 |
Third Sunday of Easter 2008 |
|
Third Sunday of Easter 2008 |
Commemoration of Durer, Grunewald and Cranach
Sermon Reflections on the Emmaus Road and the Emmaus Supper Luke 24:13-25 Supper with the Family of Jesus
April
6th : celebrating the arts & the Commemoration Day for Three 16th
Century Artists:
Special
days, called Commemoration Days, have been established in the life of the
ecumenical church. These days lift up men and women who witness to
faithful living. April 6th commemorates three great artists:
Albrecht Durer, Matthais Grunewald and Lucas Cranach. If you’d like to
click on the icons below, you will see just a touch of the gifts these artists
gave.
[1] Durer’s A Young Hare of course caught my eye as he celebrates
God’s good creation.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/hare.jpg
[2] Durer also painted the New Testament. Luther wrote at Durer’s death,
“affection bids us mourn one of the best.”
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/doctors.jpg
[3] Like many artists, Matthais Grunewald painted the crucifixion.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/grunewald/crucifixion/crucifixion.jpg
[4] Grunewald’s most famous work is his Isenheim Altarpiece.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/grunewald/crucifixion/christ.jpg
[5] Lucas Cranach also painted religious themes.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cranach/egypt.jpg
[6] This 16th century painting of the Trinity looks almost modern with the Holy
Spirit as a dove. See the Father, lifting the son, with the lively Spirit dove
in their midst.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cranach/trinity.jpg
The arts help us see mysteries that go deeper than words alone can go. That
is why sanctuary art is such an important part of our worship – banners,
flowers, wood carved altar pieces, bulletin covers, children’s wall art, and
so on. These are intended to be feasts for our eyes; drawing us to faith;
inviting us to look more deeply into the word that gathers us. Though
today’s commemorated artists did not paint today’s Gospel story, many other
artists have. You’ve probably seen paintings of the Emmaus walk.
[7] This is a Contemporary American painting.
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=50410+0+none
[8 & 9] A popular pose of this story is to paint the brief moment when
the disciples recognize Jesus before he vanishes from their sight. Both of
these are by Caravaggio.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/06/35emmau.html
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/art/c/caravagg/08/47emmau.jpg
[10] One could be drawn to gaze on this contemporary Mexican Icon of the Supper.
http://www.churchforum.org/arte/images/arc_emaus.jpg
Sermon
Reflections on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24):
As shown in today’s Gospel, sharing a meal was a valued first century way of expressing friendship. It’s not all that different today. Who doesn’t enjoy lingering dinners with good company! Even Wednesday night congregational dinners are holy moments when we recognize them for what they are, people breaking bread together in Christ’s name. I know many people who work hard with busy schedules to still make sharing a meal a priority. It’s not easy, but imagine the loss if we no longer shared meals.
A friend of mine was in a rehab for a while and couldn’t eat. But it meant something to him that his family and friends made a ritual out of the shared time – even as he partook of his liquid diet. A dinner prayer of thanks was offered and the time, focused not on food but on fellowship, was sacred.
Today’s Gospel celebrates fellowship restored with Jesus – fellowship that had been broken by his crucifixion. We know that on the night before Jesus was crucified, he shared a meal with his disciples. With his death the disciples thought they would never enjoy supper fellowship with Jesus again.
But getting to the meal is getting ahead of the story because it doesn’t start with the meal. The story starts with a long sad walk. What better gift than a long walk with an empathetic friend when you have lots to process! A third person joins them, oblivious to why they are sad. We know it’s Jesus, but they don’t. “What are you talking about?” he asks. Knowing they need to talk, he asks them open-ended questions, and only after listening does he unfold the scriptures that warm their hearts.
And then, an amazing thing happens on the part of the disciples. Their grief doesn’t keep them from being hospitable to this stranger. It was getting dark by the time they reached home. Jesus walked ahead as if he was going on. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, it is almost evening and the day is almost over.” It would not have been good Semitic practice to let someone walk on in the dark. Their religion taught them to offer hospitality to strangers – even when their own need was so great.
And what a blessing they invite him in, because at supper everything changes! Jesus takes bread in hand, blesses and breaks it and their eyes are opened. Why hadn’t they recognized him before? The one for whom they grieved was right next to them and they didn’t know it! This is a story for us who think Jesus is absent from our lives from time to time. And who hasn’t tasted that sense of absence? The fact that the disciples don’t recognize Jesus’ presence doesn’t mean he’s not there. Only in retrospect do they see he was there all along.
But what is also clear in this story is that Jesus’ priority is not just to keep these disciples’ company. Now they might have preferred that – just as we might like Jesus to just hang out with us! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have him at our fingertips; at our beck and call. But the story fits with all the other stories of Jesus. It tells us that his priority is to seek out others – others who haven’t heard of God’s love; others who are without food or shelter or in today’s world, medical care.
Jesus doesn’t only stay where we can hold him to our agendas. He has a calling of his own. His calling is to be present in the world. And if we want to be intimately with him, that’s where we’ll find him! The two disciples in this story are good role models because when he vanishes from their sight at the table they don’t frantically look for his vanished body under the table, or in another room. They knew him better than that. They remembered he told them he’d go before them into Galilee – into their worlds. If they want fellowship with him, they have to go where he goes. Perhaps this time his absence is recognized as a calling. Where he goes, they must go too.
Yet even so, they might rather have had it not be that way, just like we might rather have Jesus linger long with us. But Jesus’ mission is more urgent. Many haven’t heard God loves them and walks with them the seven-plus mile journeys of their lives –whether they recognize him or not.
But there’s something more still in this story! Jesus’ absence in the body makes us yearn for his presence all the more. At the Table of the Lord we are gathered at the Great Banquet feast, only what we receive here is a foretaste of the feast. Part of the function of Holy Communion is to nurture our hunger for life on earth to reflect more fully God’s promised future.
The vision scripture offers of God’s future is one where all are fed and all are beloved and all shall be well – no more tears; no more war; no more blinding envy or fear. Holy Communion deepens our yearning that the foretaste we receive here become a lived reality in our daily worlds. There is meaningful connection between our meal at the altar and the meals we serve twice a month at the Torres Shelter, or when the youth go to help with the orphanage in Mexico, or at our Wednesday congregational suppers where all are invited as honored guests, or reaching out to Rwanda, or into rest homes, or by building houses with Habitat for Humanity so meals can be shared in those locations. The Table of the Lord nurtures us into a community hungry to feed others with the love we receive.
Mark Allen Powell writes in his book Loving Jesus: “I have been taking Communion almost weekly for about forty years now and my attitude is becoming “Enough with the appetizers! I want the feast!” Of course, we must be grateful for what we have. Grateful, but not satisfied! One purpose of Communion is to simultaneously remind us of our Lord’s absence and allow us to experience just enough of his presence to increase a longing in our souls.”
May we give thanks always for this foretaste of the feast to come and receive it believing, as Christ told us, that he is truly present in, with and under these gifts. May this presence so fill us that we can do no other than graciously overflow into the world God so loves!
Amen
+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory
of God
Faith Lutheran Church
