Sine Dominico Non Possumus
Reflections on Luke 24.13-35
RCL Easter 3A
30 April 2017
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Luke 24.13-35
24.13 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.
Introduction
At the end of
February in the year 303 Diocletian, the Roman Emperor, published an edict
which ordered the destruction of Christian liturgical and scriptural texts, the
demolition of Christian places of worship and the prohibition of Christians
gathering for worship. The Roman Empire
had just passed through a period of chaos and civil war and Diocletian had been
convinced by others that Christians were a threat to the unity and peace of the
Empire. The persecution unleashed by
this edict lasted until 313 when the Edict of Milan decreed that the practice
of the Christian faith was to be tolerated.
Among the
Christians who died as a result of Diocletian’s decree was a group of
forty-nine Christians who lived in the town of Abitinae in what was then known
as the Roman province of Africa and now known as Tunisia. Members of the group were arrested for having
gathered on Sunday. When asked why they
had disobeyed the Emperor’s edict, one of them is supposed to have said, ‘Sine
dominico non possumus’ --- ‘Without the Sunday eucharist we cannot live’. All were sentenced to death, women, men and
children.
In the
seventeen hundred years since the deaths of the martyrs of Abitinae Christians
have continued to gather to celebrate the Lord’s Day by breaking the bread of
life and pouring the cup of salvation.
We have gathered during times of
peace and prosperity and during times of war and oppression. We have gathered in environments of
acceptance and respect and in environments of rejection and condemnation. We have gathered because we know what our
ancestors in the faith knew: without the
Sunday assembly of the Christian people, we cannot live.
Gather
Have you
ever considered how important it is to gather?
A sure sign of the importance of gathering is how quickly authoritarian
regimes prohibit gatherings or use government media to down-play the size of
any protests or demonstrations. Regimes
know what we sometimes forget: when
people assemble in numbers, they gain in power and influence. Gatherings, you see, have the power to
transform and to transfigure.
Throughout
the centuries Christians have understood the importance of bringing people
together. At the end of Matthew’s gospel
Jesus tells his disciples that they are to go out into all the nations to make
disciples (Matthew 28.19). In both
Matthew’s and Luke’s gospel Jesus tells a parable about a feast to which the
invited guests do not come, so the host sends out servants far and wide to
invite strangers, foreigners, rich and poor to come to the table.
Our very
life as a Christian community depends upon our willingness to gather people
together. Each Sunday we should look
around us and ask two questions: ‘Who is
not here?’ and ‘Why are they not here?’
We want to ‘draw the circle wide’ so that more and more of our
neighbours and friends can experience the transformation and transfiguration
that gathering as Christ’s disciples can achieve.
Without the
gathering, we cannot live.
Transform and
Transfigure
When we hear
the Scriptures proclaimed and interpreted, when we offer our intercessions,
petitions and thanksgivings and when we receive the bread broken for the life
of the world and the wine poured in the hope of the world to come, we are
transformed and transfigured.
The
proclamation of the Scriptures and their interpretation remind us that we are
following a heritage of faith and action that reaches back millennia. We remember our past in order to be faithful
disciples in the present and agents of God’s future. Our intercessions, petitions and thanksgivings
unite us with Christians throughout the world in a web of energy that changes
lives. In our communion with Christ
through bread broken and wine poured, we receive the gift of Christ’s life so
that we, in turn, become the gift we have received.
Sometimes
those of us who gather in this place are transformed. By this I mean we are changed just as Thomas
was changed from cynic into evangelist.
We even sing about this transformation from time to time in words such
as ‘I once was blind but now I see’.
Transformation shakes the foundation of our self-understanding and may
lead us into paths we never imagined following.
And
sometimes those of us who gather in this place are transfigured. By this I mean we experience what might be
called an ‘Aha!’ moment. Augustine of
Hippo is said to have held up the bread and wine of the eucharist and said,
‘The gifts of God for the people of God.
See who you are. Become what you
see.’ In such an ‘Aha!’ moment the penny
drops, the final piece of the jigsaw clicks into place, Waldo suddenly jumps
out of the picture. Things that have
always been before us are now seen in a new way. We now understand where we are going and that
the path we’ve been following no longer seems to meander but follows the
contours God has laid out before us.
Without the
transformation and transfiguration, we cannot live.
Send
But there is
a counter-intuitive purpose to this gathering.
This gathering exists to transform and transfigure human beings in order
to send them out into the world as agents of God’s purposes. Although the Scriptures are filled with tales
of miraculous deeds that defy human understanding, those same Scriptures are
filled to over-flowing with tales of how God invites men, women and children to
participate in achieving the re-creation, redemption and renewal of the world.
Women filled
with fear and mourning become apostles of the new life made known to us in the
raising of Jesus from the dead. A cynic
is embraced by his friends only to see and touch his beloved teacher. Two disappointed and weary disciples race
uphill in the dark of night to tell their friends that Jesus has been raised
from the dead.
In the
Downtown Eastside a priest walks the streets and calls people by name, people
who have been forgotten and abandoned.
In Marpole a small parish feeds dozens of people each week and invites
them to share in the supper of the Lord.
In Kerrisdale a deacon helps the stranger, the refugee, the elderly, the
marginalized gain access to the government and social services that will
perhaps give each person just a bit more dignity. In congregations throughout the Lower
Mainland we who know the shadows that darken our lives experience the light
shone upon our darkness by loving communities of ‘help, hope and home’.
Without the
sending, we cannot live.
Conclusion
If you
travel from Tel Aviv today, you will pass through a tiny hamlet thought to be
Emmaus. From Emmaus you travel a winding
highway that ascends the heights that lead you to Jerusalem. Even with a four-lane highway caution is
necessary. Whenever I hear the story of
the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, I remember my own journey and
consider how perilous theirs was.
Desolate and
disillusioned, the risen Jesus gathered them, transformed and transfigured them
with word and table, and sent them running back to Jerusalem to share the good
news.
Every Sunday
the risen Jesus gathers people together, so that the Spirit can transform and
transfigure us into disciples and agents.
Every Sunday you and I are sent running from this place to share the
good news with our families and friends, in our workplaces, homes and
neighbourhoods, by word and deed.
And
why? Because without the gathering,
without the transformation and transfiguration, without the sending, we cannot
live. Nor, I dare say, can the world.
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