“On The Road Again, The Pilgrimage of Faith”

April 14, 2024
St. Andrew Church
Rev. Larry Vilardo
Third Sunday of Easter

First Lesson:                          Acts 3:12-19

¹² When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. ¹⁴ But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶ And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. ¹⁷ “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.

*Second Lesson:                  Luke 24:36b-48

³⁶ Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸ He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹ While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ and he took it and ate in their presence. ⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶ and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.

Acts 3:12-19 We did not make him walk by our own power or piety

Psalm 4 Answer when I call O God of my right

1st John 3:1-7 See what love the Father has given us 

Luke 24:36b-48 Emmaus Road, second half, he came again.

Luke 24:13-36 Emmaus Road Cleopas and other recognize him in bread breaking.

When Anne and I first met at the Shrine Coffee house to discuss the  ideas for a pulpit exchange we discussed at length what is the  mission of the church today? What is our goal and purpose in a very  rapidly changing world. We are in the midst of two chaotic wars,  we are experiencing turbulent weather and and a political future  which is fraught with dangers both real and imagined. All this while  we adjust to a post pandemic landscape. The church, both globally  and locally is in transition. What is our mission in these complex  days ahead to those impacted by the innumerable transitions that we  face?  

The disciples and Jesus are described in a moment of transition in  our morning gospel passage which follows the beautiful and  picturesque Emmaus Road passage. Emmaus was about a day’s  walk from Jerusalem in a beautiful suburban valley so those  attending the Passover may have stayed there on their way in or out.  After the Passover observance is over the two disciple’s topic of  conversation is the arrest, trial and death of the very popular prophet  Jesus. In this passage there are at least four different words used for  conversations, they were “talking”, “questioning”, “debating”, and  “analyzing” what did it all mean? They were at loose ends in a time  of transition with no boundaries of time or geography.  At that moment Jesus walks up beside them, but they do not  recognize that it is him. Luke states that “their eyes had been  closed”, in the passive indicating that God had a hand in this. Jesus  asks them, “What are you discussing while you are walking in  circles?” The implication is that they are not making any progress in  their conversation or in their movement. They are stuck, “in between” emotionally, spiritually and even physically. In response to the question they stood stock still and looked downcast. They then  tell the story of Jesus, who was great in both word and deed. “We  had hoped that he would free Israel”. Passover celebrated freedom,  and instead they experienced broken dreams. They were living in between a disappointing past and an unsure future. All of us have  been there, after college graduation, after a job ends, after a stint in  the military, after a child is born, after moving to a new area, after a  death in the family we know that the old familiar landscape is gone  and we are wandering in the wilderness without boundaries or  horizons. I have good news for you, God is the God of the ‘in between”, he knows our past and he gives us a future. Our Lord  comes to us in these times because these are sacred and holy times  in the truest sense of the world. In that in-between state we are most  open to new thoughts, and to role reversals, repentance and  reassessment.  

This is a theme throughout scripture. God was there in fire and pillar  when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. God was there when  Abraham set out by faith not knowing where he would go. In some  ways a time of transition is the richest spiritual time because the  clutter of habit and presupposition is cleared away. David wrote  some of his most poignant Psalms while on the run from Saul. Jesus  comes to people at the edge and in the margins. He was there for the  tax collectors and sinners. He was there to heal the demonic of the  Gaderenes at the edge of civilization, he was there for lepers, who  had no past or future. He is there for us. Jesus is there for these  pilgrims. They are going in circles, mentally and physically. They  are not making progress. Jesus walks with them and provides a road  map by framing in depth the past and present and by giving context  from the Jewish Scriptures. They make their destination. Jesus  makes as if he will continue on, but they ask him to stay which is a  real act of hospitality to a stranger. Just before eating together Jesus  gives thanks, breaks bread and distributes it. It says their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; he disappears and they exclaim,  “Were not our hearts burning within us, when we were on the road?”  In our passage when the Emmaus Road disciples reunite with the  other disciples there is chaos, fear and anguish. Jesus appears right  in the middle of them, saying, “Peace be with you”. He is the calm  eye of the turbulent and unpredictable storms of life. They were so  shocked, confused and joyful that they still struggled to believe, so  Jesus walked them through proofs of how real and close he was,  showing his wounds, eating fish and giving them a mission. They  had a past, everyone does, but now they had a future. That future is  to preach forgiveness of sins to all nations. There will no longer be  racial or national boundaries. Divisions between rich and poor, male  and female, black and white are now window dressing. The distance  between people is now collapsed. This mission is carried out in  Luke’s sequel to his gospel, the book of Acts, when the disciples  bring healing and wholeness first to Jerusalem, then Judea, then  Samaria, then to the whole world. You begin where you are, ground  zero and you keep moving past obstacles and boundaries.  The Emmaus road disciples welcomed a stranger into their midst,  and like Abraham who entertained angels unaware, they welcomed  Jesus unaware. That brought beauty and meaning into their lives. In  fact some think the unnamed disciple is Luke himself. Many  believe he was the only non-Jewish writer of Scripture and a real  outsider, but Jesus came to him, and he invited Jesus in, and he was  now no longer a stranger seeking a home, but he was seeking to  bring other strangers home to God. Good things happen when you  invite strangers in. I see that you sponsor children in El Salvador, as  Trinity does, and that you work with AFC and the showers as Trinity  does. Those families are part of the family of God and the children  are children of God just as we are. That is the heart of mission.  Mission brings us home to the arms of Christ our Lord. There is  challenge, complexity and joy in that mission.

Rev. Larry Vilardo