This week especially I’ve been feeling some type of way. I know that sounds vague, but can anyone else relate to that? Maybe not right now, but do you know what I mean? Like when you’re having a moment that leaves you unable to express the complexity of your emotions.
Feeling some type of way is in many ways a funny phrase, but I think beyond having a comedic effect it’s honest because sometimes our feelings and emotions are hard to name, or sometimes it’s hard to feel just one way about a particular event or experience.
I can imagine that our days here and there of cycles of cold and rain leave a lot of us feeling some type of way all while finishing up filing taxes this weekend. Or maybe this season of Easter has you feeling some type of way, like Yay! Christ is Risen! But at the same time, a dread just continues to seem so powerful.
I know that for me the conflict of those struggling to survive in Gaza and realizing the value of the Jewish community alongside the complicated long-standing history of conflict with Palestine, the ongoing conflict with Ukraine and Russia, the uncertainty of relationship with China, gun violence, and ongoing crime with the helicopter flying over my house. Need I say more? Lord have mercy. I am feeling some type of way.
There I so much going on in and around us that it’s practically impossible to not feel some type of way about the state of our world. Maybe you carry those feelings with you here today, and what I want to say to you is that you are not alone, your feelings and emotions are valid, and while feeling some type of way, our Lord Jesus is with us too because Jesus shows up amid our moments of feeling some type of way.
And we can have faith that Jesus shows up because that’s what Jesus does for his disciples. Last week we had Jesus show up to Thomas and the disciples multiple times as they were all locked away feeling some type of way following Jesus’ crucifixion, and then in our Gospel today, Jesus shows up again, this time in the Gospel of Luke in a real and tangible way to the disciples.
Jesus assures them that his presence is not one of a ghost but of a real body, flesh and bones, wounds, and all that can be seen and touched. Jesus even shares an ordinary meal with those disciples.
In the same way, when we are feeling some type of way, Jesus shows up in tangible, real ways. In acts of service, justice, and love Jesus is there with us in our pain, fear, anxiety, depression, joy, and numbness.
Someone shared with me this week how they took photos of the spring flowers to share with a friend who was so ill they were unable to leave their bed. Someone else shared how a merciful staff member in a memory care facility gave the loved one napkins to fold as a way to ease a goodbye. Someone else shared how a financial debt was forgiven. For someone else, a loved one took a plane trip to be with them for an appointment with the cancer doctor. And I shared a meal with someone with whom I had not connected since her father’s death eight years ago sharing lingering grief, estrangements, smiles, laughs, food and a hug.
In those moments — maybe you can recall even some this week — that Jesus showed up in the midst of feeling some type of way. The flowers blossoming, the voice singing, or the meal shared, God is there.
Jesus relieves the hunger with his risen presence. When the disciples are unsure what to make of the mess that life has become, Jesus shows up. When their hunger for truth and certainty is most apparent, Jesus walks into the room. The answer to someone’s hunger is not to ask why they are hungry. Nor is the answer to doubt a question about why they cannot believe. The answer is food. The answer is the real Jesus showing up and easing fears. Everyone’s faith needs sustenance.
And even after Jesus shows up, we might still feel some type of way. In today’s Gospel, the disciples truly feel the full spectrum of emotion after they touch and see Jesus’ hands and feet. Luke’s gospel tells us, “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering,” I mean, what a mix of emotion! Seeing their complex stew of emotions right there in the Bible affirms for us that it is okay to be such emotional beings. The reading from 1 John reads: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.”
The poem called When Racism Dies by Kwabena Foli describes what it is like to feel some type of way.
I will nae-nae upon hearing the news whip it at the funeral
dab at the burial
do the d-lo shuffle at the repast
the next day
I will footwork
at work
then moonwalk out the office
Tuesday will be a chill day because it always is
on Wednesday night bible study
i’ll pour Henny for all who died in flames either by burning or bullet
then turn up with what’s left in the bottle because black church ain’t black church without being drunk in the spirit
other days i’ll still be sad
for the death of racism doesn’t mean the end of grief but the beginning of it
for all those built in tears will pour out of me like a confession
and I will wail.
Even the death of racism, something we would all welcome brings its own complex set of emotions. And it’s tough to describe the indescribable, but this poem illustrates beautifully just how complicated our emotions every day and every week can be sometimes.
So if you have come to this sanctuary today filled with raw, complicated emotion, feeling some type of way, I want to say to you to trust and believe that Jesus shows up, comes to us, and invites us to touch, to see, to experience him with our five senses, with our whole lives, in the most normal way possible in prayers of our soul, water, word, bread, and wine. Amen.
🤯🤯
Wonderful message.