Easter 3A+ A God that says yes! + 4.19.26
M. Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
(Acts 2:14a, 36–41; Psalm 116:1–3, 10–17; 1 Peter 1:17–23; Luke 24:13–35)
Good morning and welcome this third Sunday of Easter! This
week, I was chatting with a group of friends, and one of them was going through
a difficult time, though there were some joys mixed in. I said I would be in
prayer, and she said, “God is good.” And it made me think of that old chestnut:
God is good, all the time! (Say it with me again if you know it: God is good,
all the time!)
It also made me think of this poem by Kaylin Haught, a former
poet laureate. It is called “God Says Yes to Me, or Poem 126”:
I asked God
if it was okay to be melodramatic
And she said
yes
I asked her
if it was okay to be short
and she said
it sure is
I asked her
if I could wear nail polish
or not wear
nail polish
and she said
honey
she calls me
that sometimes
she said you
can do just exactly
what you
want to
Thanks God I
said
And is it
even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes
God said
who knows
where she picked that up
what I'm
telling you is
Yes Yes Yes.[1]
Do you believe in a God that says yes? That is to say, do you
truly believe that God is not only good, but good to you? Can you believe that?
This seems, at least in part, to be one of the themes of today’s gospel, the
famous Walk to Emmaus. Can the disciples truly believe that Jesus is the
Messiah? Was he really resurrected? They seem to be deciding, amidst the fear
and sadness of their moment, whether they can believe the story the women told,
that the disciples were sharing, that Jesus has risen.
It’s not hard to understand. The resurrection is not an easy
thing to believe in. Although we have approximately 2.6 billion Christians
worldwide, many struggle to believe or comprehend the mystery of the
resurrection fully. It is hard to believe because it requires a leap of faith.
But isn’t that true of many things in life? So maybe I don’t
want to dial in so much on what you literally believe about the resurrection as
on how much you believe in God’s goodness.
So, returning to our poem, do you believe in a God that says
yes to you? Not to harmful things, but to your full expression of self. To the
truth that you are made good as a glorious reflection of God, just exactly as
you are, without having to change one iota of your deep self that you don’t
want to? I don’t mean the superficial things we work on all the time, like our
impatience, selfishness, etc (speak for yourself, Melissa!), but I mean who you
are at the core. Do you believe in a God of yes?
If not, maybe think about finding a new God.
Because our God is a God of yes. Of yes to life, and to
possibility. Of yes to connection. This is the life that Peter invites us into
when he invites us to participate in baptism. This is the yes that God asks of
us in baptism. Yes to an abundant life. A life in Christ.
A life and a relationship with God.
I heard from Margaret Aymer this week: “Luke’s story reminds
us that our relationship with the resurrected Christ is a relationship of long
walks, risky conversations, reframed traumas, and quiet dinners—an intimate
relationship between Christ and the church, of words shared and bread broken.”[2]
How true!
Our relationship with Jesus forms an important part of the
long walk of life for us as Christians. The disciples in this story literally
walk beside Jesus, at first without knowing it. But this walk represents the
life walk. Those of us who hike, have walked the Camino, or just like a stroll
with friends, know that in walking, we see the rhythm of life and a metaphor
for our life journey. In walking, we grow when we are willing to engage in
risky conversations. When we are willing to change our minds and spirits, we
are open to what the Spirit is sharing with us through others. The disciples
share their truth with Jesus, and he doesn’t just respond in love, but he
challenges them. He asks them to look at the story again with new eyes, in the
light of the Hebrew scriptures and what the prophets have foretold. Through
these risky conversations, traumas, be they of loss or another kind, are
healed. The same can happen to us if we are willing to engage, bring our hurts
to God, and allow them to be reframed, so that we can understand them in a new
way and be healed.
In addition, don’t forget about the quiet dinners! There is
hospitality in this passage that goes in both directions. The disciples are the
hosts, but Jesus also hosts, and then disappears! What an astonishing thing! It
is in this quiet moment that he is revealed. What a good reminder not only to
take holy communion, but also to look for those moments when Jesus is revealed
among us in the breaking of the bread in other ways. This way, we feel more
connected with Jesus and with each other.
This is what we do as a church. It is also said that this
passage describes worship. We gather, sometimes in confusion, Christ speaks to
us via the scriptures, Christ is revealed in the breaking of the bread, and
then believers are sent out again to proclaim the Good News. So this gospel
doesn’t just show us about our life journey, but also describes how we are the
church together. But the point of all of this is, what do we believe in? Do we
believe in a God that says yes to us? Something to note: what the disciples do
when this has finished. Where do they head? Jerusalem. They return to the
faithful to share the Good News. Did they want to slog another 7 miles back to
Jerusalem, after all deciding it was time to stay put for the night? Probably
not, but this news just had to be shared. Because it was good news, not just
for them, but for the whole community.
Because Jesus has risen! And we believe in a God that says yes. And if we
believe in a God of yes, we can be restored to share the Good News again with
the saints, to share the love of God with the whole world. Because our God of
yes wants life for all of us as we walk this journey together in community.
Amen.
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