2024 04 014 Sermon One Bite at a Time
One Bite at a Time
Easter 3 B
Luke 24:36b-49; 1 John 3:1-7
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
“How do you eat an elephant? … One bite at a time.” This saying has been attributed to many wise people over the years, probably because it’s so true. Many of you have probably experienced something like this in your life. One time for me was when I was 17, and just a few months from turning 18 and aging out of Boy Scouts. I needed a few more required merit badges, and an Eagle service project, but it seemed like an impossible task with the short time I had left. I was truly ready to give up. But my dad said to me, “well, maybe you won’t make Eagle Scout, but why don’t you finish those merit badges, then at least you can say you almost made Eagle Scout.” This sounded reasonable, so I started working on those last few merit badges. Little did I know, but I had “taken the first bite” of the elephant.
Then my scoutmaster noticed my progress and I told him about my plan to “almost make Eagle.” He said to me “well, you’re putting all this effort into the merit badges, and you’re so close. Maybe you won’t finish the project in time, but if you give it a start and still fail, at least you can say you tried.” I saw the wisdom in this and started figuring out what to do for my project. As people heard about what I was doing, some of them started stepping up to help and encourage me, and to volunteer their labor or their resources—even people who were not involved in Scouts. Two days before my 18th birthday, I made Eagle Scout! Now, I don’t recommend that Scouts should cut it so closely, but to this day I’m glad I took the chance and put in the effort. Even so, I truly would not have made it without the help, encouragement, and participation of so many others. Together we “ate the elephant,” one bite at a time!
The disciples of Jesus needed to learn how to “eat an elephant”, too. They were still trying to come to terms with the news that Jesus is risen, and what this startling reality would mean for them. St. Luke tells us that they were frightened and full of doubt—but Jesus was not going to give up on them. He starts them on their new mission and ministry by going “one bite at a time”.
First he appears among them and offers the Peace of God. He shows them his hands and feet; invites them to touch and see. That’s the “first bite”—the realization that Jesus is living and real, and the disciples can put their faith and hope in him—and they do, responding to him with a mixture of “joy, disbelief, and wonder.” This “little bite” out of the massive elephant is more than enough for Jesus to work with, because that’s always the way Jesus works. He starts with what is small, weak, and insignificant and grows it from there.
Just like he did by beginning his ministry by setting up shop in a small backwater town in Galilee and inviting a mere 12 disciples with no experience to learn from him. That’s what he did with a young boy’s meager offering of 5 loaves and 2 fishes, which Jesus multiplied to feed 5,000. It’s what he did by entering the holy city of Jerusalem riding not a mighty horse but a humble donkey, and then being crowned not as a king but a criminal, abandoned by his friends as he hung on the cross. Whenever God’s mission to save and heal the world is involved, Jesus specializes in starting from what is weak, and dying, and accounted as nothing at all, and then raising it up with the Spirit of his resurrection into something new and life-giving, that gives glory to God.
Then, people start to hear about the mission the risen Jesus is working on. Some are brand-new to it; others have been devoted for a long time, but start to see a renewed vitality and purpose. Some are even people you never thought of or expected, whom we might have ignored or rejected—because Jesus is always drawing the circle of welcome wider and wider. People come and see what it’s all about, and even start to take part in it and contribute to it out of their own labor and resources—and when God sees that the time is right, he starts doing things that people never dreamed about before.
Well, turning back to Luke’s gospel, we see how Jesus keeps teaching the disciples to take one more “little bite” at a time: He “opens their minds to understand the scriptures”, showing them how the pattern of God’s plan for the world is found all throughout the Old Testament and comes to completion in Jesus. God’s pattern is: chaos turned to beauty; decay turned to growth; fear turned to joy; doubt turned to belief; hurt turned to healing; repentance turned to forgiveness; scarcity turned to abundance; death turned to life. It always seems impossible—but when God’s mission for the world is involved, Jesus provides a way for his followers to accomplish it.
Then Jesus gives a few more little bites for the disciples to chew on. He says “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” This is so important because the good news we as Christians have to tell is not about us, or our wants or desires, but about Jesus and his grace and mercy. His name has power to bring people closer to God. His name has power to welcome people into a divine love that is deeper than human understanding. His name gives purpose and meaning to our lives on earth, and by his name life eternal in unending joy awaits. In his name comes healing and salvation to a hurting and broken world. We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Christ crucified and risen, and we proclaim all that he has done for us in his name.
This is why the forgiveness of sins is so important. If we are not set free from the sins and wounds of our past, we will inevitably pass them on, and wound and sin against others. This would be proclaiming ourselves, and not Jesus! We need to seek forgiveness, offer forgiveness, pray to forgive and be forgiven, and live by the power of being forgiven in Jesus’ name so that others can also experience the life-giving power of God. We need the healing power of Christ’s forgiveness to be flowing through us, not so we go out and try to sin some more, and get hurt and hurt others in the process—but instead so we go out and share the healing of Christ. If you’re carrying around a lot of sin and hurt and pain, there is a very good chance that you will inflict those things on other people, even if it is unintentional. But when you’ve been forgiven and healed, then that is the blessing you will give to others instead. So the power of “repentance and forgiveness” is another “bite of the elephant”.
And then comes another little bite: Jesus says you’re going to “eat this elephant” (so to speak) “beginning from Jerusalem”. The end goal is for the good news to reach “all nations”. But you can’t start there—that truly is impossible! Instead, you start small, in one place, in your little corner of the world. You start with one thing that you can commit your attention and resources to. And then comes a verse that our gospel reading today didn’t include. But it comes next and might be most important of all: verse 49 of Luke 24, where Jesus says “I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city, until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Stay here—be patient, don’t get ahead of yourselves, and don’t quit before you even get started, either. Don’t short circuit what Jesus is trying to accomplish through you. Pray and watch and listen because in God’s good time, Christ’s mission for this time and place will be revealed to those who, in faith, will give of themselves for it. God will clothe you with power from on high—you don’t need to have it all figured out ahead of time, because the Holy Spirit will fill you, and help you learn as you go. The Holy Spirit will give you the abilities and resources to be an active part of what God wants to accomplish in the world.
So, how do you eat an elephant? It looks impossible, because it only happens one bite at a time. But when the mission of God is involved, the Holy Spirit empowers the impossible—or at least, what looks to us like it’s impossible—by leading us in greater faith and commitment to the ministry of Jesus and the saving and healing power of his name for the world. Amen.