Year C Easter Week WED 2022 The Long Game The Big Picture and Gestalt

 Year C Easter Week WED, 20 April 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“The Long Game, the Big Picture, and Gestalt”

Collect: O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Exodus 12:40-51

The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. At the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. That was for the Lord a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the ordinance for the passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, but any slave who has been purchased may eat of it after he has been circumcised; no bound or hired servant may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. The whole congregation of Israel shall celebrate it. If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the passover to the Lord, all his males shall be circumcised; then he may draw near to celebrate it; he shall be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it; there shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.

All the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. That very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company.

Luke 24:13-35

Now on that same day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They 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?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The Lord is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed!

Good morning. We have as our Gospel text this morning the story of the Road to Emmaus, where two followers of Jesus are so caught up in the events that transpired as to not even notice that it was Jesus that was walking with them until he broke the bread with them at table.

Humorous from one perspective, but would we have been any different? Really? Human nature is what it is, and all too often we repeat the patterns that we set as human creatures.

In the Old & New Testament readings for the day, we see people wrestling with things above their pay grade. The suffering of over 400 years by the Hebrew children before being delivered from Egypt, and St. Paul arguing over celestial versus earthly bodies. And then our two followers of Jesus wondering about all the things that took place in the town. So many questions. People trying to make sense of all the things on their plate.

I used to fret and worry about things like this. What COULD it mean? What SHOULD be done in response? Questions like that can keep one up at night, and give them an ulcer to boot. As creatures our minds are designed to make sense of the deluge of input into our brains and we make patterns that we can filter things down into the recognizable and known. It is the only way we can make sense in an often senseless world.

But in our questioning we start to get to causation, and in doing so we get into fault. And that becomes problematic.

If we allow ourselves to ask the question, why does suffering happen, whether the Hebrew Children for 430 years or Jesus on the Cross, we can get to some very unhealthy responses to make sense of things, mental constructs to help all of the details make sense. The easiest is that God is some monster that demands suffering or blood. Many of our Christian brothers and sisters do that in their view of the atonement. But I am going to offer an alternative this morning.

In my graduate school programming I was introduced to a way of viewing things, both personally and collectively in groups. Most of us, when asked “Why?” cannot give a single answer as to motivation and intent. We may see others as singular that way, but rarely for ourselves. We tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, and multiple reasons if we can even name them. Most people are the same way, and organizations certainly are.

The idea I learned was called the Gestalt Theory, coming from a school of Psychology which looks at the whole, literally from the “configuration of things.” One looks at WHAT IS instead of WHAT SHOULD or COULD BE. It gets away from fault or blame or causation. That often takes so much time and work that we are unable to be about the tasks at hand. 

Why did Jesus die?

Why did the Hebrew Children suffer in Egypt?

Gestalt would say that whatever is, is what was supposed to be. This is not fatalism, because it builds on what is and does not just throw up its hands and walks away. Gestalt would say that Jesus died because that is what needed to happen in the big picture. God’s redemption of the Hebrew Children came about because of their state of suffering. God’s redemption was the action, not the suffering. It changes perspective drastically. 

Escaping the blame game, getting beyond the fault or causation approach, is liberating and lets us get to the work at hand. Whatever is, is. Whatever can be, is up to us, with God’s help. 

God plays the long game, like Jesus described on the road to Emmaus, when he “[began] with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” And as we see God’s fingerprints on history, it drives us to the Kingdom preached and promised by Jesus. That is what is supposed to be, and we have opportunity to get there and be there. Thanks be to God! Amen