Resurrection Appearances: Coffee and Pastry or Tea with Cookies

 

The sermon for this morning begins on pg. 89 in the front of our hymn books.

The art found on this page sets the stage for the Holy Communion liturgies. This piece of art is a plain version of a colourful work created by He Qi (Huh Chee) a contemporary Chinese Christian artist. 

45 Supper-at-Emmaus Artist Proof (heqiart.com)

The work is titled: Supper at Emmaus.

 

What do you notice?

It is the evening, following the day the tomb is open. Time is conflated. In the upper  right corner you see the crosses and the tomb. You witness the women coming to tell the disciples the tomb is empty. You notice the town in Galilee where Jesus says he will meet the disciples. There, outside the door, it appears as if an eternal flame is kindled; the Spirit waiting. And in the foreground, you are invited to the table with the two who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Gathered with a group, Jesus breaks bread and they recognize him. Later, after this evening passes, Jesus will appear among them again and ask for something to eat.

What do you notice? Jesus is holding bread. On the table there is wine and a fish.

There are a couple of resurrection appearances where fish are the bread that is shared.

 

Over the years, I have encountered resurrection appearances…. not in fish dishes, but communion, in coffee and pastry, and in tea and cookies.

 

Dr. Elton Higgs, retired English professor, reflects on the resurrection appearances and the sharing of fish: Jesus made himself “available to them in the most common circumstances of human life, and though he had no need to sustain himself with physical food, he nevertheless shared with them in their ongoing need.” In the breaking of bread and fish, Jesus communes with the disciples.

 

In a field supervision course I taught, the students read Gordon Lathrop’s The Pastor: A Spirituality. Lathrop is a Lutheran and the work explores the sacramentality of a pastor’s life – and a theological perspective of sacrament in daily life. Students found the text difficult as it was a theology new to them and very Lutheran.

 

We begin in what we know. Sacraments -baptism and communion- requires two things: an earthly element and the Word. In baptism, that is water and the Word, in communion it is bread and wine and the Word. Through the Word, God is present -in, with, and under- the earthly element; and through receiving the sacrament one receives God’s grace.

Lathrop’s book explores what happens when the sacrament -God’s grace- is received and then lived out through the lives of those who receive it. This grace is extraordinary because it always comes and is embodied in one who is broken, not perfect. It is the brokenness receiving grace that is a resurrection to a wholeness that is a home for the incarnate Christ. It is a paradox – its sacramental-  to live in brokenness and yet be resurrected to wholeness. This being broken yet whole is the vocation of a pastor, the vocation of the baptized. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, when we gather as a community to receive sacrament, God’s grace settles into our brokenness and makes us whole. And this state of being broken-yet-whole changes how we are in the world; our lives can expand sacrament into sacramental living.

 

There are some who suggest that there is a third item required to make a sacrament: an earthly element, the Word, and community. Other than the account in the Gospel of John where resurrected Jesus meets Mary in the garden, all the resurrection accounts happen in community: the pair on the road to Emmaus who recognize Jesus with others at the breaking of bread; the disciples having breakfast with Jesus at the seashore; the disciples gathered behind closed doors when Jesus appears and says ‘peace be with you.’

Earlier I asked, “What do you notice?” The women were together. Jesus was at the table with two. The art also reminds us that resurrection is experienced in community.

What I have noticed over the years is a human need and desire for communion. What I have experienced is that for many the sacrament of communion is not here in the church, but is rather, through the hands of one who is fed here and goes -living sacramentally- and sharing of themselves in the world.

 

What I have noticed as a pastor is that resurrection appearances happen most frequently over a cup of coffee and pastry; or a cup of tea with cookies.

 

Perhaps you have experienced one of these resurrection appearances. Consider a time when you were with another person, either as inviter or invitee, and you met for coffee; a time when one of you was experiencing an overwhelming event – the loss of a job, a death, a family crisis, a health diagnosis, troubling news, a search for meaning, or a time of transition. Some circumstance that was difficult to talk about and emotions hard to articulate.

 

What do you notice? I’ve noticed that one never just starts talking. You get your warm drinks and pastry. You sit down together. You hold the warm cup in your hands and let the steam rise to your face. You take a sip or two. … and then and only then, in this communion, the one who is hurting opens up and shares at least some of the brokenness they are experiencing. In the conversation, and in the listening by the other, grace is given. Sacrament is shared as brokenness is met with wholeness.

In these coffee conversations, both people are changed, feeling better than they did when they met. This is the resurrection appearance. Resurrection is movement from death to life. In coffee communion, brokenness moves towards wholeness – a person’s grief heals a little, depression lifts a bit, confusion clears a tad… sacrament becomes part of life; the paradox of being broken-yet-whole.

 

This morning’s Gospel has Jesus eating fish in his resurrection appearance. Jesus has come among the disciples to bear witness to the power of communion, of sharing a meal, bread, wine, fish, …a cup of coffee.

Each of us is broken. Each of us is not perfect. And yet, the promise of Easter is that we through God’s grace have been made whole. The disciples embrace communion early on, when they meet, they meet over food with prayers. It is the practice of the early church. It is a continuation of the resurrection appearances of Jesus.

The Easter season reminds us and calls us to sacramental living – a sharing of communion – here and out there.

As you eat at God’s table and receive God’s grace, be fed and encouraged to be bread for the hungry – meaning commune with your friends, family, and neighbours by sacramentally living; participating in resurrection appearances. Be ministers of the sacrament of coffee and pastry, tea and cookies. Amen.