Year B
 Acts 3:12-19
 Psalm 4
 1 John 3:1-7
 Luke 24:36b-48

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

The electromagnetic spectrum describes many different kinds of energy and light…  including light the human eye cannot see…  in fact…  most of the light in the universe is invisible to our eyes…  the light we can see…  which as you know…  is made up of the individual colors of the rainbow…  represents a very small portion of the full spectrum…  other types of light…  or energy…  include radio waves…  microwaves…  infrared radiation…  ultraviolet rays…  x-rays…  and gamma rays…  all of which are imperceptible to our human eyes…  though some birds can see ultraviolet…  and some snakes can see infrared…

But different types of light tell us different things… radio waves and microwaves…  which have the lowest energies…  allow scientists to see the motion of gases within interstellar clouds…  and infrared light can detect molecules in the atmospheres of planets and stars…  ] the color of a star can also reveal its temperature…  red stars are relatively cool…  while blue and violet stars are much hotter…  next comes ultraviolet light…  whose energies are too high for human eyes to see…  ] x-rays are emitted from superheated material spiraling around a black hole… ]  and gamma rays…  created in powerful magnetic fields when stars explode…  have even higher energies and shorter wavelengths…  and so…  as in so many things…  what we can see…  what we can perceive…  almost never reveals the entire picture…

The action in this morning’s Gospel takes place immediately after the Road to Emmaus story…  when two travelers…  one whose name was Cleopas…  didn’t recognize Jesus…  but because it was late…  they invited him to stay with them…  and share a meal…  they didn’t recognize Jesus…  but he became known to them in the breaking of the bread…  comparable to the bread he broke on what’s become known as Maundy Thursday…  when he established the Eucharist…  and although they already knew the gesture…  and had information about his death…  ]  at first…  they didn’t fully comprehend either the gesture or his death…  they were unable to answer the question Jesus asked them…  about whether it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer before he entered into glory…  what they could see did not reveal the entire story…  and the ancient Christian connection between Eucharist and the Cross…  eluded them…  but when…  in their presence…  Jesus repeated the Eucharistic gesture…  there was a breakthrough…  perhaps he opened their minds too…  to understand the scriptures…  and they began to understand the larger plan of which he was a part…  which is that Jesus is filled with God’s life…  and just as bread nourishes the physical level…  Jesus nourishes the spiritual level…  Jesus was always giving divine life to others…  and this is what was made known to them in the breaking of the bread…

And Cleopas and his companion wasted no time in returning to Jerusalem…  and found the eleven and their companions…  and told them their story…  and the next thing they all knew…  was that Jesus was standing among them…  and he must have known how they’d react…  because the first thing he said was…  Peace be with you…  ]  they were not only startled…  but they were terrified…  they thought they were seeing a ghost…  but what they could see…  did not reveal the entire story… ] and as Jesus spoke…  and as they listened…  there were varied responses…  disbelief…  but also wondering how this might be…  and Jesus asked them for something which meets one of the most basic human needs…  he asked for food…

But the overall conviction…  the overall significance here…  is that Jesus does not return to the same space-time continuum in which he lived before his death…  however…  the language from this Gospel seems to say just that…  because warm flesh is the physical life we know…  and warm food is how we keep it going…  but ghosts don’t eat broiled fish…  so Jesus isn’t a ghost…  or a zombie who eats human flesh…  or a vampire who drinks human blood… and let’s be clear…  Jesus was not resuscitated…  as paramedics may sometimes do for those whose heart has stopped…  he was resurrected…  and the physical rules with which we’re familiar no longer applied…  this was a new creation…  a new way of being…  and it brings to mind Revelation 21:5 which says…  See…  I am making all things new…

In 1944…  W. Somerset Maugham published his book The Razor’s Edge…  for those who may not have read the book…  or seen the 1946 film version…  or the 1984 remake…  it’s the story of an American pilot who’s traumatized by his experiences in World War I…  he rejects conventional values… and who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life…  he searches for a deeper experience… and he thrives…  ]  while his more materialistic friends suffer monumental reversals of fortune… 

The title of the book was taken from a verse in the Upanishads… part of the Hindu scriptures… and real-life author Christopher Isherwood…  actually helped Somerset Maugham translate a verse from the original Sanskrit which says…  Rise…  awaken…  seek the wise and realized…  for the path to salvation is difficult to cross…  like the sharpened edge of the razor…  there’s a similar sentiment in Ch. 7:13 of the Gospel of Matthew…  which says…  the road that leads to life is hard…  and the gate is narrow…  and there are few who find it…  ]  and so again…  what we can see…  may not reveal the entire picture…

Today we live in a world of war…  poverty…  disease…  neglect…  prejudice…  fear…  isolation…  and sinfulness…  God seems powerless and absent in the face of ongoing suffering and pain…  ] and despite the efforts of well-intentioned…  generous…  and sensitive persons…  the world remains oppressive and inhospitable for many…

But in his book The Search for Common Ground … Howard Thurman reminds us that…  the contradictions of life are not final or ultimate…  and that God is the giver of forgiveness and mercy…  ever-ready to offer shalom…  peace…  the possibility and promise that order… well-being… hope…  compassion… and love…  might yet prevail…  Jesus’ post-Easter appearances assure us that God is alive…  and working for wholeness…   working on behalf of community…

The different types of light tell us different things…  and different kinds of spiritual light invite us into different kinds of behavior…  and if we imagine that God’s physical and spiritual creation is like the entire electromagnetic spectrum…  then for many of us…  the range of our experience is more like the narrow sliver of visible light…  and we can see only a part of the whole…

But in a cosmos where mystery and uncertainty abound…  in a universe where wonders never cease…  where the breaking of the bread and the resurrection are little more than different points on the line of a single unbroken continuum…  we’re told that the lover of our souls came to be with his friends…  and with us…  ]  and says…  Peace be with you…  that the peace that Jesus offers…  signifies the connection and restoration of relationships…  relationships between God and God’s people…  and between us and each other…  ]  we are now…  just as they were then…  witnesses of these things…  and we are called to deepen this Good News in our own lives…  and share it with others…  Holy God…  make it so…