Easter 3: How Have Ministries Been Enhanced

 

 

Through this season of Easter we are reflecting and applying the Easter story to resurrection springing up from the Lent of pandemic.

The first Sunday of Easter we reflected on the question: what is God calling us to do?

The second Sunday of Easter we reflected on spring cleaning – and were introduced to a journaling pamphlet, “Moving With the Risen Christ.” And you were/are invited to take time through this season to fill it out and return it to the church.

On this third Sunday of Easter we reflect on the question: how have ministries been enhanced over this pandemic time?

 

Enhanced. This is a resurrection kind of word.

Heightened, increased, intensified, appreciated, built up, deepen, boosted, bolstered, strengthened, enlarged, augmented, raised, enlivened... yes, a resurrection word! Alleluia!

 

This past week I read, ‘The Council of Pecans’ – a chapter in the book,  ‘Braiding Sweetgrass,’ by Robin Kimmerer. I learned something extraordinary!

There is a curious thing about pecan trees; from year to year one can not determine how many pecans trees will produce; there is not a pattern to the thin years or bumper crops. The trees have a mind of their own... kind of. Perhaps not unexpected is that all the pecan trees in one area produce the same amount as the other trees in a given year – chalk that up to similar environmental conditions – water, sun, temperature, soil.  What is curious is that pecan trees across the country -so in vastly different environmental conditions- all produce the same amount of fruit in a given year. In low years, everyone has less pecans and struggle together to find adequate food for the winter.  In years of abundance, there is an abundance for everyone and every creature. The chapter is called, the council of pecans, because some how to achieve this the trees must communicate with each other, deciding how much they will produce. Especially in years of mass fruiting, there is evidence that the trees share carbohydrates with each other via incredible fungal networks that redistribute the wealth – one tree to the next.  The council of pecans has a beautiful message, if we listen  -- there is no discrimination; when there is a scarce harvest this scarcity it shared, when there is a feast it is a feast for all- producers and creatures everywhere!

 

How has ministry been enhanced? This question is asking us to open our eyes to the resurrection story being experienced in our midst. It is the same as Jesus’ question from the text, “Have you anything to eat?”  Jesus’ question doesn’t say, ‘give me something to eat’ or what it is that he wants to eat;’ rather it is simply, ‘have you anything to eat?’

 

Jesus’ followers were in a lull, a time of grief and confusion. A time of fear and insecurity when they were not sure whom they could trust and what might happen to those found out to be connected to Jesus.  In the fog of confusion and cloud of unknowning a pair of followers are on the road walking to Emmaus, when a stranger appears on the road and enters their conversation. With hesitation the couple shares with the stranger the strange events of the past few days – talking about death and the recent stories of seeing the dead -Jesus- to be alive. The stranger shares with the couple his understanding of scripture and the hearts of the couple are warmed. They have been given something to eat – spiritual food.

On arriving at their home the couple invite and welcome the stranger into their home, despite any fear or hesitation they may have. The stranger asks the open-ended question, “have you anything to eat?” ... and in sharing fish, bread – physical food – they recognize that Jesus, in flesh and bone, is in their midst and with wounded hands Jesus blesses them.

 

This resurrection story is full of abundance! It enhances our understanding of what resurrection is all about and hopefully expands our experiences of resurrection as we take it to heart.

It is in the willingness to welcome a stranger and to share ‘anything to eat’ – whether conversation, scripture, a journey, shelter, food, table – that the couple, the disciples, recognize Christ in their midst. And Christ is incarnate, flesh and blood, where the divine is seen in human flesh.  Resurrection is a tangible God showing up in person ... in person, bearing the marks of death, the wounds of suffering. 

We live in a time of foolish and senseless deaths: black lives, murdered and missing indigenous  lives, COVID death, domestic violence, mass shootings ---- we can’t turn away from death.  It is ever-present. We live in a fog of confusion and a cloud of unknowning.

 

And into this Jesus asks, ‘have you anything to eat?’

How have ministries been enhanced over the pandemic?

Ministry has been enhanced in the moments when, with wounded hands, we have welcomed the stranger and shared what we have. Facing death, in the time of death, this morning – right now – we experience resurrection as we gather together to hear the word of God and feed the soul; when we don’t turn from foolish death but work to change the statistics; when we as a community invite expressions of grief and lament; when we open a space -in a mult-media plethora of options- to welcome and feed the stranger. Ministry is enhanced when we feast on gratitude and prayer for others; when we take the time to pass out bread whether in the form of physical bread, or heart bread by telling someone else about God’s grace and forgiveness. Ministry is enhanced when repentance and forgiveness are proclaimed.

 

The most eye opening idea for me this week was the putting together of thoughts:

 that ministry is enhanced when we work together like the council of pecans.

Communicating with each other where no one is left out and all are connected; indiscriminately suffering with each other, enjoying abundance together; being fed by each other so that others will be fed; dying with each other, rising together; praying for all; proclaiming repentance and forgiveness widely without reserve; and remembering that some years there will be a scarcity of fruit – so to survive creatures will need to rely on each other- and other years there will be an over-abundance of fruit, a time to celebrate, to live resurrection in its fullness; a year when death will be overshadowed with life!

Until then, proclaim repentance and forgiveness in word and action, welcome strangers, share what you have (conversation, scripture, journey, shelter, food, table), and in so doing may we all experience the risen incarnate Christ in our midst.