“Invitation to Christ”
SUMMER COMMUNION
©Thomas B. Cundiff
Luke 22: 14-20
When
the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I
will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God kingdom of God
I.
INTRODUCTION
The title
of a short article caught my attention.
It is titled, “Holy Communion in
Three Tenses”.[1] The author, Marney Wasserman, was talking at
a national church conference about our hunger for spiritual nourishment in the
context of our being a missional church.
She has helped me ask and respond to two questions:
(1) In our hunger for spiritual nourishment, how does
the sacrament of communion feed us personally?
(2) And once fed personally in the spirit of our
Lord, how does this spiritual nourishment help us in our call to share our
talents and resources with others as a mission-oriented, missional church.
The answer to
these questions can perhaps be found in looking at “Holy Communion in Three Tenses.”
II.
The First Tense—The Past Tense
The
First Tense—the Past Tense: We contemplate communion as a
memorial meal, a Passover meal in remembering that Jesus broke bread with his
disciples over 2000 years ago. As a
Passover meal this was a time for reflecting on the covenant relationship they
had with God and that God is the provider of all good things – in fact, God is
the provider of everything including life itself!
Thinking
about the sacraments historically: You may
recall that we have two sacraments in the Presbyterian church: Baptism and Communion. You may recall from previous sermons that a sacrament,
according to St. Augustine, is a “visible
sign of an invisible grace:” These
sacraments are outward, visible signs or gestures we can see and feel and touch
and taste of what God is quietly doing within us, invisibly, spiritually.
The symbols
for these sacraments are: The Water of
Baptism; the Bread of Life and the Cup
of Salvation – visible signs that remind us Christ is present with and in us as
we worship God – visible signs of invisible grace!
Jesus along
with his disciples during the Passover meal thousands of years ago becomes part
of our breaking bread this morning.
This first, past tense of the sacrament is my lifting the
bread and saying:
“Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” ….
And in lifting the cup I saying in the present tense: “This
cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.”
Through
this sacrament we remember from where we come, in whom we believe, and what God
has given us through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. We remember.
And in remembrance
celebrate the fact that Jesus is with us in this sacred place today.
The second
tense, the present tense with the sacrament of communion is contextual. What is the context in which we live in this
world today? Our world isn’t anything
like the world of Jesus 2000 years ago.
At the same time, the words from the past carry some of the same meanings
in the “present tense” as they did thousands of years ago in the “past tense”. We
reflect on the same mysteries of grace in sorting through questions like: Why did God give us Jesus? Historically, what did Jesus give us? Why did Jesus have to die for us. And in the present tense: Why does God continue to give us Jesus. What does Jesus give us today? And again, why did Jesus die for us? Of course, part of the answer in the present
tense, is knowing that Jesus died for the sins of the world. Jesus died giving us hope in eternal
life. Jesus died so that through his
resurrection we can have him, present with us, in our midst today.
We are no
longer living in a world dressed in robes sitting in on cushions on the floor
literally breaking large loaves of bread and sharing in the drinking of
wine. The sacrament of Holy communion has
evolved and become institutionalized. We
are using small cubes of bread instead of sharing a full meal in breaking bread
from common loaves. We are using little
plastic cups of juice instead of large chalices of wine. We say the same words in the present tense
that Jesus shared in the past tense: “this is the bread of life, this is the cup
of salvation.” In the present tense,
we partake and dine together. As Marney
Wasserman says, we are “first and
foremost to eat and drink together, to love and serve one another. This is a meal. It happens in the present tense.” It is the present tense we search for answers
to the questions that were asked:
Why? Why did Jesus come and live
and then die for us? Perhaps so that through his resurrection
we can know Jesus continues to live in the THEN
and in the NOW !
The third
tense is when the meal is over. This is
where our becoming a “missional church” or “mission oriented / focused church”
comes into play.
Just as
Jesus’ disciples got up from the table musing over all the things Jesus had
just told them….destined to walk the horrible walk with Jesus toward the cross and
to grieve his death. These same
disciples who broke bread with Jesus in the “Past Tense” met Jesus following
his resurrection. They learned of his
mission. It was after Jesus’
resurrection his disciples learned what it would mean for them to continue
breaking bread together – to find ways to spread the good news of the gospel to
others…..near and far.
The Gospel
of Matthew recording these experiences emerged and became for Jesus’ disciples
(past tense) and for us (present tense) the “Great Commission” (future tense):
“Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded…” Matthew 28: 19-20
So today,
in the present tense, we partake of the elements of the bread and the cup
reminding us we have a charge to be making disciples of all
nations…..and we do this in sharing the gospel with others missionally. We share the gospel with children through
Summer Magic by imparting our values as a church with these youngsters. We don’t preach to them. We share our values with them. Through our actions we share God’s love.
SUMMARY: So in the past tense, we know historically
about Jesus and his life and death and resurrection. In the present tense we revisit these
experiences with Jesus through the sacrament of communion. The elements do more than just feed our personal,
spiritual souls. What do these elements
nourish? In the third or future tense,
these elements remind us that Christ wants us to walk in the world and into the
future with those who need his love and justice – his care and compassion for others! We are called, in the future tense, to share
what God has given us. The sacrament of
communion isn’t just about what God feeds me.
It is about what God feeds others through us!
V.
Invitation
to Christ
This
morning you are “Invited to Christ”.
This means we are called to partake of elements that remind us of this
universal affirmation:
WE ARE THE LIVING, VIBRANT BODY OF CHRIST!
I INVITE YOU TO CHRIST….to become the living extension of
Christ continuing to do his work in the world today. .
You have a
sacred responsibility in partaking of these elements of bread and cup. Through this sacrament you accept the
“Invitation to Christ” entrusted to use what God has given all of us “rightly,
fully, and well.”[2]
My
friends: I pray that you accept this invitation
to Christ. Prepare to consider
once again the call from God to give your life to Christ….to become with those
around you the living body of Christ.
Past, present and walking together into the future, may God continue to
bless us in doing finding meaningful ways to share the gospel of Jesus Christ
with others.
[1] Article by Rev. Marney Wasserman of the
Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tuscon , Arizona
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