Jesus Was a Bullfrog

Brad Sullivan

3 Easter, Year A

Sunday, May 4, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Acts 2:14a,36-41
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17

1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35

I wrote earlier this week about the joy and wonder of faith and belief without, of believing in Jesus without having seen him.  The scripture last week was about Thomas and Jesus appearing to the disciples and we always call this story “doubting Thomas,” a though he did something wrong, but he didn’t.  Jesus appeared to the other disciples and immediately he showed them the marks of the nails in his hands and side.  Then when Thomas said he wouldn’t believe unless he saw those same marks, all he was asking for was exactly what Jesus had shown the other disciples right away.  So Thomas asks Jesus to see the marks and Jesus shows him and he believes, and then Jesus says, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  And so we think, “Thomas doubted!  Bad Thomas.”

No, that’s not what Jesus said.  Jesus didn’t say, “everyone else is so much better than you, Thomas because they have believed without having seen.”  He didn’t say that.  He said blessed. 

We aren’t blessed because of some greatness or some meritorious act on our parts.  We’re blessed because blessings happen.  When we wake up in the morning and the sun comes up, we are blessed.  We didn’t do anything to earn the sun coming up.  It just comes up and its rays warm our bodies, and we are blessed.  Jesus didn’t say, “Thomas, you are in so much trouble now and everyone else is so much better….you’re like a worm and it’s a good thing I already love you or you’d be out.”  He didn’t say that.  He just said blessed are those who believe even if they haven’t seen.

I think part of that blessing is the joy and fascination and wonder of believing without knowing.  Children have that joy and fascination and wonder, and believing without seeing allows us to have that same childlike joy and wonder that is so abundant in children.  Jesus said come to the Kingdom of God as a little child.  Come with that childlike joy and faith and wonder that comes with believing without having seen.

Now today we have Cleopas and his companion walking on this 7 mile journey to Emmaus and Jesus shows up.  They have no idea who he is.  Their hearts are burning as they’re talking to him on the way, then they share a meal and they realize it’s Jesus, and they said, “were not our heats burning on the way?” 

Two things happened here.  They met Jesus in a very unexpected place and way.  We wouldn’t expect to meet Jesus on the way to Van Vleck, but he might show up, and suddenly we get there and we realize, “I think I just encountered Jesus; it was awesome.”  And then they recognize Jesus and knew him in sharing a meal together.

Jesus shows up in unexpected ways.  We have no idea when and where Jesus is going to show up, and we probably won’t realize it until afterwards, and like “wow, my heart was burning there and it felt like God was present.  I’m not sure because I’m supposed to meet Jesus in churchy stuff, and I was just helping someone out, but I think it was Jesus.”  We can meet Jesus in anyone, because he dwells in all of us, right?  “It is no longer I who live but Christ who dwells within me.” 

We get to encounter Jesus in anyone or anywhere in creation.  In music.  In people.  In nature.  In whatever.  Good.  If your heart is burning and you feel like there is this experience of God and you think to yourself, “I think that was Jesus,” good.  Trust it.  Go with it.  Question with childlike fascination and wonder, sure, but trust it.  If you think you’ve just encountered Jesus, you probably have.

The next thing that happened on the Emmaus journey was they had a meal together and their eyes were opened, and they realized it was Jesus they encountered in the meal.  We do this meal really well in the Episcopal Church.  We gather together.  We share stories of our faith.  We pray together and for each other, and then we share the meal, and we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist.  We don’t know exactly how.  We encounter him with childlike fascination and wonder.  Kids get it when they bounce up for communion to encounter Jesus.  They don’t understand it, they just love encountering Jesus.  We do this great here, and this is not the only meal where we get to encounter Jesus.

We can encounter Jesus in any meal that we have.  Think about feast kinds of meals that we have:  Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas, Weddings, etc., and we have a bunch of people who love each other who are sharing stories and laughter and joy…maybe there are a couple people we don’t know that well, but now it’s like we’re family because we’ve shared this meal together.  The joy, the laughter, the love shared around a meal:  that is Jesus.  The fascination and the wonder and the love of people:  That is Jesus.  So when we share these meals together, knowing Jesus isn’t that crazy.  We get it if we would just let ourselves get it.  We understand if we would just see with the eyes of childlike fascination and wonder and love, then we see, there Jesus was all along.

So when you have these moments, just trust them.  Just trust that it really was Jesus whom you encountered and then, do exactly what Cleopas and his companion did.  They went immediately to the other disciples and said, “Guess what?  We just encountered Jesus!”

We share these stories.  When our hearts are burning and we thing we encountered Jesus, then we go and we share these stories.  We tell people…maybe not a total stranger.  “I just saw Jesus in a bullfrog.”  Ok, don’t tell that to a total stranger.  Tell that to your family and friends and share these stories so we can experience together Jesus everywhere.  Everywhere in this world, we get to share these stories of joy and faith and wonder that come with the blessing of believing even though we haven’t seen.  Amen.