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April 26, 2009 Sermon

"You are Witnesses of This..."
Luke 24: 36-48

Reverend Kerri Mesner

I was talking with a friend at VST last week, who was also preparing a sermon based on this week’s lectionary text. “It’s the broiled fish passage”, she said to me. I racked my brains. I couldn’t remember any gospel text about broiled fish! Had I neglected my exegesis? Forgotten a key story in the Easter season? She clarified for me... “you know, the one where Jesus eats the broiled fish.”

Eventually of course, I found the passage and remembered the bit to which she referred, and kind of chuckled at myself. I kind of like that description though... “the broiled fish passage”. It’s very down-to-earth, dealing with human bodies and human needs... which in many ways is what I think this passage is all about. And in many ways is how I think Jesus meets the disciples in this story... at the level of human bodies and human needs.

Another thing I really appreciate in today’s story is how beautifully it picks up from our story last week. Last week, as you may recall, we explored the story of our friend Thomas... his struggle in coming to terms with the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, and the place of questioning and doubt in the life of faith.

We talked a little about the possibility that Thomas has gotten a bit of a bad rap... that “doubting Thomas” seems a bit unfair, given how much life and growth and strength of faith can come from a willingness to question and to wrestle with our doubts in that journey.

And today, we find ourselves with the disciples in another Easter moment with the risen Christ... and there are lots of connections and parallels to last week’s story. Once again, the disciples are gathered... talking excitedly about Jesus’ appearance to two of them on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus appears to them... and once again, they react with fear... with disbelief... with confusion. Much like they did in our story last week- and much like Thomas did as well. And once again, Jesus says “peace be with you”... and once again, he gives them a solid, physical indicator of his presence. Do you remember what he says? “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see...” Touch me and see.

Once again, we have a wonderfully embodied and alive Jesus... a wonderfully down-to-earth Jesus. What does he ask them next? How about something to eat? And the story tells us that he “ate in their presence”. I get the sense that this is rather deliberately worded. He didn’t just eat the fish... he ate it in their presence. This was another physical sign that he could offer them to help them understand that what they were seeing and experiencing- even though completely impossible- was nonetheless completely real.

I know that I talk a fair bit about just how embodied Jesus was in both these stories- but I think it’s important. I think Jesus knew that his disciples needed to see and feel and touch- in their bodies- to understand what was happening. I think the same is probably true for us. Look around you for a moment. Go on, be brave, really look. How many of us have felt the power of Christ’s love simply through the people in our lives and our loves and our communities?

I think Jesus knew then- and probably knows now- that we often come to understanding through our hearts, minds, spirits, and bodies. Certainly, it helped the disciples to get it. I love verse 41... I really heard it in a new way this time. It’s such a wonderful paradox!“ While in their joy they were disbelieving”... For me that captures so much of the impossibility and amazement of a moment like this. In their joy they were disbelieving...

Can any of us identify with that kind of a moment, I wonder? Where something is happening that seems so wonderful, so amazing, that we scarcely dare to believe that its true... and yet, we see it... we feel it... we know it to be true... even in its impossibility.

As some of you know, I will sometimes use the word “queer” when I preach- and while I know that it's a challenging word for some of us, and a really difficult word for some of us, I still choose to use this word and to reclaim this word, for a number of reasons. Yes... because it helps to give me a way to talk about the diversity of sexualities and gender identities and relationships that make up the wonderful array of humanity that we are.... but for me, “queer” is something more than that, too. Somehow, for me, “queer” also touches on that impossibly wonderful thing that we are trying to grasp today.

In some literature, “queer” used to be used to mean peculiar, or strange. Maybe that’s what I’m getting at here- but not in a derogatory way... queer in the sense of strange... of out-of-the-ordinary... of something that is – once again- that kind of wonderfully impossible and strangely amazing.

Robert Goss talks about Luke’s Jesus as a transgressor... as someone helping to break in- to break through- with this incredible queer reign of God that he lives and breathes and believes... impossibly wonderful. ... maybe a kind of queerness that is so outrageously loving... so outrageously faith-filled, that it will not be constrained by human limitations and prejudices and ideologies.

I see this church, Trinity United Church, as an outrageously faith-filled community... as an outrageously loving community...

Most of you know, I am a minister with Metropolitan Community Churches, a denomination founded in the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community, and open to everyone. I take a lot of pride in my religious heritage- in knowing that I am part of a denomination that is actively trying to live out Christ’s radically inclusive love in the world. I’ve gotten discussions and debates for my beliefs... I’ve even been arrested a time or two for my beliefs. And for me, all of that is part of what I understand as my calling as an MCC minister.

And at the same time, as I reflect on TUC’s own heritage and story over the last many years, it occurs to me that you are answering a particular call as well- perhaps both a similar and a different call. As the first Affirming Congregation in the lower mainland, you have been trailblazers... and even now, you are one of only two Affirming churches in the area.

Sometimes I wonder if this isn’t an even harder call... to be willing, as Michael Kelly says, to go to the edges to understand Christ’s radically inclusive love, and then to bring that message back into the mainstream.

You know, last week we talked about how – when we get deeply involved in our church, and busy with the day to day work of keeping it going, we may sometimes forget just how amazing our community is... and today, as someone who has the privilege of spending time with you, I want to call your attention to just how amazing you are... just how important your witness is... just what in impossibly wonderful thing this is that you are doing here!

The last sentence in today’s reading is Jesus’ statement: “You are witnesses of these things”.

Trinity United Church, you are witnesses of these things! You are witnesses of a Christ who so loves us that he brings all of us to table, to community, to inclusion and love and justice-making.

TUC, you are witnesses of a resurrected Christ who lives in our lives and our bodies and our communities, and who helps us, together, to build something impossibly wonderful that we could not find without each other.

TUC, you are witnesses of these things! My prayer today is that each of you will know a blessing in this moment that is as deep and as powerful as the blessing that you are to the community and the world. Amen.

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