LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Easter III + April 22, 2007 +St. Paul’s Church, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Let me share an experience I had, one which I suspect most everyone here this morning has had – that of seeing someone whose face I knew, someone I recognized, but couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t what is kindly called a “senior moment” but rather an “I know you from somewhere – but where?” I was in town doing some errands when along came a lady with a dog on a leash. I knew that I knew her (or at least should know her), but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of what her name might be, or where I had met her. As I was asking myself what in the world was wrong with me that I just didn’t remember who she was, a silly story popped into my mind – a story my son, Father Alfred, Jr., had told his parish in a recent sermon. Let me borrow it and share it with you.

It seems it was time for his annual physical and Sam, always a bit nervous was fidgeting as his doctor came into the examination room. Sensing that something was wrong, the doctor asked Sam what was troubling him. The reply was “to tell you the truth, doctor, I seem to be getting quite forgetful. No, it’s actually worse than that. I forget where I parked my car, or whether I answered letters, and sometimes, even where I am going. I really need your help! What can I do?” The doctor takes off his glasses, stares at the ceiling for a minute, then looks Sam straight in the eye and says “pay me in advance!”

Remembering Father Al’s story made me smile for a moment, but then I was called back to reality as the woman I couldn’t place came closer and closer. As we passed each other, we both smiled and said “good morning” and walked on. I gave an inward sigh of relief, but continued to have a big blank as to who she was until it suddenly came to me that she was one of the “check out” people at the supermarket where I often shop. I just wasn’t used to seeing her in a different setting and so had trouble placing her. Has that ever happened to you?

The Gospel readings in early Eastertide abound in accounts of people meeting the Risen Lord, but not recognizing him. Part of that may be due to their belief, certainly a reasonable one, that Jesus was dead. He had been horribly tortured and crucified. No one had sneaked a wounded Jesus down from the cross and nursed him back to life. He was truly dead! Still, the Gospel accounts of his appearing to others make it clear that those “others” were people who not only knew him, but knew him well. They were his followers, people one might expect to say “O my goodness – is it really you?” Or “how did you do it?” But, at least, something like “I’m so glad to see you, so thrilled that you are alive!” Yes, one might expect that, but it wasn’t what happened!

Why not? I think a clue is given to us in the Collect for today. Consider its opening words again: “O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread…” Made Himself known! In each of the post-resurrection appearances, those to whom Jesus appears begin by not recognizing him, something which changes only when Jesus makes himself known.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus stands on the beach and calls to the disciples who are out on the water in a fishing boat. He calls them “friends” and asks if they have caught anything. If you think about it, it’s quite a dramatic moment. The disciples have not only been fishing, they were professional fishermen! They had been out all night, and caught exactly nothing! They would have been tired, frustrated, and certainly not in the best of moods! Think of members of a professional football team after a game which they had lost by a lopsided score, tired, aching, sad, angry, humiliated – and then a stranger comes into the locker room and brightly asks “Did you win?” What a reaction he’d get! Can’t you imagine dirty wet towels, helmets, and anything else close at hand being thrown at him along with choice words? When the stranger asks his question to the fishermen, our Gospel reading is mercifully bland in saying the answer was just a shouted “NO!” It has always amazed me that the story goes on so smoothly to say that the stranger then yells out a recommendation that the fishermen move their nets to the other side of the boat, predicting that they’d catch fish that way. It’s even more amazing that the fishermen did so! And, of course, netted such a huge number of fish that the nets became heavy to the point where they couldn’t even be hauled into the boat! It’s at that moment that John recognizes Jesus, and tells Peter.

Consider two things, if you will. First, it was because of Christ’s initiative that the disciples became aware of who the stranger was who was standing on the shore and yelling, but second, it was one of the followers of Jesus, namely John, who communicated that identity to the others. If we hear, or read, the Gospel stories of the Risen Christ appearing to various people simply as history, simply as accounts of what happened to others 2000 years ago, we miss the relevance of those astounding events for us. The Christian religion is based on actual history, but it is lived in the here and now. It is lived by you and by me. Through the centuries since his resurrection from the dead and his ascension back to the Father, Jesus has been present to those on earth, truly present, in three special ways.

As Anglicans, we are (or should be) particularly aware of His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, which is the reason for the emphasis Father John and I constantly place on the truly breath-taking reality that Christ, through the action of the Holy Spirit, comes to be present, truly present, in the consecrated Bread and Wine of the Eucharist. May we always approach receiving Holy Communion not only with reverence, but with awe, thanking God for that grace-bestowing gift to us, unworthy though we surely are.

As Anglicans, we also affirm the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible. At every Sunday’s celebration of the Eucharist, there are four Bible readings: two from the Hebrew Scriptures and two from the New Testament, except during Eastertide when our only Old Testament reading is from the Book of Psalms and the other three readings are from the Book of Acts, an Epistle, and a Gospel. But wherever the Bible readings come from, they are a way in which the Risen Lord speaks to us – speaks to us today, if we will let him.

The two ways we do – or can – encounter the Risen Lord which I have just mentioned are either church-based or clearly church related. But the third manifestation of Christ’s presence is often overlooked because it can happen anywhere, anytime - in church, but also at home, at work, at the supermarket, or even just walking along the street. The mode of Christ’s Presence I refer to is in people – humanity – a sometimes holy race, but all-too-often a strange, even horrible race. That includes us, our fellow parishioners of St. Paul’s, but also those of other traditions, especially those who, by baptism, have become part of the Mystical Body of Christ on earth. How important to recognize the Risen Lord in them, not out of some kind of spirit of tolerance, or charity, but because Christ is there – in them!

It is easy, so easy, to take all that for granted. We can become so accustomed to the fact that the Blessed Sacrament is there – in that tabernacle on the wall behind the Altar – that we take it for granted and virtually ignore that awesome Presence. We can become so used to hearing the Bible read at services of worship, that our minds wander, thinking of other things as if what was being read to us was a selection from the telephone book! And how easy it is to forget that day after day we are confronted by Christ in others, especially those who may not be very high on our list of “important people.” So, in today’s Collect, we prayed these words: “Open the eyes of our faith so that we may behold Jesus in all his redeeming work…”

Jesus not only rose from the dead, He is risen from the dead! That central belief of the Christian religion focuses not only on the past, but on the present. If we affirm a belief in, and love for, the risen Lord, how important it is to recognize Him, right now, in our ordinary, daily lives. Jesus is not a distant, far-off deity, but a living and loving Savior involved with us and with whom we need to be involved. It is so important for us, as Christians, to believe the teachings of our faith, but also to be willing to share them with others, just as in today’s Gospel reading, John shared his recognition of Christ’s presence with Peter.

As we consider and rejoice in the Eastertide reminders of the Presence of Christ in Sacrament, Bible, and Church, there is another balancing part of the greater Truth (that’s truth with an upper case “T”). As a prayer for mission said at Morning Prayer puts it so well, “God has made of one blood all the peoples of the earth.” That means not just Anglicans, not just Christians, but Jews, Moslems, Hindus, and Budhists. It includes Agnostics, Atheists, and those who never give God, or religion, a single thought. They too, are children of God for whom Christ died and rose. They too, are loved by God. They too, exist because of that same God, and not infrequently, knowingly or unknowingly, they may be vehicles of God’s grace to others – perhaps to you, or to me.

The description of the mission of this diocese which appears on our church calendars sums it up quite well saying that our mission is “Seeking and serving Christ in all people, and in the whole creation through worship, love, justice, and reconciliation.”

Returning to the words of the Collect for today, “Jesus made himself known to the disciples in the Breaking of Bread.” May He also make Himself known to us in that same sacred Mystery at every Mass. May He open our eyes so that we truly recognize Him in Holy Scripture, in our fellow Christians, and in those who are not Christians. May we recognize Him in all of creation, all of His redeeming work. May we, like St. John, recognize Him. Then, also like St. John, may we share that recognition with others through what we say but even more, through the way we live!

May it be so, O Lord. May it be so!

+ In the Name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

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