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SERMONS

The Third Sunday of Easter
May 4, 2003

We say: Seeing is believing.

And that is true. It is one thing to hear about something, or to talk about something, or to think about something. It is something more actually to see it.

But there is a deeper truth. There is a deeper form of confirmation for us. For we recognize that our eyes can be deceived. In seeing we can be fooled. Optical illusions and magic tricks rely on that fact.

There is a deeper truth: touching is believing. To be able to touch something, to hold it, to feel its contours is to be able to confirm what our eyes show us.

So it was for the disciples in the incident from Luke's account that we have just read. It is still Easter day. It is late in the evening of that eventful Sunday. Jesus' followers are gathered together. Rumors have circulated all day. The two disciples who had encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus have rushed back to Jerusalem and are telling the others of their encounter.

Suddenly there he is. Jesus stands among.

Seeing is believing?

No. They are terrified. They think they are seeing a ghost, an apparition, a phantom.

So Jesus says, "Look. It is I. See my hands and my feet. Touch me."

Then he goes on to ask for food and to eat it there with them. Spirits do not do that. It is Jesus.

We are physical beings. We live in a physical world. We need to touch and to be touched. Jesus did not come into this world to take us out of the world. Jesus did not come into this world to lead us to some other, higher, spiritual existence. Our faith, at its heart, is not grounded in a collection of interesting ideas or spiritual truths. Our faith, at its heart, is grounded in a relationship. A relationship with a real, living God.

The mystery of the Incarnation is that God entered the world of flesh and blood to be among us here. The mystery of the resurrection is that the risen Christ continues to dwell with us here. Christ is present with us in a very real way, for those with eyes to see and hands to touch and feel.

Sacraments, we say, are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual gifts, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive those gifts.

They are visible. They are tactile. They are things we can see and touch and feel and hold. Bread and wine that we can touch and take in our mouths and eat. Water that runs through our fingers and wets our foreheads. Things. Real, solid, physical things through which Christ is present with us.

And more.

When we share the peace of Christ with one another, when we greet and shake hands with and embrace and kiss one another, we greet and embrace and kiss Christ, present to us in the persons of our brothers and sisters. And when we greet and shake hands with and embrace and kiss one another, we offer Christ to our brothers and sisters in a real, physical way.

And more.

When we serve one another, in sharing a meal, in wiping a sick brow, in holding an injured child, we offer Christ to our brothers and sisters in a real way.

And more yet.

When we go out from this community here; when we teach and feed; when we tend the sick and prisoners; when we clothe the poor; when we offer a hand to someone down on his luck; when we aid the victims of flood or famine; when we care for the world, we offer Christ to the world in a very real and physical way.

Come and see Christ. Touch. Feel. Taste. Eat.

And then go.

Take Christ into the world.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Acts 4.5-12
1 John 1.1-2.2
Luke 24.36b-48