Starting today, and continuing over the next four Sundays we will be exploring the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus as the basis for the faith of the Church. The main teaching, looked at in a variety of ways is this: Jesus is with us. Jesus is not past history or merely fond remembrance of a great man. He is the Living One. Through active presence of the Holy Spirit, He is our very life and shapes and guides our life in the world. His resurrection life, a power greater than death, is the life of the Church. What this means in the actual of life of the church—that’s us!—can be identified as the task of "learning Jesus." [Thanks to Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson for the inspiration for this series and the term "learning Jesus." See his book, Living Jesus. Harper/SanFranciso, 1999]
This goal of "learning Jesus" is not the same as asking, "What would Jesus do?" as though we could take what we think we know of Jesus in Palestine 2000 years ago and plug it directly into 21st century life. And "learning Jesus" is not the same as the Medieval idea of the "imitation of Christ." The specifics of what Jesus said, did, and suffered on our behalf belong to him, not to us. For us then, learning Jesus is a matter of asking over and over how his New Life is to be lived out through our flesh and blood and in our time and place. There are no rules for this, only a process of trial and error, and the struggle to discern the guidance of the Holy Spirit among us.
The story of Emmaus is a great one for us to begin thinking about these things. For one thing, the disciples did not at first recognize Jesus when he was with them! Now there’s a parable of the Church, for the Church too, struggles to recognize Christ’s presence and his meaning. Yet the Emmaus story also includes a very down-to-earth recognition: the resurrected Jesus was recognized in the breaking of the bread—the sharing of the meal. We can hardly hear that story and not think of Communion.
So I thought that today would be the day to direct our attention to learning Jesus in the Sacraments. The Sacraments are called, "the means of grace." And what does that mean? The sacraments, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are physical things, water, bread, wine, by which the merciful and eternal resurrected Life of Jesus enters into our existence. And we experience these things physically.
In the Sacramental life, we "learn Jesus." The dying and rising motif of Baptism becomes the sign of our whole lives urging us to understand our lives and experience in the world according to the pattern of Christ’s dying and rising. The welcome into the community of faith and the gift of forgiveness and cleansing offered in the baptismal waters is the means by which the Spirit of the Risen One changes our lives from confusion and hopelessness into lives of faith and joy at being forgiven and included into the family of God. Over the years I have seen the profound emotion expressed by both the baptized and their families, and congregational members at those sacramental moments of welcome at the waters of the font. I’ve also had a lot of fun at the Easter Vigil taking the evergreen bough, dipping into the baptismal waters and sprinkling the congregation. As this happens people smile, laugh, giggle, as we recognize that we are after all, physical beings, getting wet, remembering that because Jesus is risen, present, and welcome us always, we are forever children of God. Learning Jesus, we learn the joy of being welcomed and of welcoming others into His glorious New Life.
Thus we are called into the Church and in it share the Life of the Risen Jesus, through the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Every communion is a recognition and a celebration of the presence of the Risen Lord Jesus among us. In the words of Institution we hear our Lord’s declaration regarding the bread, this is my body. And the wine, this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins! From the earliest days of the Church, these words were taken to mean exactly what they say. We may not understand how this is possible, but we take it on faith: Jesus said it, we believe it, and then in the experience of our lives together, Jesus Christ, the Risen One is really present with us! And his presence means forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy! What a wonderful thing!
Sometimes the power of the presence of the Risen Lord, full of life, just stuns me. Recently I visited a man who was dying of cancer. I went to pray with him and offer him communion. So weak he was barely able to speak at all, he looked up at me from his deathbed as he received communion, and tears ran down his cheeks. After a final blessing and some conversation with his family, I left. Later I found out that the very next day he got up out of his deathbed, so full of strength and life that he walked down to a neighbor church to sit there and have someone read him the Bible. Then he went home, got on the phone and called people long estranged from him, and reconciled with them. His immediate family, witnessing all this, was awed at this burst of life. Sure, we can say that this was only a typical last rally of a cancer patient, and maybe it was. By why then, and just in that way? I prefer to see it as the reality of the Life of Christ through the Holy Sacrament filling that dying man A modern Emmaus story. He recognized once again the presence of the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread and saw for one last time that Christ’s life means reconciliation, mercy, forgiveness. Learning Jesus, learning the power of the Resurrection life.
Another example of "learning Jesus": At the Maundy Thursday service I told those who were there about Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson’s view of the heroism of the 9-11 rescue workers, hundreds of whom lost their lives in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Dr. Johnson notes that many of the New York City rescuers were of Irish and Italian background—Catholics who from toddlerhood on up attended mass virtually every week, and encountered the sacrificial language and ritual of communion, this is my body, given for you; this is my blood, shed for you. Dr Johnson wondered whether this Eucharistic patterning of Christ formed the deep, even unconscious, motivation for their headlong rush to rescue in the face of deathly danger, leading them to give their lives for one another and for those they so desperately intended to save. And could they be, then, a sign of how the Church—the body of Christ in the world--is meant to live and love? Learning Jesus involves learning about living in service to others, never counting the cost.
Finally, learning Jesus in the Sacrament of Communion brings us to the Eucharistic consciousness—life as gratitude to God. I cannot even count the number of times I’ve taken Holy Communion shut-ins and as they receive the Sacrament of the body and blood of their Risen Lord, their grateful and sometimes even tear sparkled faces and spoken thank yous help me to better understand why one name for the sacrament is the Eucharist: the Great Thanksgiving. For in such moments, I learn more about Jesus. The bread and wine, the body and blood, given and shed for you. Seems so simple, but when you’re at the extremities of life, this is what Life is all about. Thanksgiving.
Think about it: which do you think shows more of learning Christ—chronic whining and self pity, or an attitude of gratitude? A seminary professor of mine, Dr. Gerhard Frost, wrote a poem once about his encounter with an old Norwegian woman, a quiet saint of the Church. He said that the family and he the pastor, heard her last words, whispered on her last breath as she left this life: Takk for alt. Takk for alt in Norwegian means, Thanks for everything. Learning Jesus in the Sacramental life means eucharist: thanksgiving.
Christianity begins with the experience and the conviction of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, recognized in the breaking of the bread and even in the breaking of our lives. Beyond all the sins and failings of our lives and of the Church, is the eternal presence of the resurrected Jesus. He lives and we live in him—and as we live out our lives together with each and with our Lord, we "learn Jesus". Welcomed, given New Life, forgiven, living for the sake of others, what could be better than in our last breath, as we see with clearer eyes our Savior, as baptized children of God, well-schooled in gratitude by Holy Communion, we say, simply and humbly, thanks for everything. Amen.