Sermon Title:
Communion: Why Do We Do It?
(Preached at Martin Luther King Community Presbyteerian Church, Springfield, MA)
(Preached at Martin Luther King Community Presbyteerian Church, Springfield, MA)
Before I get
started on the text this morning there are a few things I want to
share with you, so those of you who time the sermon don't start yet,
I'm just talking right now. I have been retired now for 3 ½ years
and two months ago at Valley Presbyterian was the first time I
preached since retiring. After preaching over 2000 sermons, and being
responsible for leading worship more times than that it has been a
real blessing to be able to sit in the congregation and participate
in worship in a very different way than I experienced as the worship
leader. I realized after preaching at Valley that I was ready to
preach again, not every Sunday, but once in a while, and so I was
glad to accept Rev. Sylver's invitation to bring the sermon this
morning. I do want you to know that it has been a very special
blessing to worship in this congregation. I spent the first 23 years
of my ordained ministry as pastor of an African American Presbyterian
Church and in the 19 years since I have missed the unique experience
of participating of soul filled, spirit filled worship without the
tyranny of the clock. When I was asked to preach at Valley I asked
what time the service began and the worship chairwoman told be we
worship from 10 to 11 am. It was quite clear that Church didn't
expect to finish at 11:05, much less noon or after.
It has been
a special blessing to be a part of this particular congregation,
there is a real spirit of love, welcoming and caring here. You have
one fine Pastor in Rev Sylver and I have seen major growth in his
preaching and leadership in the time he has been here. I have told
her personally many times but I want to say it publicly today: Evenus
and the spiritual voices have been a huge blessing and to me and to
the entire congregation. I have worked with a great number of
musicians over my ministry, some classically trained in universities
and some self taught, a few have been as good as Evenus, but no one
has been any better. Evenus has the holy ghost in her hands and in
her voice and in her soul and she has really raised the worship in
this congregation to a new level of spirituality. I have been
blessed to be a part of this fellowship for these last 3 ½ years and
I hope this morning that I can be a blessing to you.
Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart be
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer, AMEN.
Today is
World Communion Sunday, a special time when a large number of
Protestant Churches celebrate communion on the same Sunday as an
expression of our unity in one common faith. It seems on this
occasion it is appropriate to spend some time considering the meaning
of the Communion, or the Lord's Supper as it is also called. We know
that we do it every first Sunday in this and many Presbyterian
Churches, many Churches, including some Presbyterian Churches
celebrate the Lord's Supper every Sunday, while there are Churches
that celebrate this sacrament only a few times a year. The question
however is not how often we celebrate the sacrament but why do
we do it? What does it mean? What blessings can we receive by
participating in the sacrament? How did it start in the first
place?
Although we
usually think of the communion in terms of the Last Supper I believe
that the true origin of the sacrament can be found in the feeding of
the multitudes. We read Mark's record of on of these holy meals in
the wilderness and we see that Jesus took bread and gave thank to
God, and broke it and gave it to them. This is exactly the same
thing that he did at the Last Supper, and which he did repeatedly
with his disciples in a variety of settings. These meals they shared
together were fellowship meals, they were a time when those who ate
enjoyed communion with Jesus and with one another. They came closer
together because they ate together, because they broke bread
together. So we say this is the family meal of the people of God,
the Joyful feast of the people of God, anticipating the time when
people will come from east and west and north and south to sit at
table in kingdom of God.
Eating
together is a holy thing. In our modern times when we seem so busy
that we can't find time to sit down together for family meals we are
missing something terribly important. There is scientific research
to show us that children who regularly sit down with their families
for dinner are better adjusted, do better in school and have better
and more stable families and relationships in later life than those
children who missed this opportunity.
Sitting down
together, Breaking bread together, brings us together in a different
way that simply meeting together for a meeting or conversation.
There is a certain intimacy that develops when we share a meal
together. If you want to develop a deeper relation with some one,
either a friendship relationship or a romantic relation isn't it
common to do so by eating together. Lets have coffee together, lets
get together for a drink, lets go out to dinner, or most intimately,
would you come to my house and we will have dinner together. This
seems to be true across cultures, meal hospitality is almost
universally a means of establishing deeper relationships. When
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for breaking into
his own home there was such a great uproar nationally about the
racism involved in this incident that the president invited professor
Gates and the policeman who arrested him to come to the White House,
not just to talk, but to have a beer together and to experience
reconciliation
At First
Church Hartford we had dinner groups of eight or ten people would
come together six times a year and have a potluck meal in one
member's home. This was done to promote unity, fellowship, within in
the small group. I asked one of of our African Members why she never
signed up to participate in one of these groups and she told me that
with her background as an African American of her generation she
couldn't imagine going into a white person's home for dinner. She
had gone to school with white people, she worked with white people,
she went to Church with white people, she was able to eat with white
people at Church or even to go out to lunch with white people but she
said, “I have never put my feet under a white man's table.” Well
we remedied that before too long because she simply could not refuse
her pastor's invitation to have dinner with us and a few other
friends at our home and that broke down the barrier and she was able
then to enjoy participating in other meals in the homes of Church
members. That is how intimate it can be to break bread together.
These meals
in the wilderness and on other occasions as Jesus broke bread with
his followers were not only fellowship meals, but they were also holy
meals, they were worshipful meals. In some mysterious way they were
holy sacramental meals. They not only brought people into a
relationship with one another and with Jesus who hosted the meals,
but somehow they brought the participants into fellowship with God.
In these meals in the wilderness people were lifted into the presence
of the holy, the almighty, they knew they were in the presence of a
loving God. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus spoke about one
of these wilderness meals and said: “I am the bread of life,”
Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those
who believe in me will never be thirsty.”
The
resurrection Church continued these fellowship meals as a substitute
for the sacrificial temple worship which they had participated in
before becoming Jesus people.
It is important then for us to remember that what Jesus
said about worship. In the sermon on the mount Jesus warned his
followers that it was not possible to truly enter into worship when
you are not in a right relationship with your fellow worshipers. He
said in Matthew 5 (23)
So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there
you remember that your brother has something against you, (24) leave
your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with
your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.
That was the
problem with the Corinthian Church. They came together for worship
and the Lord's Supper but their fellowship was broken by divisions
and factions. There were hard feelings and resentments in the
congregation, and when they ate it was not a common meal they shared,
but each family or friendship group had their separate meals, so some
were well fed and even drank too much, and others were hungry. It
wasn't a family meal, but it was more like a tailgating event when
one group is grilling steaks, another is having ribs, while some
others are having hot dogs, and some nothing but a peanut butter
sandwich. There was no true fellowship in the place.
Now I have
had enough experience in Churches including this Church to know that
we are not all united with one another, all of us are not of one
heart and mind. I don't know who I am talking about but I am sure
there are at least two people here in this sanctuary who are not
speaking to one another. I want to make a suggestion to you this
morning that can revolutionize your experience of communion. If
there is some one here this morning whom you have hurt in some way,
some one whom you know has resentment in their heart toward you I
think before you come to communion you should go to that person and
apologize to them. You could do it during the invitation this
morning, not some day, not tomorrow or next month, but this morning
during the invitation you could go to that person and apologize to
them. And if there is some one here who has hurt you, some one you
hold resentment toward you could go to that person and offer them
your forgiveness. I'm not saying you have to, but you could even
come together to the altar this morning and let the preachers and
elders pray for you together, right now, this morning, before you
come to receive the bread and the wine.
That is the
first thing I want to say about communion this morning is that it is
a holy fellowship meal, the joyful feast of the people of God, the
family meal of God's family.
But secondly
at the Last Supper Jesus made this last fellowship meal that he had
with his closest friends a teaching occasion. This was the time of
the passover, the first three gospel writers say it was a passover
meal, while John says it was the night before the passover and that
Jesus was crucified at the same time that the lambs were sacrificed
for the passover meal. Which ever it was it was the season of the
passover, they were in Jerusalem for the passover and the passover
was on every mind and heart at the table. It the passover meal the
foods on the table have symbolic meanings that help people to
remember that night of nights when Israel went forth from slavery
into freedom. The bitter herbs remind them of the bitterness of
slavery; the salt water reminds them of the tears they had shed; and
the lamb reminds them that on that night of the exodus every family
sacrificed a lamb which they ate that night. They marked their doors
with the blood of the lamb and when the death angel came sweeping
through the cities of Egypt striking dead the first born of all the
families of Egypt the death angel passed over the homes and families
whose doors were marked with the blood of the lamb.
So Jesus
took bread and used it as a new symbol to teach those present that
night, and to remind those who like us who participate later the
meaning of what was going to happen the following day. Jesus knew
that he would be betrayed that very night and that on the next
morning he would be tried and condemned to death. He knew that they
would beat his, slap him in the face and take out the cat of nine
tails and whip his back until it was raw and bleeding, he knew that
they would take a crown of thorns and press it onto his head until
the blood came flowing down his face. He knew they were going to
take him out to Golgotha and nail him to the cross and hang him up to
die, bleeding from his head and hands and feet, and when he died he
knew they would pierce his side and the water and the blood would
flow mingled down. He knew that when his disciples saw his body
literally broken, and his blood shed they were going to look on what
they saw as the triumph of evil, the destruction of everything that
had been accomplished by his ministry. He wanted then to understand,
and he wants us to remember that his death was a willing sacrifice he
was making for the salvation of the world. He said this is my body,
broken, my body broken for you. Eat
this in remembrance of me. He took the last cup of wine and said
this is my blood of the new covenant shed for you, and for many for
the remission of sins, drink this in remembrance of me.
We
celebrate the Lord's supper to remember Jesus, to remember his life,
to remember his sacrificial death and to remember his glorious
resurrection. Yes to remember his resurrection, for death could not
hold him captive, the grave couldn't hold hold him prisoner but on
the third day he rose again from the dead. And on that afternoon,
and on several other occasions as he appeared in his resurrection
body he broke bread and his friends had their eyes opened and they
recognized him in the breaking of bread. In the Lord's supper we
experience a holy fellowship meal, we remember Jesus, his life, his
death and his resurrection.
And
that brings me to the final significance of the Lord's supper: that
when we break bread together we experience the real presence of the
risen Christ. Communion is a time when by God's grace, if we allow
it to happen, our eyes can be opened and we can recognize the
presence of Jesus in the breaking of the bread, just as the two did
who walked the road to Emmaus. Communion is a fellowship meal, but
it is more than a fellowship meal, it is a meal of remembrance but
it is more than a meal of remembrance; it is both of those things,
but it is also a time when we can be lifted into the real
presence of the risen Christ. It is a time when we can feed on
Christ in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. Jesus told us that
whenever even two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the
midst of you. But communion is this multiplied. In a powerful way
Jesus in present in the Lord's Supper. The majority of Christians
are in agreement that Christ is present in the Lord's Supper what we
cannot all agree on is how he is present. The Roman Church and many
others would locate the presence of Christ in the bread and the wine,
while I believe with many Protestants that Christ is present in the
occasion. Christ is our host, Christ is our food, Christ is present
in the sanctuary, Christ is present in our fellowship, and Christ is
alive and present in our hearts so that we can say with those who met
him on the Emmaus road, did not our hearts burn within us when he
spoke to us and opened the scriptures? May our eyes be opened to
Jesus Christ this morning.
The
doors of the Church are opened, and we invite those who desire to
unite with this Church, or those who wish to draw closer to the risen
Christ, and those who desire prayer because they have been reconciled
with estranged brothers and sisters to come forward as we sing
together.
