+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:

1 Samuel 16:14-17:11, Acts+10:17-33, Luke 24:36-53

While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
Luke 24:41

“Hey!” said Jesus. “What’s for supper?”

The cool thing about this scene is not that Jesus, as Risen Lord even shows up he has a body to eat with. I know some theologians who can make this into a huge theological ta-dah about the “Resurrection Body”. I don’t really care. The cool thing is that he asks. “Pardon me. Do you have anything to eat?” This is the Lord of All That Is, who, having just harrowed hell, is politely asking if there is any food in the house. He could create fish - “poof”. But no, he asks.

The author seems to posit this request as somehow connected to “they were disbelieving and still wondering”, on the one hand, and the Bible study that’s about to follow. Is this the rest of the Resurrection “liturgy”? It is very like the Didache-style liturgy we used to do in San Francisco: where there is a blessing over bread at the beginning, followed by dinner and a community-based exposition of scripture. The same thing happens in yesterday’s reading: there is disbelief, then fellowship at table and Bible study. At least in this post-Easter world, this results in belief: eating-in-fellowship and Bible study. Notice: results in belief and not flows from or follows belief.

Is there a way a Christian can stand around in Joy and disbelief, wondering? Even in the presence of the Risen Christ?

One of the cool things about Eastern Rite liturgy is that every Sunday is celebrated as a little Easter: every Sunday at Morning Prayer or Orthros as it is called in Greek, one of eleven Resurrection stories is read - including this one. Certain parts of the morning prayers are altered to fit with the Gospel reading. Often I read those parts - although I traded off with the other choir members. Removed from their context, standing alone in the middle of a bunch of prayers and things, you might be surprised at how odd these Resurrection stories can sound. Nearly every Sunday I was reminded of the level of “he said/she said” in these stories. I was reminded of how many people stand between the event and the writing even, let alone the writing and me.

Often on a Sunday, I’d be kind of annoyed at myself for disbelieving - not “disbelieving in the Resurrection” so much as doubting the stories we told about it. This also came out during Holy Week on Thursday Night when - again, in the Eastern Rite - we’d read “The Twelve Passion Gospels”. There’s nothing quite like hearing all four passion stories, parsed out in chronological order, to point out the total inconsistencies in the texts. And I’d struggle to make sense out of it. My faith was actually more than a little jarred by this reaction from within myself.

But I stood there and sang my part in the choir and drew near to the chalice… eventually realising that most everyone might get to such a place every once in a while. I’ve felt the presence of the Risen Christ and felt his action in my life… But I’ve learned enough to recognise how it can all get tied up in so much political and theological codswallop and politics if one is not careful.

Jesus would rather have something to eat and sit around and talk Bible.