In the breaking of bread - and other ordinary things

I can get really excited about today’s reading!

It’s about seeing – and not seeing; it’s about talking and it’s about listening; and it is about eating.  It could be about holy communion, which many of us are missing at the moment – but it could also be about everyday meals and the ordinary things of life.  Most of all, it’s about Jesus.  I could get really excited about this!

What’s everyone talking about at the moment?  On the radio, on the television, in our phone conversations with friends, in our 2 metre social-distanced chats with neighbours.  Did you hear this week about the couple who’d been on a long sailing trip and asked not to be told any bad news whilst at sea?  What a shock for them to find it difficult to land in the Caribbean and then to be told how things had changed while they had been away.  As Cleopas and his companion say to Jesus, “Are you the only [one]…who does not know the things that have taken place…?”

It’s the day of resurrection – Easter Day – and all they can talk about is Jesus.  Although he is the topic of their conversation, they don’t recognise him; Luke says “their eyes were kept from recognising him”, but they really wouldn’t have expected to see him. He was dead!  And so, as he came alongside them and listened to their story – which was his story – they didn’t recognise him.

I wonder how often we don’t recognise Jesus, or how often we don’t see what God is doing in our lives.  There’s a very simple mental health tool that encourages us to be thankful, every day; to reflect on the day past, as these friends did on their evening journey, and to notice the things that we want to be thankful for.

Sometimes, like them, we only notice the things that are perplexing and difficult to understand, like the current pandemic.  They said to Jesus, “we had hoped that he was the one”.  Now, it seems their hope has gone and the future is uncertain.  Maybe we feel like that too, at the moment.

But there is something hopeful in clapping for the NHS – it means we are noticing the good things that we have.  There is something positive about sharing a video call with family, some of whom we speak to more at the moment than in the normal rush of life.  There is much to be thankful for living in our communities of Erbistock and Overton, as I know many people have been reflecting.  What is good now, what we have to be thankful for, also gives us hope for the future.

The irony, of course, is that these two friends of Jesus are telling their concerns to the very person who is most able to comfort and support them.  As the hymn writer says, “What a friend we have in Jesus… take it to the Lord in prayer.”  Sometimes prayer can seem difficult, a bit of a puzzle, something churchy with special words – but as we sit in our homes today, let’s remember that we have a friend who just wants to hear our concerns.  Tell Jesus what you are thinking – that is prayer.

Are you struggling to make a space for prayer in your life at the moment?  There are a few things that we can do to make a sacred space in the day.  Start the day with God – say your prayers before you do anything else, or as soon as you have your morning cuppa.  Make prayer part of your daily walk or run, if you do these things on your own, or remember God is present with you when you are working or sitting in the garden.  If you can sit and be still, light a candle.

Having a routine when we pray at the same time or in the same place can be a really good support for us in times of need.  But Jesus is also with us on the journey, so don’t be afraid to chat to him at any time.  He will listen.

He points his friends towards the scripture, and we may find we have more time to read, reflect and study the Bible at the moment.  There are so many tools we can use to support us in this – and we’re going to have an online Bible study.  Let me know if you’d like to be part of it.  As we’re discovering in this story, we can really meet God in a new and exciting way in the words of the Bible.  I love their reflection on this, after the event, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

It was presumably that burning feeling, that excitement and that connection, which led this couple to invite Jesus in.  It was evening, it was getting dark, they were offering hospitality – but it’s clear they didn’t want this conversation to end.  They didn’t recognise Jesus, they didn’t SEE him, but at a deep level they had reconnected with him.  It was as if they knew.

It was, however, in the midst of a meal that they really recognised him.  When I was on sabbatical at L’Arche Daybreak, a community for people with learning disabilities, I was asked if I missed presiding at communion.  That’s a relevant question to ask a priest at the moment.  What I said then, in a moment of recognition, was that every time I cooked for the people whose home and lives I shared for that month, it was like sharing in communion.  I really meant it.  Those were sacred moments and, five years later, I still treasure the memory of those meals.

When Jesus took the bread from the table, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, it was as if their memories were stirred.  These ordinary actions had become extra-ordinary because, just a few days earlier, Jesus had done these things with his friends, just before his death.  And he had asked them to remember – every time they did it.  Every time they broke the bread and shared it.

These are eucharistic actions – associated for us with holy communion.  But in the present crisis, isn’t it good to remember that Jesus said to remember him every time we do this?  Every time we take bread, we should bless it.  The table becomes a holy place, as it is at Daybreak, where the community meets.  Every time we take the break and bless it, we should break it and give it to others.  Are you sharing meals with friends and family, in your home or even online?  We had a curry night on Friday with our daughter in York – she and Jo cooked the same meal and we ate together, linked by the internet.  But we are also sharing home baking with our neighbours around us, and keeping an eye out for those who might be neglected at this time.

In all of this, Jesus is present.  Every meal we have can be a reminder of his presence, his resurrection life, his power to save.  Once these disciples of Jesus had met with him again, they were filled with renewed energy and rushed off to tell others.

In the ordinary times of life, in the breaking of bread, in the journeys we take and in the hospitality we share in our homes, may we know Jesus is with us.  The Lord has risen indeed!