Third Sunday of Easter
Luke 24:13-35
Illustrations
'he took the bread and blessed, and broke it . . ."
A pastor wrote:
Perhaps the most meaningful painting of the Walk to Emmaus that I have
ever seen came as a complete surprise. A member of my church was on the
staff of the federal penitentiary. He was to retire shortly and
insisted that he wanted to show me through the institution while he was
still a member of the security staff. A date was set. He and his lovely
wife took my wife and me to lunch and then on a tour of that huge penal
institution. It was overwhelming experience to hear the great steel
doors close behind us. The clang reverberated down the corridor. We
were inside!
As we came to the shape!, the chaplain graciously took us about the
room Suddenly I saw it, the painting. "The Last Supper," remarked the
chaplain. "Oh, no,,, I almost cried out. "It's the supper at Emmaus!"
On closer inspection, there it WAS, painted in the corner of the canvas
"Emmaus" The painting had been executed by a prisoner. Just who or
when, no one could tell me It was a beautiful work, rich in color and
the characters were alive. Christ sat facing the two disciples whose
backs were to the viewer He was breaking bread, offering it, He was
offering it to us &emdash; all of us as we waited &emdash;
there in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary He was present.
Indeed! Christ was with us when that great door thundered shut, and we
had not realized it.
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There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the
creeds.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam
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Greg Anderson, in Living Life on Purpose tells a story about a man
whose wife had left him. He was completely depressed. He had lost faith
in himself, in other people, in God--he found no joy in living. One
rainy morning this man went to a small neighborhood restaurant for
breakfast. Although several people were at the diner, no one was
speaking to anyone else. Our miserable friend hunched over the counter,
stirring his coffee with a spoon.
In one of the small booths along the window was a young mother with a
little girl. They had just been served their food when the little girl
broke the sad silence by almost shouting, "Momma, why don't we say our
prayers here?" The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned
around and said, "Sure, honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer
for us?" And she turned and looked at the rest of the people in the
restaurant and said, "Bow your heads." Surprisingly, one by one, the
heads went down. The little girl then bowed her head, folded her hands,
and said, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food.
Amen."
That prayer changed the entire atmosphere. People began to talk with
one another. The waitress said, "We should do that every morning."
"All of a sudden," said our friend, "my whole frame of mind started to
improve.
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Three Table Fellowships
"The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus
keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of
the Lord's Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of
God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that 'their eyes
were opened, and they knew him.'
"The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still
eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share
this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the
imperishable bread together in the Father's house."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1954), 66.
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We need to doubt until we are able to doubt our doubts (Fosdick)
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LORD'S SUPPER
After serving the cup, ask the congregation, "What did God just say?"
God speaks to us through our senses if we will pay attention. Not only
does the smell and the taste take us back to the upper room, it pulls
us back to this place, to the church
Like it did with Abby, who is seven. She went to the refrigerator and
grabbed a juice box. As she was about to shove the straw into the box,
she noticed it was grape flavored. That made her hesitate. She took the
juice box to her sister, handed it to her and said, "Here, taste this,
and tell me if it tastes like church."
What does church taste like? For Abby, it tastes like the juice her
church uses for the Lord's Supper. Not a bad connection for her to
make. When we take the Lord's Supper, we are connecting with the body
of Christ throughout all times. It connects us with the church of
yesterday and tomorrow. It is one way we get a real taste of Church.
-submitted by Mark Tabb