REFLECTION: Luke 24: 33-48
Chapter 24, the last chapter in Luke’s Gospel, begins: BUT when they went to the tomb with the spices they have prepared, the stone was rolled away, but when they went in, they could not find the body. So Luke goes on to unpack the mysterious happenings for the disciples with three appearance stories – the two dazzling white strangers appearing to the women, then the stranger who approached Cleopas and his wife, who then invited the stranger to eat with them, the stranger who blessed and broke the bread, ‘when their eyes were opened and they recognised him’, and then when the disciples were gathered together, ruminating over these two appearances, while they ate a sustaining meal of barbequed fish and bread today’s Gospel begins — Jesus appeared and said: Peace be with you.
Our passage speaks of an offer of peace, a request for food, a blessing and a commissioning: the disciples experienced Jesus’ presence as ‘mysterious but real. It eludes human perception, and yet is no human fabrication.’ Somehow, the experience of the disciples and the women is that they are encountering Jesus in a radically new way.
Two weeks after Easter, we’re a bit like the disciples in these stories, wondering about the things we’ve heard, and wrestling with the question, ‘what does all this mean?’ ‘can this appearance story profoundly change my life?’ We, too, are journeying, questioning, fearing, but also feeding and being fed, listening for and pondering – is God calling me just now.
While he was enjoying the shared meal, as he reassured the disciples by inviting them to touch him, Jesus did some Bible study with them which helped the disciples understand how connected he was and is to the story of the God who sees, knows and experiences the suffering of oppressed, how he called and journeyed with Moses to liberate an enslaved people, and challenged the prophets to embody God’s heart for liberation in the face of persecution, and where needed, chide them for falling away from the faith of Abraham.
Here in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus interprets his ministry in the light of this suffering God who enters into the enslavements and oppression of the world in order to bring liberation and awaken people to the divine will for justice in our common life.
In today’s gospel we see the growing little community of questioning wondering believers, and we are reading about ourselves, too,, we who, like the disciples, continue to follow The Way of Jesus, in allegiance to and in trust in God as known in Jesus.
We get an inkling of what Jesus was sharing with his gang: When we join together in the Eucharist, the worship leader reminds us of all the acts of liberation in which our God has been present, including right up to Jesus’ dying moment when he extended a welcome into paradise to a penitent thief hanging beside him on a cross.
The manner of Jesus’ living and dying prompts us to discern places in our own landscape where marginalised and traumatised people are still subject to crucifying realities.
The leader article in Monday’s The Age by Tim Costello was entitled: Cast light on our caste system – about the myth of meritocracy. He said: Caste is an imbedded hierarchy of privilege that assumes different worth for different humans. Casteism is when actions or structures put someone in a defined ranking and keep them in their place by elevating or denigrating them on the basis of their perceived category.
Tim reminds us that two thousand years ago the question of worth and equality was addressed by St Paul. Despite pride in his own Jewish pedigree Paul wrote powerfully about universal human dignity – there is no Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male or female. All equally carry the image of God and all are equally loved and have standing in God’s world.
But such revolutionary notions from Jesus and the Apostle Paul were ignored by even the church and muted by the need to maintain a hierarchy. It produced blindness. A blindness which was admitted to on the Drum on Thursday evening chaired by Stan Grant, with two indigenous speakers, an economist and a former army office, now a Lowy institute adviser. John Brown admitted that he did some ‘boning up’ before his Drum appearance, that he was shocked, and had not previously ever thought about indigenous disadvantage.
I’ve also heard, and read articles like these two pages regarding deaths in custody since the Royal Commission 30 years ago. The cumulative, appalling fact is that now, on the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Indigenous Deaths in custody we must accept that 474 people have died in custody. Thirty years, and we know that since then, 474 young adults, mothers and fathers have died in custody; another incredible fact is that the incarceration of First Nations women has increased by 148 percent since the Royal Commission in 1991.
Senator Pat Dodson put it bluntly on Thursday on ABC radio, both in the morning, and with Philip Adams at night: he sees the number of 474 deaths in custody as institutional racism, where government and voters remain ignorant, and mostly think: black lives don’t matter. Another writer calls it ongoing indifference.
We can’t hold our heads up when it comes to indigenous disadvantage. As Teela Reid, a Wiradjuri woman and lawyer said this week: our lives ought to matter not only when we die, but when we are alive.
Tui Beggs has an appearance story which has led her to be a witness in any way she can about God’s message of equality for all people, especially for the Indigenous people of Australia: – Tui, speak to us about your meeting with Professor Lyndell Ryan and your clear message: that Australia can’t move forward until our Indigenous sisters and brothers are treated as equals; we can’t point a finger at China and the Uighur imprisonments.
Verses 47 and 48 is the altar call to us: Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Claiming the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is always with us, we can be witnesses to Jesus’ message of liberation by heeding the Call to voice our support for a First Nations Voice to Parliament protected by the Constitution.
We have until the end of April to put in our responses – that we accept the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which involves a First Nations Voice in the Australian constitution. I think Tui and Jim have their submissions ready to be joined to the Statement from the Heart, which we have up in our Fellowship Room.
There are three parts to the reform process set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart:
A voice to parliament is a fair and practical way to deliver meaningful constitutional recognition and reform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders;
A voice to parliament will give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a say in the policies and laws which impact their lives;
A voice to parliament will ensure that the Parliament and government is better and more appropriate informed in its approach to indigenous affairs, policy and law-making.
You can simply type in: From the Heart on your computer, and sign that you wish to express your support for a constitutionally protected First Nations Voice to Parliament, and you will receive regular updates about the journey forward.
Another option is to have a half day seminar – shared with another congregation, where you use this study guide prepared by our Assembly and endorsed by Stuart McMillan, our former Assembly President. And in that strength of knowledge we can witness together to God’s claim on us to witness to possibilities for transformation, liberation and life for all. Amen.
Rev Deacon Jenny Preston