The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Third Sunday in Easter, May 8, 2011, St. George’s Church, Nashville

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…” (Lk. 24: 30-31).

Our liturgy today, our worship of Almighty God, enlists our efforts in making a crucial connection, between the bread we break and the cup we bless and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. You know the story because we recite it each time we celebrate the Eucharist: on the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread and then the cup and said, “This is my Body”, “This is my Blood”, “Do this for the remembrance of me”. So you see the connection that we have to make, between what we do now and what Jesus Christ did then. His words at that Last Supper are generally and correctly taken to point forward to his death, to his body broken and his blood poured out; and the commandment to “do this” pertains to those who continue to break the bread and drink the cup in memory of him. There’s then, and there’s now, and a connection between the two stands at the heart of our liturgy and at the heart of the Christian life.

Yet there’s more to this connection than meets the eye, and our Gospel today supplies the missing link. Our connection is with the Risen Lord. The bread and wine point forward to the crucifixion, but that’s not the end of the story. The encounter with the stranger on the road to Emmaus, who takes and blesses, breaks and gives, and in that moment is recognized as Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, makes clear who we are connected to and what we are recalling today in our Eucharist. The Body broken and the Blood poured out are symbols of life not death, and are given for the life of the world. When his disciples do this for the remembrance of him they are proclaiming that he is alive not dead, and they are filled with his living presence. That is the connection we celebrate as we gather today, a connection between the Master and his disciples, even us in this present; a connection that cannot be defeated by death but is confirmed by his Resurrection.

Another way of saying this is that our communion is with Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, and that because he is alive we too are alive in him. This Easter Season is our time to remember. We eat and drink his Body and Blood, and that means life for us. Anglicans talk about the “Real Presence”, and this is part of what we mean. The Eucharist is about connection, between Christ, the Christian, and the Church.

Consider for a moment the multiple occasions and the different circumstances in which Christians have gathered to do this in remembrance of him. Centuries have passed since Jesus gathered with the Twelve in the upper room, but still the Church gathers around the altar to receive the One who is the source of its life. Many people have been enlisted in this effort. We could recall for instance the Eucharist that St Augustine of Canterbury celebrated with his monks after landing in Kent, to bring Christianity to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, or the first Eucharist celebrated at Jamestown in Virginia, by colonists who were far from home, or even the first Eucharist celebrated at the founding of St George’s Church, by a hopeful and expectant band. There have been occasions of pageantry in the grand sanctuary and occasions of simplicity in extremis by the hospital bed. Our connection with the living Christ binds us together in one communion and fellowship through the centuries and across the continents, with people we may never see or meet, in a Church extended through both time and space.

Christ, the Christian, and the Church, brings us to our confirmands today. They too are a part of the vital and living connection between Jesus and his Church. For them today this truth comes home in the ministry of the bishop, who with the laying on of hands and prayer makes them confirmed members of the Episcopal Church. The bishop represents the whole Church, Catholic and Apostolic, spread out in time and space, a symbol of connection and continuity in the life of the Christian community. This life goes beyond any single congregation or diocese or our own present time. The connection that we have in the Church is summed up by the tactile connection of hands on head that stretches back into the past to the time of Christ and the Apostles and forward into the future that lies before us. Today, God is stirring up within you the gift of the Holy Spirit that was given you in Baptism, and impelling you out into the world to do the ministry that you are called to by God. We who are gathered today can scarcely imagine what that will be, but we know it will be wonderful. He’s enlisting you for his service, and connecting you to his Son Jesus Christ, who is alive and not dead. What was that question the disciples asked themselves in our Gospel today? “Did our hearts not burn within us?” (Lk. 24:32). Do our hearts today not burn within us with the love of God and desire to do his will when we recognize Jesus Christ in the breaking of the bread? Today we eat and drink his Body and Blood, and we are filled with his living presence.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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