One of my favorite stained glass windows at Duke University Chapel shows the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples are walking down the road, and Jesus is walking up behind them, looking like he’s about to tap one of them on the shoulder: boo! Jesus’ appearance to his friends comes as a surprise-a welcome surprise, a world changing surprise, but a surprise nonetheless.
In our Gospel for Sunday, the disciples find out that the resurrection isn’t just a rumor – it’s real. And they discover that it’s real in a tangible way as Jesus breaks bread with them. In Jesus, God shows himself to us as not just able to be seen, but able to be touched. And God chooses to be known that way. God gains nothing by being seen or touched. God would be God regardless of how we experience God. But God chooses to be with us, to share Scripture and bread with us, to be perceived. The fact that God chooses to be there on the road with us, that God breaks bread with us, shows us that this is a God who can be trusted in the absence of perception as well as in its presence. God chooses to be in that kind of intimate relationship with us, and that tells us how much God loves us, how safe we are in God’s hands. God chooses to invite us into a relationship of new life - a new life of peace. This is the new life that Jesus invites us to share in, through baptism and every time we share the Eucharist with each other. Our faith isn’t ethereal and theoretical, it’s something that we touch and that touches us.
Join us this Sunday to be surprised once more by grace, and to find out how this story ends!
Yours in Christ, and in Christ alone,
Kara+