Sermons

• Sharing Eucharist – The Rev. Michelle Meech

  April 14, 2024

  When I imagine the disciples at this time, after the death of Jesus and his Resurrection, I imagine it as one of incredible confusion. Because they were dealing with some incredible change. I’m not talking about some small change either. I’m talking about big change. Bigger than an earthquake or a solar eclipse. Because this is the kind of change when everything you thought you knew, everything you thought you understood about life and how this world functions, has shifted. So much so that something inside of you no longer knows exactly who you are. Your understanding of reality has shifted and you have shifted along with it somehow.

  Big change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it is jarring and confusing as you’re going through it. And, while we do, we have a whole host of emotional reactions: Shock. Fear. Anger. Sometimes pain. Or even awe. Or Wonder.

  In my own life, I think one of the most jarring experience I ever had was when I was 17. Which means, it was 1985.
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  Here he was, my friend, someone who I loved, telling me that he did not fit that idea in my head and he never had. And I remember being shocked.

  For me, Mark was changed. And somehow, I was changed by that too. Except he hadn’t really changed. He was still Mark and he was still my friend. The difference was that he was finally able to speak his truth to someone he trusted. Which I suppose does change someone. I believe this is how love works.

  It wasn’t a bad experience, this shock. Besides, it wasn’t about me anyway. But after I left and this conversation started to sink in, I started to realize that people were much more complex and their lives were much more complicated than I had ever fathomed before in my small Western PA town. And I remember that it took me several weeks to fully integrate this, to absorb this. I think it made me more curious about people. And I know it immediately made me a staunch advocate of LGBTQ people. Even though it would be many years before I would come to know myself deeply enough to allow myself to fall in love with a woman.

  Anyway, this was one of those “big change” moments for me. And I offer this story because when I think about what it was like in the days after the Resurrection, the Gospel witness tells us that it was a “big change” moment for them. What they knew about death and friendship and love, had just been kind of exploded. And they were faced with a new understanding about themselves and their relationships with one another. And their relationship with God. Very shocking. Very confusing.

  There they are, the disciples, having dinner, and probably still in mourning for their friend and teacher, and suddenly there’s Jesus saying, “Peace be with you.”

  And Luke tells us: “They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.” Of course they were startled and terrified! This whole thing that was happening before them did not match up with their concept of how things happened in the world.

  And I honestly cannot tell if Jesus is chiding them in jest or if he’s seriously irritated with them, but he has the nerve to say, “Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts?… Look at me, touch me. Ghosts don’t have flesh.”

  

  Jesus at the Apostles Table by Duccio di Buoninsegna

  Luke tells us that they experienced joy, but they were still disbelieving and wondering. Unable to fully get it. Still in shock. A “big change” kind of moment for sure.

  And what does Jesus do? He says, “Hey y’all got something to eat?” I honestly love this scene. I think more than any other post-Resurrection story we have of the disciples, I love that Jesus appears to them and asks them for something to eat.

  I know that some scholars think that Luke wrote it this way because ghosts don’t eat and it was a way to highlight the physicality of the Resurrection. But I think that could have been achieved in many ways. Why does Luke decide to use Jesus eating food as the hinge point in this part of the story? I think it’s because Luke is highlighting the importance of breaking bread together, the importance of and centrality of eating meals together in the Christian tradition.

  As humans, we gather and break bread together, sometimes simply as a social thing, or as a holiday event, or even just because we’ve been invited to do so. Gathering for a meal is something universally human, something done in every culture by every age and every kind of person. It’s something we all share in common. And when we eat together, we are experiencing a kind of vulnerability. One in which we are able to recognize ourselves in one another. It’s because of this, a shared meal becomes a sacred act.

  Think about it for a moment and, if you’re willing, imagine yourself gathered around a table beginning to share a meal with a bunch of people. And you look around at the faces and bodies as food gets passed around and people start to dig in. We look…
  And we recognize the look of delight on someone’s face when they are excited about something they love to eat.
  We recognize the look of concern when a parent tries to help their young child with their food.
  Or the sadness in someone’s eyes when they are having a tough time but their putting on a brave face.
  We see the patience of someone who’s trying not to be irritated by what’s being said.
  And we see the joy of someone who just loves to tell stories.
  We know the boredom of the teenager who has already finished and wants to go play a video game.
  Just like we know the look in someone’s eye when they trying to tell us something without saying a word.

  If we pay attention, we see ourselves as we look around the table. The sharing of a meal is so commonly human. The sharing that occurs is not just about passing the bowl of potatoes. The sharing is much more essential, much more foundational to who we are. It’s almost too simple a concept to see how powerful it is. It’s so everyday that we miss the significance of it.

  You see, we all need to be fed just as much as we all need to breathe. Even if we’ve never been hungry a day in our lives, we know on an instinctual level that offering food to another person, sharing food with another person, receiving food from another person, is vital to who we are. It is in the sharing of food, that we are recognizing the most essential truth of who we are – human. And just as important, acknowledging that we belong to one another. I need this, just as you need this.

  Passing the bowl of potatoes, you see, is a sacred act. Sharing a meal is a sacred act because sharing our vulnerability is a sacred act.

  That my friend Mark told me something that he couldn’t tell very many other people at that time in that place and that we did so over a pizza… That is Eucharist, you see, because it’s a sacred act.

  The breaking, sharing, taking, and eating of bread together as we bring everything we carry on our heart so that we can know and be known. So that we can see and be seen. This is why Jesus asked for something to eat. To be seen. To be known. This is our Eucharist – to be seen and known.

  And in so doing, we can be reconciled. By sharing we are reconciled with one another. By offering our truth we are reconciled with ourselves. And though reconciliation with ourselves and one another, we are reconciled with God.

  This is Eucharist. So let us come to the Table together.