Blogging Towards Sunday, April 27, 2025

Luke 24:13-53

As you read/hear this large section of sacred story what strikes you? What’s curious to me is how the disciples are described repeatedly as afraid, perplexed, disbelieving, silent, foolish, doubtful, thinking they’re seeing ghosts, joyful and wondering. In a way it sounds more like the vacillating certitude and doubt that we face in daily life than the life-changing experience of one momentous day. Jesus is experienced in the ordinary – in the walking a path together, the sharing of a meal, being together. It’s in those circumstances that disciples remember the power, purpose and project of his words and live into his vision.

It’s not how I might tell the story in order to convince and convict people in the resurrection of Jesus and the urgency to follow in his way. But maybe it’s actually what’s needed and what actually is – faith alongside disbelief, joy alongside fear. In reflecting upon this experience of Jesus – whose name means “God (adonai) is salvation” – I’m reminded of the blessing written by Rev. Nadia Bolz Weber.

Blessed are the agnostics. Blessed are they who doubt.
Those who aren’t entirely sure, who can still
be surprised.
Blessed are those who have nothing to offer.
Blessed are the preschoolers who cut in line at communion. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.
Blessed are they for whom death is not an abstraction.
Blessed are they who have buried their loved ones, for whom tears could fill an ocean.
Blessed are they who have loved enough to know what loss feels like.
Blessed are the mothers of the miscarried.
Blessed are they who can’t fall apart because they have to keep it together for everyone else.
Blessed are those who “still aren’t over it yet.”
Blessed are those who mourn. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.
Blessed are those who no one else notices. The kids who sit alone at middle-school lunch tables. The laundry guys at the hospital. The sex workers and the night-shift street sweepers.
Blessed are the unemployed, the unimpressive, the underrepresented.
Blessed are the teens who have to figure out ways to hide the new cuts on their arms. Blessed are the meek.
You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.
Blessed are the wrongly accused, the ones who never catch a break, the ones for whom life is hard.
Blessed are those without documentation. Blessed are the ones without lobbyists.
Blessed are foster kids and special ed kids and every other kid who just wants to feel safe and loved.
Blessed are those who make terrible business decisions for the sake of people.
Blessed are the burned-out social workers and the overworked teachers and the pro bono case takers.
Blessed are the kids who step between the bullies and the weak. Blessed are they who hear that they are forgiven.
Blessed are the merciful, for they totally get it.