Third Sunday of Easter-- April 6, 2008

A stranger met two disciples on the road to Emmaus; yet he was no stranger. These disciples were like many of us– blind to Jesus, our eyes gouged out by willful sin, as fallen sons and daughters of Adam. But here, we have come to His Table, because we are no longer blind. Christ revealed Himself in broken bread and they were amazed.

Christ reveals Himself now in broken bread and pours Himself our in the fruit of the vine. Are we amazed? The eyes of faith, renewed by the Holy Spirit, see the Lord high and lifted up, and there we are with Him. He breaks the bread of His broken Body and nourishes our brokenness, our failures, our disappointments, our willful abandon to the flesh.

Yes, this is bread and wine, but Christ has called us to worship, pronounced us forgiven, taught us by His Word and brought us hear to feed us at the culmination of our worship. He takes us to His Father and our Father and in the Spirit wraps us in fatherly love, reminding us in these signs of the covenant, that He loved us first and chose us to be in His family, that through these emblems of death, we might be raised in His resurrection and sealed in water by His baptizing Spirit.

God invites all those who by the Holy Spirit desire to renew the covenant, leave their sin and embrace Christ to do so–even today and come to His table, a lost sheep that is now found; equally so, this Table would serve as a means of judgement for those who presume upon and trample the mercy of God by their claim to be His own while living in a manner that insults His love, this meal would serve to harden their hearts or worse.

Come to His Table as baptized sons and daughters of the King, members of the family seeking to do His will and keep His commandments; come, as He makes all things new.