Sermon at Martin Luther King Presbyterian Church, July 7, 2013

Simple Instructions
 

Scripture reading: 2 Kings 5:1–14

Naaman was insulted. He had leprosy, a dreaded skin disease, and he had come from Syria to Israel - a long distance to get cured,. He had received the blessing of his king to make the journey, he had brought gifts with him that were worth a huge fortune: thirty thousand pieces of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes. He had gone to the King of Israel to be cured, the king of Israel sent him to the prophet Elisha, and when at last he had come to the home of the prophet Elisha, Elisha didn't invite him in to the house, Elisha didn't even come out of his house to greet him or to examine his skin or to treat him for his terrible illness. Elisha simply sent out a servant to deliver instruction. The instructions were simple, he told Naaman to “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River, and you will be completely cured of your disease.”

That was an insult to think that such simple instructions could be the cure for his disease. He was an important person, willing to pay vast sums of money for his cure. He deserved better treatment than such simple instructions. Elisha should at least see him in person, pray to the Lord his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and cure me! It is too simple, “go wash in a river” and not just any river, in the nasty dirty Jordan river. If I could be cured by dipping in a river I could have stayed home and dipped myself in the Abana and Pharpar rivers. They are much prettier and much cleaner than the Jordan river, or any river in Israel.

Now Naaman's servant had better sense than Naaman did. Isn't it the truth than often the servant his more sense than the master, the employee often has more sense than the employer, the poor and disenfranchised people have better sense than the rich and the powerful. It was a slave, a little Israelite girl, a captive of war who knew that there was a prohet in Israel who could cure all manner of diseases. If it hadn't been for this slave girl Naaman would have never come to Israel. Now Naaman's servant tries to talk some sense into his master who was being too proud and stuborn to follow Elisha's simple instructions. Look, the servant said, if the prophet told you to do some dangerous or difficult thing to achieve your cure you would do it wouldn't you? Why then can't you just do the simple thing the prophet told you to do, and be cured of your leprosy. Thankfully Naaman listened to his servant and did go and dip himself seven times in the Jordan and he was cured of his leprosy.

Medicine has advanced a long way since the days of Elisha, but it remains the case that sometimes the best path to health and healing is to follow some simple instructions. When we moved to Florida we stayed in the Manse while we were looking for a house to purchase. We noted that our neighbor, Betty Williams was a walker. Early in the morning before the sun got too hot to be outside comfortably and again in the evening when it began to cool down just before sunset she came out of her house and took off walking at a fast pace. No dog to walk, just Betty taking off down the street. Now I would never guess a woman's age, but let us say that Betty had retired several years before we met her. She told us why she walked regularly, it was a matter of following her doctor's simple instructions. She had been having some sort of heart problems and was under the care of a cardiologist, and he gave her simple instructions for better health, he told her to walk a mile twice a day and eat less. As far as I know that might have been the only treatment he gave her, and it worked. She had taken her car and measured exactly how far a mile was and she walked the same course twice a day, every day.

Now some people would reject such simple instructions. I mean modern medicine has so many tools to diagnose and treat illness; most people expect their doctor to use them all. Don't I need a cat scan or a MRI? Do you think I need angioplasty or a stent in my heart? What about open heart surgery? Aren't you even going to prescribe any medication? Not Betty, she was a person with a lot of good sense, she figured the doctor has spent all those years in school and knew what he was doing, so she did exactly what he told her to do. She walked exactly one mile twice a day and ate less food than she had been eating, and before you know it she lost weight and was in excellent health. Like Naaman the key to her health lay in following simple instructions. She didn't argue with the doctor, and she didn't follow instructions for a few months and then decide she didn't need any more exercise, she went out her door and walked her measured mile twice a day and ate enough less to loose the extra pounds.

A lot of people think that following Jesus is a complicated matter. Through out the ages the Christian faith has split into various factions over the most trivial things. The Catholics and Orthodox Churches split over whether the spirit proceeds from the father or if the spirit proceeds from the father and the son. There are two divisions of the Church of God, one believes in instrumental music for worship and the other division says that the New Testament doesn't mention organs or guitars or pianos, or tamborines people who follow Jesus should sing without accompanyment. The Presbyterian Church has split apart again and again, and is still fracturing into various denominations over whether ministers must be seminary educated, over whether women can preach in the pulpit, and now over whether homosexuals can be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons. We divide over how to interpret the Bible, whether the Church should be involved in social change, whether the Church should be involved in politics, whether Christians can drink or smoke or play cards, or work on Sunday.

The Jewish faith, the faith of Jesus and his people was no different. Jews delighted to argue and debate over which of the hundred's of commandments and ordinances in their scriptures were the most important. Is it ever permissable to eat unclean food? How strictly do we need to keep the Sabbath? Were there ever circumstances when you can work on the Sabbath? You remember many people condemned Jesus because he healed people on the Sabbath.

The leaders of the Jewish faith came to Jesus and tried to involve him in these arguments, hoping to diminish his popular support by making him answer questions that would alienate one or another faction however he answered. They asked him which was the first and greatest commandment and he answered by giving them simple instructions for right living. He said (Matthew 22:37-39) ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Now there are pretty simple instructions for Christian living, or for Jewish living, or for right living. Love God and love your neighbor. What could be simpler than this? On this hangs all the law and the prophets. If you follow these simple instructions you will be able to figure our what is really important in all the whole of the scriptures. It all depends on these two simple directions. But of course this was two simple for the religious leaders. They couldn't argue about the loving God part of it, but they asked. But who is really my neighbor? Your certainly don't mean I have to love someone simply because he lives in my neighborhood. I have enemies who live in my neighborhood, you certainly don't mean I should love them. I mean I do love my family (at least most members of my family) and I love the people who are my close friends, but there are other people in my village who aren't even Jews. I certainly don't love the Romans who Lord it over us. The bum down the street who is always wanting to borrow my things, who doesn't work hard for a living like I do, I certainly don't love him. It's not so simple as you say, to love your neighbor as myself.

So Jesus told him a story. He said that there was a certain man who was making a journey and on a lonely stretch of road he was set upon by theives, who beat him up and robbed him and left him all messed up and bloody on the side of the road with no wallet or money or anything. It happened that there were two religious leaders who came down the same stretch of road and each of them saw the man, but neither one of them wanted to get involved. They would get bloody themselves if they did anything to help the poor man, and then they would be ritually unclean and couldn't lead worship or whatever. Maybe they thought they better hurry on down the road before they got set on by the same band of thieves. What ever their reasons they passed by on the other side of the road and left him lying on the side of the road, bleeding and dying, helpless and needing help. Maybe they thought I don't know him, he is not a part of my congregation, he doesn't live in my neighborhood, he is not my responsibility.

But there was a third man who came down the road and had compassion on the poor fellow who had been beaten and robbed. Do you know what compassion means, it means you feel with the other person. Maybe he felt with the poor man on the roadside because he too had been mistreated at some time, or maybe many times in his life. We don't really know much about the man who had compassion, except that he got of his donkey and helped the man, cleaned out his wounds, bandaged them up to stop the bleeding, and took him to the nearest village and found an Inn. He paid for the man's stay, since the poor fellow had been robbed and had nothing, and asked the Innkeeper to take care of him during his recovery, see that he got fed and promised to pay the rest of the bill if what he had already given was not enough.

We do know more thing about the man who had compassion, Jesus tell us that he was a Samaritan. If you have done any Bible study you may remember that the Samaritans and the Jews were enemies of one another. The Jews regarded the Samaritans as unclean, as pretend Jews. The Jews said the Samaritans' religion was not pure. They were people who had intermarried with the heathens when the so called pure Jews were taken into exile.

Since we don't have any Samaritans in our community I think Jesus would tell the story differently if he were to come to Mason Square. When Clarance Jordan told this story to his white congregation in rural Georgia some 40 years ago he said that the third man, the man who had compassion and helped the poor man who had been beaten and robbed, the third man to come down the road was a Negro. I guess if Jesus came here this morning to tell the same story he might say that this third man was a homosexual, or maybe a transsexual. Maybe Jesus would say the third man was a homeless drug addict. Maybe he would say that the man who had compassion was an undoccumented immigrant. The point is that the compassionate person was the kind of person who none of Jesus listeners would have thought of as a neighbor. The Samaritan, the undoccumented immigrant, was one of those people that we would want to exclude from the category of neighbor when we hear Jesus say to love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus finished telling his story he asked his hearers. Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

When you understand the meaning of Jesus story then we can re-write Jesus simple instructions and hear him say that the first commandment is to love God with everything you are and all that you have, and love everybody.

Jesus would surely give his approval to this little poem by Edwin Markham

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !

That is all I have to say this morning. Life may be difficult and complicated, but there are some simple instructions that we can follow to greatly benefit our lives and the lives of everyone we meet.

1. Love God

2. Love Everybody

3. Take a walk every day.

Do You Want To Be Healed?

May 5, 2013 Sermon at  Martin Luther King Presbyterian Church

Early in my ministry at my first Church I asked one of our younger members how his mother was; Sonny was in Church pretty much every Sunday but I had only seen his mother once or twice. He told me, “Well Terry, my mother enjoys poor health.” I wasn't sure whether he meant this literately or if the word “enjoy” was just a figure of speech, but as I came to know Miss Hattie better I understood that she did seem to enjoy her poor health. It did have certain advantages for her. She enjoyed sitting by the window in the front room and seeing what was going on out on the street, and there was often quite a bit going on. She knew who was hanging out on the corner and who came to visit her neighbor after her husband went to work. She could see the comings and goings at the tavern down the street. It was an interesting life, and it didn't demand much from her. For example: since she was in poor health no one expected her to cook the meals, Sonny and his father both were pretty good cooks, and after Sonny's girlfriend moved in with them she did a lot of the cooking. I did notice that Miss Hattie's poor health didn't prevent her from eating her share of the meals.

Having knowing Miss Hattie I have some insight into what might be going on with this man who had spent much of his life hanging out by the sheep pool. For 38 years he had been there hanging out at the sheep pool along with scores of other people, the blind, the lame and paralyzed, all hoping to be healed. We don't know how he supported himself, he must have had friends or family who provided for him, saw that he had something to eat, someplace to stay at night. Some one must have carried him, or at least helped him get to the pool day after day. The story was that every once in a while an angel came down and roiled up the waters. People believed that the first person to get in the pool when the water was disturbed would be healed of what ever disease that was crippling their lives. But this man had been coming to the pool for 38 years, that had to be most of his life, considering the average life span in those days. Some how he had never been the first one into the pool. He keeps coming to this place of healing, but he has never been healed. I wonder if he enjoyed poor health. Jesus seemed to have the same assessment. He asked the man “Do you want to be healed.” In other words, do you want to get well, do you want to be made whole, or do you just want to continue to be sick? The man didn't exactly answer that question, but began to make excuses, well I don't have anyone with me to put me in the pool, and someone always gets there before me. Thirty eight years and someone always gets into the pool before me.

Jesus said to him, if you really want to be healed get up off your mat, pick it up and stand up and walk. It's up to you, not someone else, its up to you to take your life in your own hands, and get up and walk. It's up to you to get off your mat, get up off your A double S and do something with your life.

John tells us “ Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.”

This is truly an amazing story, but what really happened? Was the man able to walk all the time, or is this a story about Jesus miraculous power to heal. None of us know for sure what happened here, but the whole situation does make me think about a friend from my past who also was having a problem walking.

Wilt was a big man, maybe six feet four, at least as tall as Pastor Sylver and in pretty good shape. He was not only the tallest member of the young adult choir, but also the oldest. No one complained that he had kids almost as old as the youngest members of that choir because his deep voice provided just the sound the choir needed. He worked at a meat packing company, Oscar Mayer, the bacon and wiener people, a job that required him to stand on his feet for 8 hours a day. He played pick up basketball and was a motorcycle enthusiast. It was this last characteristic that got him into a world of trouble, because one night he and his son were out riding and a drunken driver ran both of them off the road. His son was not badly hurt, but Wilt's left leg was so mangled that it had to be amputated. He spent weeks in the hospital, then more time recovering at home. He was fitted for a prosthetic, but mostly he got around on crutches. It was the pain that kept him from using his artificial leg. If you know something about amputees you know that they typically have two kinds of pain: there is what is called phantom pain where the amputee continues to feel pain in the limb that was been amputated. This is not imaginary pain, the severed nerve ends are still alive and sending signals to the brain, so the foot, the ankle, the calf, the knee that all are gone are in pain. Then there is of course the pain in the stump. In a case like Wilt's with the whole leg mangled it was not a clean amputation, they tried to leave as much of the leg as possible so he would be able to use an artificial limb, but the stump took a long time to heal. Unlike Hattie, Wilt did not enjoy being sick. The pain made him miserable. He wanted to get out and around, but walking on crutches was not at all easy or pleasant, and it was painful to put on his artificial limb, there was always a sore spot on the stump when he wore it for any period of time, and he felt unsteady on his feet, it takes lots of practice to use a prosthesis, especially with an above the knee amputation. He couldn't work, the family was living mostly on his wife's income, I think he got some little disability, but nothing like the money he had been making when he was working. The end result was that he became depressed, severely depressed. He sat around in his house with the shades pulled on the windows. If you have ever been clinically depressed you know how miserable that is. Every one

was sympathetic and supportive, his family prayed for him, his church family prayed for him, but he couldn't get better. Not until he got assigned to a different doctor at the rehabilitation center. The new doctor made him tell his whole story, how his leg hurt, how he couldn't use the prosthesis for an extended period of time, how hard it was to get around on crutches, how he was depressed. Then his doctor rolled up his pants leg and showed Wilt his own artificial limb. We all thought were being supportive giving Wilt all our sympathy, but the doctor with the artificial leg had no sympathy at all, told him that he was on his feet all day seeing patients, performing surgery and what ever else. Like Jesus, he asked him if he wanted to be made well. He told him if he wanted to be well, if he did not want to be a cripple for the rest of his life he had to get up off his mat, put on his leg every morning and walk on it every day until he got used to it, until the stump got toughened up. It wasn't as sudden as the man at the pool getting up and being made well in an instant, but that was the turning point, and it was less than a year later that he was off disability and back at work every day. It wasn't long after that when he got back on a motorcycle, and not that many years later a preacher who was doing a revival for us went out riding with Wilt. Gary claimed to be an experienced and fearless rider but he couldn't out do Wilt who he described as a riding fool.

What am I trying to say to you this morning? What I want you to know is that each of us must take responsibility for our own lives. No matter how messed up your life is, no matter how sick you are in your body, no matter how sick you are spiritually of mentally, God's healing power is available to make things better, but you have to take charge of your life and accept the healing power of God that is available to you. The question is do you want to be healed?

A lot of us are addicted to one thing or another, some of us are addicted to gossip, can't go day without passing on information or misinformation about someone else. Did you hear what they are saying about the preacher? Do you know what he did, do you know where he was seen the other day. Other people are addicted to complaining and being depressed, some are addicted to gambling, some to other kinds of bad behavior. Other people, including some members of this congregation, are addicted to various substances: cigarettes, alcohol, prescription medicine, or various kinds of illegal drugs. Addictions are hard to overcome. We would not call them addictions if they were easy to overcome. Most substance abuse addictions require some kind of help to overcome them, therapy, detox, rehabilitation, 12 step groups or the like. But none of these so called cures will do a person a bit of good if the person does not want to be healed. The first thing an addict needs to do is answer Jesus' question, do you want to be healed.

I know what I am talking about when I talk about addiction, I was a smoker for about 35 years. I have read that nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs that people use. Certainly it is more addictive than marijuana, for many people it is more addictive than alcohol. Now none of us who smoke think it is good for our health. It makes you cough, it makes you short of breath, it raises your blood pressure, and has many other bad effects on us, and yet once you get started it is hard to stop. You miss the mini-high you get, you feel you just need one cigarette to calm your nerves. I don't know how many times I tried to quit. I remember I had quit for several weeks when one of our members had a heart attack. I went to the hospital to be with her husband, I was there when they told him that they had to open up her chest and massage her heart, they didn't know if she was going to make it. Hours and hours went by before at last they told us that she was going to make it and her husband could see her in a couple of hours, but she wouldn't be able to have any other visitors for several more days. Jelly and his sister stayed there in the waiting room, but the rest of the family and I left the hospital. I was totally wrung out, I needed a cigarette, and when another family member lit up I bummed a cigarette and had one, then another, then went home and bummed another from Kathleen, and then I had a pack in my pocket and that didn't last a day. When we got to Florida there were even more reasons to quit: most of the Church members were non smokers and disapproved of anyone, much less their pastor smoking, plus they said it was a bad influence on the teenagers. I tried to quit, I got nicotine gum. It tasted awful, and was certainly not doing anything for my nicotine addiction, I was just getting it from the gum instead of the cigarettes. Well the truth was I was getting my nicotine both from the gum and the cigarettes. I told myself I wanted to quit, but the truth was I didn't want to quit as much as I wanted to have another cigarette. It all ended one Sunday evening. I had the flu, but I kept going, I needed to preach on Sunday, then there was a wake for the mother in law of one of our most powerful and wealthy members. Finally I got home and went to bed. By that time I was wheezing, I couldn't clear my lungs, I couldn't stop coughing, but the more I coughed the worse my breathing got. If you have ever had an asthma attack you know what I was experiencing. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew I couldn't breathe. My pulse was racing and was feeling worse and worse by the hour. After several hours of gasping for breath I told Kathleen she needed to take me to the hospital. In the emergency room they gave me repeated neutralizer treatments, an intravenous infusion of magnesium to slow down my racing heart beat, them I nearly passed out because my pulse dropped so far so fast. Finally I began to feel human again. The doctors wanted me to stay overnight, but I was too stubborn for that, and promised to see my doctor in the morning.

I had said I wanted to quit for years, but when I thought I was going to die things changed and I really did want to quit, I really did want to be well, I really did want to be healed, and I have not had a single cigarette since December 22, 1996.

What is your addiction, what substance or behavior is ruling your life? Do you want to be made well, do you want to be made whole?

God has the power to heal all your illness and all your diseases. There is help for all manner of afflictions and addictions, but a person needs to take advantage of the help that is available, a person must want to be healed. Do you, do you really want to be healed, do you want to be made well, do you want to be saved?

Scripture Reading for the sermon

John 5:1-9

Good News Translation
5 After this, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival. 2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool with five porches; in Hebrew it is called Bethzatha. 3 A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches—the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. They were waiting for the water to move, because every now and then an angel of the Lord went down into the pool and stirred up the water. The first sick person to go into the pool after the water was stirred up was healed from whatever disease he had. 5 A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been sick for such a long time; so he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The sick man answered, “Sir, I don't have anyone here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” 9 Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.
The day this happened was a Sabbath,

Sermon preached April 21, 2013 at Valley Presbyterian Church, Brookfield, CT

WE BELONG TO GOD

I don't think I need to tell you that we live in a frightening world, not this week, not since December fourteenth. After the bombings at the Boston Rick Green wrote in the Hartford Courant: “And yet, once again, there was that sickening feeling that something might have changed forever in America.” You notice he said yet once AGAIN.

For me something changed forever when the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed injuring almost 700 and taking the lives of 168, including 19 children under the age of 6. I no longer could feel the same feeling of safety that Americans once enjoyed. Terrorism was not something that happened in far away countries, it had happened in our nation.

If that did not convince Americans that something had changed forever in this country then I think none of us could feel the same after September 11. Even more recently we have seen mass shootings at Fort Hood, at Virginia Tech; we have seen the shootings that injured Gabby Gifford, the shootings at Aurora, Colorado and of course the killings at Newtown, only minutes away from where we are this morning. Indeed something has changed forever in America. Once upon a time many Americans felt relatively safe compared with the rest of the world. Bombings and mass shootings were something that happened in Israel, or in Iraq or in Afghanistan, but we felt that our children were safe when we sent them off to school. School invasions were something that happened in Russia or some far off part of the world.

Unfortunately those who live in the inner city areas of major cities, even people in Hartford's North end, and in portions of Bridgeport and New Haven who hear gunfire in their neighborhood on a daily or weekly basis know a different reality than those of us who live in more affluent suburban neighborhoods. I remember clearly my apprehension in going to make a pastoral call on the mother of one of our members, getting out of my car realizing that I was in an area where there had been a half a dozen shootings in the previous few months. Even though these seem isolated incidents they mount up to a frightening toll, it is estimated that at least 3,531 people have been killed by guns since Newtown. That includes 179 teens and 63 children.

Today there is not a one of us who could rationally deny that we live in a world full of danger. Of course there are more dangers than shootings and bombings. We are beset by many fears and anxieties, “Am I going to loose my job?” “Are my teen age children or grandchildren in danger of getting involved with drugs or alcohol?” I know people who are frightened to death to get in an airplane. I think most of us have a certain apprehension about our health, most of us know people no older than ourselves who have have a heart attack, a stroke, or have been diagnosed with cancer. Our fears and anxieties are without end.

Does the faith that we hold offer us any comfort in the face of our fears and anxieties?

Our scriptures this morning are filled with images of God's care for us: In a few minutes we will affirm our faith with familiar words:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; ...
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I fear no evil; for thou art with me;
    thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. ...

Thou preparest a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    for ever.

The Hebrew scriptures in many other places affirm similarly that we belong to God, for example in Psalm 95 we read

O come, let us worship and bow down,
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.

Jesus repeatedly uses the same image of God or of himself as the Shepard and we the sheep. You remember how he told about a good shepherd who left 99 sheep safe in the fold and went out into the darkness to seek for one lost sheep, and continued to seek until he found the one lost, and then came back rejoicing.

In the passage from John that we read this morning Jesus says “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”

No one will snatch them out of my hand. If we belong to God, if we belong to Jesus, then no matter what the danger, no matter how frightening our world is, no matter how anxious we may be, we know that we belong to God, and no one, no power, no danger can snatch us out of the hands of God. Even in the case of death we still belong to God we are safe in his hands. The opening words of the Presbyterian Brief Statement of Faith make this same affirmation : “In life and in death, we belong to God.”

In Revelation we read:

“The one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
    the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

People who believe these affirmations, those who believe that God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, those who believe that they belong to God, in life and in death we belong to God are people who can face their fears and anxieties and live as people of courage. People who are confident in God's love and care, that no one can snatch them out of God's hands are people who are able to confront the evils of this world. Confidence in God's care gives us courage to confront the culture of violence that infects the life of our nation and the life of the world. Confidence in God gives us courage to stand up for reasonable controls on automatic weapons, people who can stand up for background checks for gun owners, people who can stand up for every victim of violence.

We have seen many people of courage in the past week and past months. It has taken great courage for parents, friends and neighbors of those killed at Sandy Hook to march and run and even travel with the president to Washington to lobby congressmen in favor of reasonable gun controls. Our Senators and our governor and our legislators have shown courage in standing and voting for gun controls, while others in the U.S. Senate have shown spectacular cowardice in refusing to do what they know is right, which is the will of the American people.

It took tremendous courage for first responders to run toward the bomb blasts on Monday to aid the victims. It has taken great courage on the part of law enforcement to pursue and even engage in firefights with the brothers accused of the bombings and to kill one and capture the other.

Many others among us have shown equal but less spectacular courage to stand with the poor and oppressed, to feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the discouraged, visit the sick and imprisoned, and to stand up for justice for the downtrodden.

We do not know the source of every one's courage, but I am certain that many people of courage are inspired to live victorious lives because they know that in death and in life we belong to God. People of courage are those who know that the Lord is our shepherd, and that no one can snatch us out of the hands of the good shepherd.

Another Psalm says God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear. Martin Luther based his great Hymn, A Mighty Fortress on this psalm, and we will now stand and sing that hymn.

Sermon Title: Communion: Why Do We Do It?

(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.