19/04/2026
SERMON, EASTER 3 A, 19 / 04 / 2026
Acts 2: 14a, 36-41, Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19, 1 Peter 1: 17-23, St. Luke 24: 13-35
GOD-MOMENTS
Have you ever had a God-moment? A time when you didn’t realise it at first but then on retrospection you recognise that your life was touched with something unique, different, life-altering; a moment when you were touched by a divine presence? Lk. 24: 30 “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
The two disciples were wrapped in the darkness of Good Friday and could not talk about anything else that evening, not even to the stranger who was trying to show them the new reality. Too many, like those disciples of old, have their lives stopped because they couldn’t roll away a stone that was blocking their path to new life and hope. Others are stuck entombed in grief, hopelessness, doubts and fears, trembling at life, shuddering at death, seeing no way out. Still more hurt and struggle, unable to see the present or the future because the past will not be at peace within their hearts and minds. The God-moment comes in the familiar gesture, as Jesus broke bread with them in his unique style that revealed him to them. And the familiar is always the easiest to miss, as the popular saying goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt!” Have you ever been touched by the kindness of others, moreso an unexpected kindness, out of the blue, and you felt yourself blessed beyond the human touch, like a warm, glowing light that brings a smile to your face and makes you go, “Wow”? There was a time when a woman came up to me and after exchanging pleasantries, she asked if she could bless me. I didn’t quite know what she meant so I said, “Well, yes. Why not?” She then proceeded to give me a little gift that completely blew me away. And I know of another friend to whom that happened just this past week too. What about people who invite you into their homes or out for a meal, and into their lives, their families, and make you feel special and loved? Meals are simple, and we can and do take them for granted at times, but they are important sacramental signs of hospitality, and in the Bible, hospitality is a major theme. To neglect to show hospitality can be regarded as a cardinal sin. That is why S***m and Gomorrah were destroyed, according to Ezekiel 16. Meals connect us to the divine presence as a pivotal God-moment. The Apostle Peter echoes this call to hospitality in the epistle reading from 1 Peter 1: 22 “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.”
That is why Jesus left us a meal of bread and wine to connect us intimately to him and as the chief means of realising his divine risen presence still among us. The preaching of the Word of God is important, but the sacramental meal reveals the Word among us and confirms what the Word is saying. St. Augustine of Hippo reminds us that the sermon is the Word of God proclaimed, and the Eucharist is the Word of God enacted. And this sacramental meal of the divine presence has become the chief and central act of the Christian community from its very inception, more than any other meal we partake of because it brings God to us and us to God. As Horatius Bonar writes majestically, “Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face!”
In a war torn, strife filled world, it is easy to focus on the darkness and miss the God-moments among us, maybe even to say there is no God because he doesn’t seem to be doing anything about anything, especially about the untold suffering. But led by Pope Leo XIV, as the most prominent of church leaders among us, the Church is pushing back against the darkness of human cruelty symbolised in the crucifixion of Good Friday, in the proclamation of the Gospel of peace from the Prince of peace, Like the two disciples Jesus says also to us, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” Thus, in our rebellion God walks with us unknown and we continue to condemn him for the hellishness around us.
It is interesting to note that in the beginning, our eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil by the eating of the “Forbidden Fruit”. Now, in this episode, our eyes are once again opened by the breaking and eating of the Word and of the Bread – opened to life, to enlightenment, to repentance and the forgiveness of sins, open to God, open to one another, and open to the possibility of a new and redeemed creation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ who shares his bread with us on the way. "Open our eyes, Lord; we want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch him, and say that we love him. Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord; we want to see Jesus." +Amen.
