“Life, Resurrection, and
Broiled Fish”
Luke 24:36-48
Third Sunday of Easter
April 26, 2009
Dave Russell,
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We have a
few cookbooks at home. Actually, we have
quite a few cookbooks. Some were given
us as wedding presents: The Joy of
Cooking, the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook in a 3-ring binder, and a “Best
Recipes of 1986” cookbook. My parents’
neighbors the Colberts gave us that last one - I guess so that we could always
remember what food was like back when we got married. We use these cookbooks on occasion – well,
very occasionally. We have also picked
up a variety of cookbooks along the way, with a few devoted to particular kinds
of ethnic foods.
But far and
away, the largest group of cookbooks in our house, and the ones we use the
most, are church cookbooks. There are
cookbooks from several churches of which we have been members. There is a cookbook from Susan’s parent’s
church and her sister’s church and my parents’ church. There is the cookbook from my home church
where they famously messed up a quote from Jesus on the first page: “Whoever
eats of this bread will never be thirsty.”
Huh? We also have several church
cookbooks from random churches to which we have no connection at all.
Church cookbooks
always sell well because everybody knows you can find great food at church
potlucks. And a lot of church life
revolves around food.
Here at
First Baptist, there is the Easter breakfast where we can count on grits, eggs,
sausage, and homemade biscuits. One of
the highlights of the year is our Christmas dinner. We have our Worship Under the Trees service,
with a meal out on the lawn. When we
have our Fall Renewal Weekend with a guest speaker each year, we always have a
potluck meal as part of the weekend. We
have soup suppers. We have had a cookoff
the last couple of years, and this year it occurred to me that the cookoff was like
a potluck where everybody brings their best stuff – it was a potluck with an
even higher level of culinary expression.
A lot of
our college student ministry has revolved around food. We usually start the year with a cookout and
have parties or meals at our house at the end of each semester. Many of you have had students over to eat in
your homes. This year, rather than a weekly
Sunday evening meal and study, we have had our Bible study and fellowship on
Sunday mornings during the Sunday School time.
It hasn’t gone as well, and I think we are going to go back to Sunday
night suppers next year. Food is good.
Last summer,
we had a series of cookouts that were very well-attended and a lot of fun. I also remember the Laotian Dinner and
Karaoke Night we had several years ago.
There is
something about sharing a meal together that is very powerful. The ancient world attached great meaning to
eating together. To share a meal
communicated respect and acceptance and friendship and something in the
direction of ties of kinship.
As a
church, we gather regularly and share in the Lord’s Supper. When Jesus shared the Passover meal with his
disciples, as we remembered on Maundy Thursday, Jesus said, “As often as you
share this meal, remember me,” and we continue to do this.
It is
interesting that Jesus connects such remembrance with food. It is interesting that one of the high
moments of worship has to do with something as earthy and practical and
material as eating bread and drinking wine.
Why not something more spiritual?
Why not something more mystical?
Why not have a moment of silence?
Why not recite scripture or say a prayer or participate in a liturgy? Why something so worldly, so ordinary?
The
passage preceding this morning’s scripture is the story of the walk to
Emmaus. Two followers of Jesus are on
their way to the town of
These
two had hurried back to
Last
week, we looked at a post-resurrection appearance from the gospel of John. We saw these same emotions, all mixed
together. Joy and fear and
disbelief.
This
time, in the midst of this mixture of emotions, Jesus asks, “Do you have
anything to eat?” It seems weirdly out
of place. They see the resurrected Jesus
and they are not sure what to think – is this for real? Is this a ghost? They are filled with joy and fear and
disbelief and probably a lot of other emotions.
This is a critical moment. And
what does Jesus do? He asks, “What do
you have to eat around here?” He had
just traveled with two disciples to Emmaus and sits down for a meal with them,
and as they shared the meal, they realized it was Jesus. And the next thing you know, Jesus appears
again to these two along with many others back in
Actually,
there is a good reason Jesus asks for something to eat. Jesus wants to show that he is for real. He is not a figment of their collective
imagination and he is not a ghost, as some of them believe. He eats to show that he is real; it is really
him, really in the flesh. As we are all
supposed to know, ghosts don’t eat.
They
give him some fish and he eats it. There
it is, right in the middle of this very important, very serious
post-resurrection appearance: Jesus eating fish. Luke even gives the details that it is
broiled fish. If you have a resurrected
body, I assume you don’t have to worry about cholesterol and calories. If there were a choice, I would go for the
Captain’s platter, with fried fish and shrimp and scallops and clams and hush
puppies, but what they have is broiled fish.
Jesus eats fish to show that he is for real
and not a ghost. It is so interesting
here the way that the spiritual and eternal is grounded by the everyday, down
to earth experience of eating. Jesus ate
some broiled fish. And then he opened
the scriptures, teaching them about the meaning of his death and his
resurrection, and he said, “You are witnesses of these things.”
There have
always been those Christians who have had trouble with Jesus’ earthly
existence, who have been troubled, scandalized even, by his humanity. Early in the history of the church, there were
Christians who believed in something called Docetism, coming from a word
meaning “to appear.” They believed that the
Spirit was good and that the earthly, material world was evil. It was a very black and white worldview. For them, God was pure spirit and never would
have polluted himself by being involved with anything physical. Physical things - like bodies - were corrupt
and evil and dirty. So they denied the Incarnation—God
never really became human in Jesus. He
only appeared to be human. Jesus didn’t
really live as a human being; he only seemed to be human. He didn’t really die; it only appeared that
way.
Even if he
had really lived and died – which he didn’t – he certainly wouldn’t have been
resurrected bodily after that. He may
have appeared to the disciples, but he was pure Spirit, without the corruption
of a human body.
Luke,
however, is clearly saying that this is not the case. He didn’t just appear to the disciples, it
was really him, really in the flesh – he even ate some broiled fish. This might seem like a strange, minor detail,
but it is important.
It is important
because it means that Jesus remained embodied, incarnated, even after his death
and resurrection. And it is important
because it means that our faith is an embodied, incarnational faith.
We often
want to make a divide between things of the spirit and things of the material
world. Jesus did not make such a
distinction. Christian faith is
concerned with all of life. It is
concerned with material things. We are
to be involved in the world. We are
called to a transformational ministry that brings God’s reign to bear right
here and now. Living out our faith means
serving God and serving others in the world.
Our physical actions are intimately tied up with our spiritual lives.
Susan and I
were at a conference this past week with American Baptist ministers from
several states. One part of the
conference involved Bible studies led by David May, a professor at Central
Baptist Seminary in
And so we
looked at the ways in which the people of Jesus’ day understood him to be a
prophet and the way that Jesus understood himself as a prophet, acting in a
prophetic role. We probably don’t talk
about Jesus as prophet very much because we believe that he was more than a
prophet. May said that yes, Jesus is
more than a prophet but he is never less than a prophet. And the presentation led us to think about
our own prophetic ministry. We can not
be like Jesus in his role as Savior or Son of God, but we can be like Jesus –
at least a little bit - in his role as prophet.
This was
all well and good, but during a question time there was someone who had trouble
with all of this. He said that the
church had been too concerned about social ministry for many years and that we
need to just stick to the Bible, stick to the Word, and focus on the message of
eternal life.
I kind of
laughed. Now, I was sitting on the other
side of the room, and I mostly laughed to myself, so I don’t think I was rude
to the questioner. But we had spent two
sessions doing nothing but examining the Biblical texts around the role of the
prophet - the way others and Jesus himself saw him as a prophet, the way he
functioned in ways similar to some of the Old Testament prophets, the role of
the prophet in siding with and advocating for the poor and oppressed, and so
on. We had spent two hours in detailed
study in the Bible, and this guy essentially says, “This isn’t important - why
don’t we just stick to the Bible?”
I would not
have been so gracious, but Dr. May engaged this question and agreed that we
need to have a strong focus on eternal life.
But he added that eternal life starts right now. Eternal life is not just something that comes
along later, after we die. Jesus
preached eternal life, but he saw it as beginning right now and was concerned
with the lives of people right now.
Following Jesus means being concerned for our world right now. And we serve God not only through our words
but through our lives as God’s love is incarnated through us.
Our
practice of faith involves physical actions: working, resting, building,
walking, speaking, singing, writing, planting, dancing, and yes, eating.
Jesus
ate some broiled fish. He showed his
disciples that it was really him, really in the flesh. And then he opened the scriptures, teaching
them about the meaning of his death and his resurrection. And then he gave them a charge: “You are
witnesses of these things.”
Jesus calls
us to be in the world – the real-life, here and now world of lost jobs and
collapsed economies and sickness and lousy days. The real world of strained relationships and
misunderstandings and disappointments and thunderstorms and bad hair days. The real world that is filled with both incredible
beauty and unspeakable sadness.
We are
witnesses of “these things.” Witnesses
to God’s great love shown in Jesus, witnesses to the power of resurrection,
witnesses to God’s love for all the earth, witnesses to eternal life.
We are called
to be in the world spreading the Good News of Resurrection through both our
words and our actions—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick
and the lonely, speaking on behalf of those who can’t speak for themselves,
working for peace and justice and righteousness. We don’t make a distinction between caring
for people’s physical needs and caring about their spiritual needs, because we
are whole people whose physical and spiritual lives are bound together, and
because Jesus’ resurrection gives us hope not only for life after death, but
for abundant life, eternal life, right now.
Amen.