The Promise of the Road to Emmaus

Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Luke 24.13-35

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (Beginning at 15:00)

We just heard the last of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances for this Easter season. Not the last appearance he would make as reported in the Gospels, but the last one we get in our Sunday lectionary for this year. And this is a fitting way to wrap up the appearances of the Risen Christ, as today’s Gospel provides a bridge between the Risen Christ appearing to his disciples and his appearing to us.

Overcoming Doubts That Christ is Present Among Us

Second Sunday of Easter (Year A)
1 Peter 1.3-9; John 20.19-31
St. Gregory’s, Long Beach
Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:30)

Our Gospel reading for today opens one week ago, in our time—on the evening of the day that Jesus was resurrected. Earlier that day, Mary Magdalene had reported to Peter and John that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb. They investigated and found that he was indeed missing. They returned home, leaving Mary at the tomb, where she then has the first encounter with the Risen Lord. After which she “went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’” (Jn 20.18). Today, we pick up the story where we are told that the remaining disciples, minus Thomas, were locked in the house “for fear of the Jews.” A strange statement, since they themselves were Jews. What is really meant by this is that the disciples are locked away for fear of the Jewish authorities. After all, it was the Jewish authorities who had Jesus arrested and then manipulated the system to have him tried and executed by the Roman authorities. The disciples are naturally fearful that now that their leader has been taken out, they will probably be next. Put an end to Jesus’ message once and for all by having his most loyal followers eliminated. They were naturally—and rightfully—fearful for their safety, for their very lives; unsure of what the future would hold, unable to even imagine their lives ever returning to normal.

The Promise of the Empty Tomb

Easter Day (Year A)
John 20.1-18
St. Gregory’s, Long Beach
Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 17:30)

Ours is an incarnational faith. In other words, it is the faith of “stuff.” Not a faith in stuff, but a faith of stuff. A faith that relies on stuff, on the physical, the tangible, as symbols to help us understand just what our faith means, what we believe. God’s grace is expressed through the physical. Water poured on our heads at baptism as a sign of cleansing and the forgiveness of our sins; a symbolic going into the waters of baptism whereby we die to self and are born to new life in Christ. Bread and wine at Eucharist as symbols of the inward grace of Christ’s Body and Blood given for us for the forgiveness of our sins, to strengthen our relationship with Christ and one another, and to be a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that we will all one day share. The Peace, where we greet each other with a shake of the hand or a hug as a gesture of our reconciliation with one another so that we may also be reconciled with God as we approach his table. That’s just normal Sunday stuff for us.

Living Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday
John 13.1-17, 31b-35
St. Gregory’s, Long Beach
Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 18:20)

On Maundy Thursday, we typically focus on two things. The Last Supper, in which Jesus instituted the sacrament that we refer to as the Eucharist, and Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Although our Gospel reading for this day doesn’t quite bear that out. John’s version actually has a slightly different set of priorities.

The Geography of Holy Week

Palm/Passion Sunday (Year A)
Matthew 21.1-11; Matthew 26.26-30, 36-56, 27.11-60
St. Gregory’s, Long Beach
Live Streamed  on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 31:30)

Today we begin our journey through Holy Week. The journey we will travel with Jesus through the events of what we know as Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Most years, as I reflect on this journey, I am captivated by the radical changes and jarring reversals that occur in the short arc of this story. From the lightness and joy of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the darkness and despair of Good Friday. But this year, I am seeing the journey differently. Yes, there is still the radical shift in tone, the jarring reversals in temperament. But considering where we are as a world, I see Jesus’ Holy Week journey through the eyes of a people thrown straight into a Good Friday situation. Bypassing the joy and light and going straight to despair and darkness.