Steep learning curve

Readings for Sunday April 6, 2008 the Third Sunday of Easter: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; I Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35 (please note there is also a reflection on Luke 24:13-35 below) APBA also includes Matthew 28:1-10 in today's alternatives

It took a while for the first Christians to understand
just what was going on.
Gradually they began to understand
what it meant to encounter the living Christ.
Gradually they started to piece together
what God might be doing
through the life and death of Jesus.
So we see Peter standing up at Pentecost
and proclaiming (at some risk to his life)
that "We all crucified, this Jesus"
And THIS JESUS is the one who we have all been waiting for
He is both Lord and Messiah.
He is the one who God has anointed to effect change
fundamental change
to the world.
They were on what we call jargonistically
a steep learning curve
Having to learn a lot of new things
and get a lot of changed understandings
in a very short space of time.

Peter's message is perhaps more theological and scriptural
he says

You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

They are rich words

You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

that speak about a new found freedom
which is at the heart of what resurrection is about.

What we might learn
is, I think, that we are called to grow into this experience
of resurrection
and it takes time and reflection.
It is, indeed, as the disciples pay attention to what is going on,
that the mystery begins to be understood.
And they learn that it is not
knowledge that they are to acquire
but a way of life that they are called to adopt.

How might we go about this?
The key belief about the resurrection
is not in some bizarre resuscitation story
but in the reality of Matthew's tradition
where we read in the very last verse of his gospel

Jesus says to his disciples:
'And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'

It would be easy to dismiss this as pious funereal rememberings
in the face of the death of a much-beloved friend and leader
until we also realise that the stories are narrating the changing experience
of the disciples.

We do this through paying attention to the movement of God
in our ordinary life
what else can we do?
The disciples realise that Jesus is with them as they gather for worship,
as they break bread, in the Eucharist and in their fellowship,
he is also there as they reach out to others in need
both physical and spiritual.

This happens as we, too, pay attention
we see God is with us
and that God's hand touches everything
both ordinary and extraordinary

Perhaps each day, a couple fo minutes
sitting on your bed
before you sleep
look back and see where God has been moving.

Maybe too on the weekend, a quiet moment on Saturday or Sunday
think back through the week gone.
Where can I see God acting,
where have I turned my back?

The disciples discovered as they experienced the risen Christ
their world changed
that is the invitation for you and me too.
Pay attention to it,
and join and enjoy the steep learning curve.

Where

God who is rich in mercy out of his great love
even when we were dead through our sins
makes us alive together with Christ.