight in Emmaus, the two immediately rush back to Jerusalem, ‘that same hour,’ and there they share the good news with the 11 remaining disciples and their companions.
Reflecting on the Readings:
Some years ago, this Gospel story was, by a huge margin, the Bible story quoted most often during at the Synod of Bishops on the Bible, according to Father Thomas Rosica, who briefed English-speaking journalists on the synod speeches.
It is said the story kept coming up at the synod because so many bishops and other synod members saw it as the perfect example of what the Church must do with the Scriptures: discuss them with people, explain them and let them lead people to recognise Jesus.
The Superior General of the Salesians, Father Pasual Chavez Villanueva, told the synod that the story gives precise instructions for how to evangelise the young, emphasising that it is Jesus who evangelises through his word and that evangelisation takes place by walking alongside people, listening to their sorrows, and then giving them a word of hope and a community in which to live it.
Father Chavez told the synod that young people today definitely share with the disciples ‘the frustration of their dreams, the tiredness of their faith and being disenchanted with discipleship.’ They ‘need a church that walks alongside them where they are.’
The story of Jesus and the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus is a very rich one and one that offers a model for Christian life and mission.
After seeing all their hopes shattered on Good Friday, two disciples – Cleopas and another unnamed disciple – head out of Jerusalem, and are walking and talking on the road as their make their way together.
Emmaus was about seven miles from Jerusalem, so it would have taken them two hours, perhaps, to get there, maybe more if they were my age.
Somewhere along the way, they are joined by a third person, ‘but their eyes were kept from recognising him’ (verse 16, NRSVA), or to be more precise, as the Greek text says, ‘but their eyes were being held so that they did not recognise him.’
They cannot make sense of what has happened over the last few days, and they cannot make sense of the questions their new companion puts to them. When Jesus asks them a straight question, they look sad and downcast.
I get the feeling that Cleopas is a bit cynical, treating Jesus as one of the visitors to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, and asking him if he really does not know what has happened in the city. In his cynicism, Cleopas almost sounds like Simon the Pharisee asking his visitor Jesus whether he really knows who the woman with the alabaster jar is.
Like Simon, Cleopas and his friend thought Jesus was a Prophet. But now they doubt it. And the sort of Messiah they hoped for is not the sort of Messiah Jesus had been preparing them for, is he?
And they have heard the report of the women visiting the tomb, and finding it empty. Hearing is not believing. Seeing is not believing. And believing is not the same as faith.
When I find myself disagreeing fundamentally with people, I wonder whether I listen even half as patiently as Jesus did with these two.
There are no interruptions, no corrections, no upbraidings. Jesus listens passively and patiently, like all good counsellors should, and only speaks when they have finished speaking.
And then, despite their cynicism, despite their failure to understand, despite their lack of faith, these two disciples do something extraordinary. They press the stranger in their company not to continue on his journey. It is late in the evening, and they invite him to join them.
On re-reading this story, I found myself comparing their action and their hospitality with the Good Samaritan who comes across the bruised and battered stranger on the side of the road, and offers him healing hospitality, offering to pay for his meals and his accommodation in the inn.
These two have also come across a bruised and battered stranger on the road, and they offer him healing and hospitality, the offer him a meal and accommodation in the inn.
Jesus had once imposed himself on Zacchaeus and presumed on his hospitality. Now Cleopas and his companion insist on imposing their hospitality on Jesus. The guest becomes the host and the host becomes the guest, once again.
He goes in to stay with them. And it is not just a matter of finding him a room for the night. They dine together.
And so, in a manner that is typical of the way Saint Luke tells his stories, the story of the road to Emmaus ends with a meal with Jesus.
And at the meal – as he did with the multitude on the hillside, and with the disciples in the Upper Room – Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to those at the table with him (verse 30).
Their time in the wilderness is over, the Lenten preparation has been completed. The one who has received their hospitality now invites them to receive the hospitality of God, and to join him at the Heavenly Banquet.
Luke 24: 13-35 (NRSVA):
13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. 18 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?’ 19 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, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 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. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 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. 24 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.’ 25 Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 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. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 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?’ 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: White
The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Penitential Kyries:
Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect:
Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy 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 our Lord.
The Collect of the Word:
O God, your Son made himself known in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in his redeeming work:
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Introduction to the Peace:
The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said, Peace be with you. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).
Preface:
Above all we praise you
for the glorious resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
the true paschal lamb who was sacrificed for us;
by dying he destroyed our death;
by rising he restored our life:
The Post-Communion Prayer:
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 with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Blessing:
The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight:
or:
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:
Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):
Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Suggested Hymns:
Acts 2: 14a, 36-41:
11, Can we by searching find out God
259, Christ triumphant, ever reigning
478, Go forth and tell! O Church of God, awake!
277, Love’s redeeming work is done
102, Name of all majesty
104, O for a thousand tongues to sing
306, O Spirit of the living God
Isaiah 43: 1-12:
642, Amazing grace (how sweet the sound!)
12, God is our strength and refuge
128, Hills of the north, rejoice
557, Rock of ages, cleft for me
595, Safe in the shadow of the Lord
22, You shall cross the barren desert
Psalm 116: 1-3, 10-17:
362, O God, beyond all praising
363, O Lord of heaven and earth and sea
I Peter 1: 17-23:
84, Alleluia! raise the anthem
95, Jesu, priceless treasure
525, Let there be love showed among us
432, Love is his word, love is his way
232, Nature with open volume stands
591, O happy day that fixed my choice
371, Thank you, O Lord, of earth and heaven
Luke 24: 13-35:
629, Abide among us with thy grace
62, Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
253, As we walked home at close of day
260, Christ is alive! Let Christians sing
408, Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest
319, Father, of heaven, whose love profound
415, For the bread which you have broken
92, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
338, Jesus, stand among us
424, Jesus, stand among us at the meeting of our lives
272, Jesus lives: thy terrors now
425, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts
588, Light of the minds that know him
81, Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided
437, Now, my tongue, the mystery telling
106, O Jesus, King most wonderful
109, Sing alleluia to the Lord
72, Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear
450, Upon thy table, Lord, we place
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).
thanks so much you produce a wonderful resource to aid worship!
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