ST MATTHEW-IN-THE-CITY
ANGLICAN CHURCH AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND
The Sacraments
April 26, 2020
Helen Jacobi
Easter 3 Luke 24:13-35
Video available on YouTube, Facebook
The story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is I think my favourite Bible passage.
I love to wonder about Cleopas and his unnamed companion – women tend not to be named in the Bible so maybe she is Cleopas’ wife or daughter.
I love to imagine their conversation, a mixture of grief and also hope as they talk about the strange tale of the women and angels and Jesus being alive.
I love the mystery of the stranger who appears and walks with them, listening, and then explaining the scriptures to them.
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
They are engaging with their hearts more than their heads.
But they still don’t recognize him.
The day draws to a close and Cleopas arrives at his home and so invites the stranger to stay – an absolute obligation in the culture of the time. [1]
Then I love the account of the meal “When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them”
You might recognise there the actions of the eucharist, of our communion service, where we take the bread, bless it, break it and share it.
The words are the same ones that the writer of this gospel will use of Jesus at the Last Supper (22:19) and the feeding of the 5000 (9:16).
He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them”
It is then that Cleopas and the companion recognise Jesus.
I love this part of the story because it is about the eucharist – the sharing of bread and wine which we normally do every Sunday together as a community.
During lockdown we cannot gather, and we cannot share the bread and wine. We can’t even invite a friend, let alone a stranger, over for dinner.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to cook dinner for a friend tonight.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to share in the eucharist together.
I think I have felt alright up till this Sunday about not sharing the eucharist.
I have missed it – but today as we hear this story my heart has started to long for the bread and the wine.
At St Matthew’s we have real bread for communion, made to a secret recipe, from the late Puppe Wall, the recipe passed down to her granddaughter who makes it for us still.
The bread has a perfect texture and a slightly sweet taste.
When Puppe was with us the bread would arrive warm on a Sunday morning. There are a couple of loaves in the freezer at St Matthew’s, waiting for us to warm them up, bless them, break them and share them.
In this lockdown season while we long for that bread we can also pay attention to the other part of the Emmaus story. The part where our hearts might burn as we read and absorb the word of God.
Like the prophet Jeremiah who said “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (15:16)
or the psalmist: “How sweet are your words to my taste; sweeter than honey to my mouth” (119:103)
As Anglicans we are people of the word and the sacrament – equally.
Now is a time when our being fed by the word is coming to the fore; while our hearts also yearn to be together and to break bread together.
As we take time to slow down and focus on what matters in our lives we can also notice the sacrament of life all around us.
The word sacrament simple means a sign – a sign of God’s presence with us. So the bread and wine are signs of Jesus; water is the sign of baptism.
One writer, Claudio Carvalhaes says this:
The whole universe can be a sacrament. Everyday every person will be grateful for something.
One day we will listen to the birds as a sacrament and we will sing back to them in gratitude.
Another day we will tell a story to a child either in our house or online to somebody else and count this storytelling as a sacrament.
Another we will eat and say to the earth how grateful we are for our bountiful meals and save some for the hungry.
Another we might celebrate the rain we receive as God’s sacrament.
If there is no rain, our shower will be a sacrament, our washing of the dishes will be a sacrament of who we are.
On the seventh day we gather together on our online worship service, count the thousand sacraments we experienced and tell each other how our gathering can be enriched by so many other sacraments, keeping our hearts positive all week long! [2]
What signs of God’s presence have you seen this week?
What sacrament can you give thanks for?
How might you continue to give thanks, until we can gather again and break bread in community.
[1] Kenneth Bailey Through Peasant Eyes p108