What follows is a summary of a paper written for a class on Liturgy and Ethics several years ago. As we come again to the Third Sunday of Easter and as my denomination struggles with the image of Christ we present to the world, it seemed timely.
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The liturgy of the church shapes the moral life of those who participate in it. This formational aspect is not necessarily something that is included in a conscious way, but is intrinsic in the act of worshiping together day after day, week after week, year after year. The repetitive nature of the ritual action has an effect on those who participate. Worship done rightly properly orients the participants in the way of Christ – participants are brought into right relationship with Christ, worshiping and praising God, and continuing the ministry of Christ in the process. What is it in worship done rightly that brings about this change of heart? In short, it is primarily through the encounter with the body of the risen Christ that we are rightly formed into moral creatures.
As we continue through the Easter season, we know that the Easter story holds place of privilege in our beliefs as Christians. Jesus raised from the dead is not a simple resuscitation – he was not just brought back to life to live out a certain number of additional years only to die again. Nor is the resurrection simply about a ghostly presence, for how can a ghost eat or be touched? That said, the witnesses are not exactly clear on what it does mean. And if in fact this is resurrection into some new reality beyond human experience, it only makes sense that the stories we are left with don’t make sense to the modern, Enlightenment mind (or at least those influenced by such a world view) whether their experiences made sense to the original witnesses or not.
The Bible leaves us with a jumble of similar stories that leave us with a few facts. A group of women, including Mary Magdalene, finds the tomb empty on Sunday morning. Peter has a vision of the risen Christ that is not recounted in detail, but is mentioned by more than one source. There is at least one appearance to the eleven (depending on which Gospel you happen to read). And then there is the later appearance to Paul. These key pieces are attested to by more than one biblical writer.
As we read the various stories of Resurrection encounters, we begin to see some common elements. In each of these stories we find an encounter with the risen Christ. This encounter almost always includes a call - a call to proclaim, a call to teach, a call to love, a call to feed others. And the encounter leads to a profound reaction. While this is a very simplified way of viewing these stories, we find that this pattern repeats itself across the various encounters with the risen Christ. While additional details such as discernment and worship are sometimes added, the encounter itself, the call, and the reaction to it are the key elements (though there may be multiple different reactions).
In the Gospel of Luke there are numerous accounts of encounters with the risen Christ located in the final chapter. We find first the usual account of the women’s trip to the tomb but without an explicit encounter with the risen Christ. After Peter rushes to the tomb to find it empty, the evangelist turns to a story not attested to in the other Gospels. This story involves an encounter with two previously unknown followers heading away from Jerusalem. Though they do not recognize Jesus at first, they realize later that their hearts had been burning within them as he talked to them. Once they do recognize the risen Christ, they get up “that same hour” and return to Jerusalem. This is the power of the encounter with the risen Christ and the overwhelming desire to witness about that experience to others.
While there is no explicit call to ministry, there is a sense of urgency to share the story. It is truly amazing that two people who earlier in the day had walked at least 7 miles feeling dejected about all that had happened in the last few days should get up from their evening meal and rush that 7 miles back to Jerusalem to share what they had experienced. They arrive among the eleven and discover that Jesus has appeared to Peter as well. They barely have time to get their own story out before Jesus is among them. He shows them his hands and feet and eats a piece of fish to show that he is there in the flesh. And then he gives them a mission to complete. They worship Jesus and joyfully return to Jerusalem.
While it is difficult for us to wrap our logical minds around these events (just as it was difficult for the disciples to comprehend) we know that something profound happened to them. The fact that these stories were written down and continue to inspire us speaks to that quality. With all that they went through in pursuit of the ministry that Jesus had passed on to them, there had to be something to these stories to keep them going. Their experience of the risen Christ strengthened them, gave them joy, and helped them on their way.
As we see, it was not only the disciples knowledge that the tomb was empty or even the stories that they heard from others that had such a profound impact on their lives. It was an actual encounter with the risen Christ that created the zeal for the mission that we have read about. And so it is for us. The body of Christ has to be made visible - to ourselves and to the world. How can we begin to recognize Christ’s presence among us as we worship together? And how can we make Christ once again visible to the world?
While all of the biblical witnesses speak to the disciples’ experiences of the risen Christ, Luke (and to a certain degree John) begins to hint at the possibility of something more than just recognition of the risen Christ as a physical person. This Emmaus story, and even the appearance to the eleven immediately after, shares certain Eucharistic overtones, suggesting that the risen Christ is encountered in the shared meal of the church.
What this means is through the liturgy of the church, particularly through the Eucharist, the risen Christ continues to be made present to the world. While the exact way this happens has meant many things throughout history, some easier to comprehend than others, in some sense each of these ways of understanding Christ’s presence is real. There is a sense in which the reality of the bread and wine, the significance of the elements, is changed through the faith and prayers of the gathered community. Some people see this as a physical change, while others have viewed this as more of a symbolic change. But this is the role of a sacrament, to serve as a sign that makes something else present.
In this same vein, the proclamation of the gospel itself becomes a sacramental encounter with the risen Christ. The reading of the scriptures makes the stories of Christ present to our ears and our minds. When connected with the celebration of the Eucharist, the gospel stories take on new meaning, meaning that is sorely lacking when heard alone. As well, the reception of the bread and the wine also take on new meaning in light of the scriptures that have been read. And this is something that can only be done in community.
In so far as the gathered community brings awareness of Christ into the present and continues his work and ministry, the church is also the presence of Christ in and to the world. Therefore, for those who are not Christian, the church – the community gathered and dispersed, the community at worship, the community “called out” and made into Christ’s body – is their encounter with the risen Christ. What does that encounter tell them about Christ? How does the world understand Christ through the actions of the church?
For those who are Christians, the scriptures and the Eucharist – in its elements and in the gathered community – is the encounter with the risen Christ. Surely we are affected by our encounters with Christ as surely as the disciples were. Surely the risen Christ still empowers and inspires us.
In particular, by following a pattern of worship that includes Word and Table each week, we are constantly reminded that not only is Christ present in the scriptures and on the table, but present in the gathered community as well. For example, through the Great Thanksgiving as found in The United Methodist Hymnal we call on God to “Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.” As we pray this prayer together week after week, we begin to internalize it. And, much as an actress who rehearses a play day after day becomes more natural and comfortable in her role, we find the expectation of Christ’s presence to be more natural, and we become more comfortable in our own role as a part of Christ’s body.
While it is not always readily apparent how best to show forth ourselves as the body of Christ, we can certainly point to examples that do not work – the Crusades, forced conversions and baptisms, evangelism as colonialism, support for slavery, the continued othering and exclusion of LGBTQ+ persons just to name a few. It reminds me of the quote often attributed to Mahatma Ghandi that says something along the lines of "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." Whether he ever said this or something like it, this should serve us as a stark reminder that for many people outside of our worshiping communities we are the only encounter with Christ that they will ever have. We must therefore actually model the life that Jesus led. Jesus fought in no wars, He did not advocate for or practice forced conversions or baptisms. He did not confuse his dedication to God with nationalism. He did not pay much attention to the laws designed to divide people.
However, Jesus did heal the sick. He fed the hungry and encouraged the people he met to have a stronger relationship with God and with each other. He modeled a way of life that sought to better everyone he encountered. And since the resurrected Christ has returned to heaven leaving his body, the church, behind to continue his work in the world, we must also do those things if those who have not yet met the risen Christ are to encounter him. It is when the church actively pursues human rights and care for the needy, when the hungry are fed and the rich are not catered to, that the church truly becomes the visible body of Christ to others.
When we encounter the risen Christ, our lives are transformed for the better. Not in the sense that everything will now be easy in life. In fact, quite often the contrary. Instead, our encounter with Christ forms us for the betterment of all, not our individual selves. For many of us, this encounter with Christ takes place in the liturgy. It is when we gather at the table that we become aware of Christ, whether we recognize Christ in the bread and the cup or in the other faces sharing the worshiping space with us. Christ is present and alive.
Of course, we have constructed many obstacles to recognizing Christ’s presence among us. We have reduced the meal of the church to little more than a preschool snack – a tiny cracker or bite of bread and a sip of juice or wine, if we’re lucky; others are more familiar with the tear and dip method of reception. We have reduced the liturgy to a cerebral activity wherein if we just talk about it enough and believe the right things, everything will be okay. And in many cases, we have reduced our identity of the church to a building and maybe to the few paid staff and/or clergy who work there.
But if we are to have any hope of those outside the worshiping community recognizing the risen Christ in their midst, if there is to be any hope of the wider world encountering the risen Christ, we must learn to recognize Christ in our own midst. To do this, we must incorporate the full body of Christ in worship. This means not only including voices other than the professional clergy in the liturgy (though this can have a tendency towards tokenism) but drawing on the full physicality of those who are present. How can we recognize a physically present body if we refuse to include our own physically present bodies?
Once we recognize the risen Christ in our midst and our place in the body of Christ, we can begin to hope that others will recognize that body as well. Once we have encountered the risen Christ, what is our reaction to the call that is placed on us? Part of what it means to be the body of Christ is that we serve others as Christ did during his life on earth. But what does it mean to serve? Though speaking specifically of the role of the deacon at the time, I have wondered before what it would mean to think about serving the church in the same way that we serve the Eucharist. When we think of serving the Eucharist, we think about providing the bread and the cup to someone else. We think of offering them the body and blood of Christ. What if we also offered the church as the body of Christ to the world? What would it mean to serve the body of Christ in that way?
If someone who was not already an active participant in the body of Christ were to encounter us, what would they find? Would they recognize the presence of the risen Christ at work in the world?