Break Open the Word

The Third Sunday of Easter, 4 May 2014 Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17 I Peter 1:17-23 St. Luke 24:13-35 First, a thank you to Nigel Renton who pointed out to me that my auto correction on my computer kept substituting “periscope” for “pericope”.   Thank you, Nigel.   Although, periscope might have some advantages here. Background: Breaking of the Bread The significance of this action on the part of Jesus is seen through our Christian eyes, as we retroject its symbolic power into the perceptions of the disciples at Emmaus.   What was it that made a rather common cultural and religious act turn into a mode of recognition of the Risen One?   That is a question that might occupy our minds as we think about what resurrection really is all about.   As I write this, I am in Dresden, Germany.   One of the huge goals I had was to visit the restored Frauenkirche that was destroyed by the fire that resulted from the Allied fire ...

The Second Sunday of Easter, 27 April 2014 Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Psalm 16 I Peter 1:3-9 St. John 20:19-31 Background:   Faith, Doubt, Belief, and Hope I am writing this while waiting in the Dresdener Hauptbahnhof for my train to Prague.   Somehow writing this in the land of rugged Saxon Protestants while on the way to the land of Hussites and other proto-Lutherans, it seems appropriate to be addressing these issues.   If Thomas had not existed we surely would have had to invent him, so necessary he is to the story.   His doubt is really the stuff of our daily life, but it is only one of several ingredients that rounds out our response to the Risen One.   I realized as I was flying into the Frankfurt Airport that all of those elements: faith, doubt, belief, and hope, were very much a part of the realities of my flight.   I had faith that all the workers who had assembled the plane had done a good job.   I believed that the pilot and t...