Common Bread
Luke 24:13-35
Aldersgate
1) Hospitality
a) Invitation to enter conversation
i)
Great events had
taken lace in
ii)
These two disciples did not understand
iii) Tension between resurrection and disbelief
iv) Disciples have some information
(1) Although limited
(2) They know the events
(3) and the rumors
(4) They need Jesus to help them put
v)
sense of identity with them
b) Two step process
i)
Ignorance and
blindness eventually give way to belief and proclamation
ii)
But neither happens without invitation to share dinner
iii) Jesus became companion in their journey
(1) Literally means “with bread”
(2) Jesus becomes our companion as well
(3) He still visits us at mealtime
(a)
(b) Through meals we send out
(i) those in health
(ii) or grief crisis
2) And Generosity
a) There’s a strong link between hospitality and
generosity
i)
True hospitality
is a willingness to step aside and offer one’s own place to another
ii)
It takes deep generosity to give over one’s own place
iii) It is only through God’s generosity to us that we
find the grace to express hospitality
b) “A few years ago a nationwide poll asked, What word or phrase would you most like to hear uttered to
you, sincerely?
i)
“Can you guess
the first thing people wanted to hear?
(1) [the third most desirable
thing], believe it or not, was, Supper is ready.
(2) “The second was, You are
forgiven.
(3) “[And the first]: I love you. (With thanks to James
A. Harnish, Walking With Jesus: Forgiveness, Tampa,
Fla.,
ii)
That supper on the road to Emmaus included all three
(1) I love you -- God's unconditional love.
(2) You are forgiven -- God's unmerited grace.
(3) Supper is ready -- God's unsurpassed invitation.
c)
God’s generosity is revealed in gift of God through
Jesus Christ
3) Lead to Community
a) Earlier in week needed gospel lesson to celebrate
Katie’s life
i)
How do you find
gospel,
(1) or good news,
(2) that’s what gospel means
(3) in midst of tragic death?
ii)
Only by celebrating life of one who has died
(1) Refuse to use typical euphemisms saying “she is lost”
(2) She is found by God and therefore by us
b) Visiting with one of our members
i)
We started
brainstorming together at this passage
(1) Moved through Transfiguration
(2) Sermon on the mount
(3) Came to feeding stories
(4) Knew I wanted one where child shares his picnic lunch
ii)
Because feeding children was part of who Katie was
and who we are as a community
4) and Common Bread
a) Jesus is our Common Bread
i)
I have found
that Jesus feeds me when I feed others
(1) Offering hospitality
(2) Caring about the needs of the poor
(3) Feeding children in
ii)
I’m getting ready to go back to
(1) I’m looking for a few good women to travel with me
and join me in a partnership
(2) I already have a few colleagues
(3) And I think a few from Boston Faith and Justice
Network
iii) We’re hoping to feed children
(1) By setting up fair trade network
(2) If we can get a few more dollars into hands of peasant
women
(3) They will feed their children
(4) The beauty of working in
(a) improving economy in a small way
(b) will have a large impact
b) Feeding people is part of Jesus
i)
Jesus is deeply
concerned about children
ii)
He is also concerned about helping church members to
prosper
(1) But not such that they have more money
(2) Rather that they would truly live
iii) Feeding us is not always about physical hunger
c)
Les Miserables is a powerful story
i)
illustrates the
power of forgiveness
ii)
and of a grace that feeds our souls
iii) “Victor Hugo’s masterpiece,
(1) the police knock on the door of the local bishop.
(a) accompanied by a scruffy ex-convict,
(b) whom only yesterday he had befriended.
(2) As thanks for his generosity, the ex-con has stolen
most of his silver. …
(3) The convict’s name is Jean Valjean
and the man he has stolen from is, as [I] said, a bishop.
(a) But this is no ordinary bishop.
(b) He’s a radical believer who takes the words of Jesus
literally.
(4) So when Valjean is dragged
before him holding the stolen silver,
(a) the bishop informs the startled police that the silver
was a gift.
(b) He turns the other cheek by giving Valjean a pair of silver candlesticks as well, and then
sets him free.
(5) Later we learn that Valjean
had spent 19 years in prison merely for stealing a loaf of bread out of hunger,
(a) an injustice that left him deeply embittered.
(b) The bishop’s act of generosity and grace breaks the
cycle of anger and sin.
(6) This [experience with the bishop] is Valjean’s first taste of grace, and it transforms him.
(7) [and years later] The ex-convict later shows the same
extraordinary forgiveness and grace to someone who wrongs him.” (www.homlieticsonline.com)
d) Hospitality and generosity lead to community and
common bread. Amen.