Known in the Breaking of the Bread

Easter 3

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

The “Road to Emmaus” was also the gospel passage for last Wednesday and I’m going to hone in on some of the same points this morning. Hopefully, we will all gain from learning and refreshing our understanding.

Please turn to page 857 in the Book of Common Prayer. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find a Q & A on the Sacraments. The first question is, “What are the sacraments? The answer is, “The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.

This is, of course, from our catechism right in the prayer book. It is essentially what I memorized for my own confirmation and remains the teaching of our church. But what does it mean, really, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”?

It’s helpful if we take a step back and recognize that we ascribe meaning and purpose to literally everything we see, touch, smell, taste and hear. All five senses feed into our brains and we have to make sense of that data; it has to fit in with and guide our place and movement in the world. We automatically focus on one thing or another to the near-exclusion of all else.

Here I have a piece of white plastic. But it’s not just white plastic. There is black plastic also. And there is a switch. I turn it on. What is it? “It’s a candle,” you say. But it’s not a candle, it just looks like a candle. It represents a candle. It might look nice as part of a place setting at the dinner table.

But it is here because Archdeacon John uses these to teach children about the Light of Christ. (l literally walked over here while I was writing my sermon this week to see what I might use for this demonstration.)

You see the layers of meaning: plastic, candle, light of Christ. But that last one only has meaning because Archdeacon John assigned it for those children, which I have just shared with you.

These two disciples in today’s gospel are trying to process the data they have perhaps seen with Jesus’s death and what they have heard so far on that first Easter day. They are not part of the eleven (twelve minus Judas). They are followers of Jesus who hoped he would redeem Israel from Roman occupation. They heard him teach. They saw him work miracles. They know he was crucified. They are not simply sorting information; they are grieving the collapse of what they thought God was doing.

But they have also heard that the tomb was empty, and that there were angels who said Jesus was alive.

The things they have seen are depressing and the things they have heard are astounding, incredible. They are trying to make sense of it all, throwing their ideas back and forth processing as we all do. Then Jesus adds layers of understanding rooted in the Hebrew scriptures. They are eager to hear him, their hearts burning to hear him, even though they do not yet recognize him.

Then he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Then they recognized him. He vanished from their sight, but they knew it was him. Suddenly everything he taught them from the prophets, the accounts they had heard from that morning, the meaning of his death, everything they had heard him say and everything they had seen him do became clear. Jesus, who had been with them a long time on their walk, became clear. Their hearts burned when he opened the Scriptures – but their eyes were opened when he broke the bread.

Layer by layer it all came together in the breaking of the bread.

Plastic, candle, light of Christ.

Life, death, resurrection.

Blessed, broken, shared.

The sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is an intensification of meaning and purpose infinitely stronger, infinitely deeper than the meaning and purpose we ascribe to everything else because Jesus ascribes it to himself. This is not something we invented. It is what he himself gave us the night before he died:

“Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.

This is my blood, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”

We hold that when we use the elements he used, bread and wine, and the words he used, he is truly present with us in that communion. Communion means, literally union together or union with, union with him in that moment.

We are all trying to make sense of our lives and of our world. We spend a lot of time processing everything from our trip to the grocery store to our place in the universe. We can gather a great deal of knowledge and wisdom from a lot of good sources, including scripture.

But the key to making sense of it all, and finding our way through it all is not rehashing it again and again. Not Scripture alone, not reflection alone, but Christ himself given to us through them, and finally in the breaking of the bread. The key is, simply, him.

Whether we come before his altar or wait patiently in your seat, or receive him at home or the hospital, wherever you may be, the sacrament of his body and blood is meant to convey him “as a sure and certain means by which we receive grace” to all of us.

That is why we prepare with the Word of God, prayers and confession, so that we are as ready as we can be to receive him.

This is one reason why church attendance is so important. Some people join us online because they are unable to attend in person due to their circumstances. That may be due to long-term or short-term health issues or geographic distance. We deliver communion, the bread and wine as well as fellowship, to those locally who cannot be here. We love all of you and are thankful that you are here, period, full stop. All of you.

If you are watching online out of convenience, please understand that I appreciate the rest you may need.  However, I strongly urge you to not let that become a habit. You are hopefully getting a good message and participating in the prayers and blessed by the music. But you’re missing the sacrament and the fellowship, and your church family is missing you.

Please receive that as counsel and encouragement, not a scold.

And whenever or wherever you do receive Holy Communion, may your eyes be opened again and again. Our story concludes with action. The disciples’ hearts burned, their eyes were opened and their feet could not stay still. They hurried back to Jerusalem, a couple of hours away, to share the Good News about what had happened on the road and Jesus having been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

May we all be so inspired by our encounters with him, that we share him with the people we meet along the road. We are his body, blessed, broken and shared.

AMEN!