"Why Communion?"
For every parent there is going to be a time when we must let our children go and say goodbye for an extended period of time. Now I have not had to make this transition yet, but I am already dreading it. I am not talking about camp or going to the grandparents, I am talking about when the kids move away for whatever reason; college, a job, marriage, whatever. I remember my mom reminding me, several times before I left home, to “remember this, and remember that.” All the qualities, characteristics, ideals, morals and values that she had taught me she was telling me to remember them. Why? Because she knew what I didn’t…. that I was going to be tested and I was going to need this knowledge to survive. Remember, remember, remember who you are and who’s you are! And I was also reminded that on a regular basis that I needed to call home. DO it regularly so you can be reminded who you are and who’s you are. Even this past week when Macy just stayed with my mom for a day while Robin and I were out, I said to Macy, “Remember…Peppy is the boss when you stay with her.” I know Macy needs to be reminded of what she has been taught because she will need it.
Why communion? These words remember and regularly are very important. What were the three actions of Jesus that we heard about that we are going to connect to this notion of remember and regularly. He took bread, gave thanks for the bread and broke the bread. Now when Jesus “took the bread” he was receiving it. When you take something you are receiving it. The first remembrance of communion is that you need to remember the gift.
The gift is the gift of God. Bread is one of the most basic elements for the sustenance of human life. That is universal around the world. What is the first thing you get at many restaurants? BREAD. Here is the problem: you can begin to worship the gift instead of the giver. Bread is a gift but many worship the bread instead of the giver. What happens when we do this? We begin to live to eat instead of eating to live. We have to change our mindset about the gift. This is how evil works because everything in this world is a gift from God but the problem is we begin to worship these gifts and not the giver who is God. Someone in here is thinking alcohol is not a gift, drugs are not a gift but hear me. God made the barley not the beer. God made the poppy seeds, not the cocaine. Go one step further and realize that even those two items made by man are gifts when consumed correctly and not abused to cause addictions. Now we have come full circle because we can become addicted to any gift. Are you with me? This is exactly what Satan was trying to do with Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus was focusing everything he had on the will of God in his life and what was Satan trying to do….he was trying to get Jesus to focus that same energy on making bread! Oh my gosh! Church did you hear that. Isn’t that interesting that we can spend so much of our time focusing on making the bread instead of worshiping the God and giver of the bread. Jesus said to Satan that people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.
John 6:27, 35 - “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life,…. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry.”
That’s what Jesus wants you to remember every time you come to this table. It is easy to start worshiping anything and everything but this table reminds us that it is the bread of life that we live on. It is not physical bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God. The remembering at this table is not just about the gift of spiritual provisions from God but also the promise of physical provision.
Remember a few weeks ago we talked about the feeding of the 4000 and the disciples forgot to take the leftover bread with them afterwards and suddenly they had no bread again. Jesus pulls off an incredible miracle of feeding about 4000 people with just 7 loaves of bread and then the disciples panic just a bit later in the day because they have left the gift of bread behind. Who is the giver of the gift? Jesus. Who was in the boat with them? Jesus? What were they focusing on? Uh, Bread. Hello? Jesus asked them why they were focusing on bread? He said how much did we have left after we feed the 5000? 12 baskets full of bread that you made from 5 loaves. Jesus is trying to tell us that when we focus on him, his mission, his priorities, and his purpose not only do you have enough bread but you have what? More than enough. You have abundance. Then he went on to rub it in their face and reminded then of the feeding of the 4000 and the end result was they had 7 baskets full of bread left over. He asked…do you still not get it? Think about what God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites: Tell them if they keep their focus on me I will rain down mana from heaven. He did not say sprinkle, he said rain and rain mana it did. Everyone had more than enough!
What is the second action of Jesus here? Hello? The second action of Jesus is to give thanks? Your remembrance now is that of gratitude. Your attitude should be to have gratitude for the magnitude of what God did for us through Jesus Christ for me and my life. That remembering of Gratitude should be about a few things
1) The resurrection of my own life through Jesus. You see without the power of the resurrection in my own life I would have never married Robin because she wouldn’t have given me a second look. I would be a work-a-holic and have no impact on the lives around me. I would be wasting my life with no telling how many relationships or bad marriages. I have to give thanks for the power of the resurrection in my life.
2) The second thing is the blessing of the relationships. When Jesus came he changed everything. He changed the relationship we have from a temple relationship to a table relationship. Folks we don’t have altars in the church. We have communion tables. These icons at the front of the church many people call altars are in fact not altars at all because altars were in the temple and were used for sacrificial bloodletting in order to try to have a pleasing relationship with God. Jesus came and changed all of that and brought us to his table to have a relationship with him. He took the sacrifice upon himself and said come, sit with me. Jesus took this act of acceptance out of the temple and brought it to a table. It was hard to be accepted in the temple but everyone is accepted at the table. You should have enormous gratitude for that.
This past Thursday I was in Old Navy because they were having a huge clearance sale on winter merchandise. They had jackets on sale for $7, long sleeve polo’s for $4 and long sleeve baseball shirts for $3. I thought how great it would be to have these come winter when less fortunate parents are looking to give gifts to their kids so I thought I would buy a few to help some families out in about 6 months: 70 jackets and about 150 shirts. The manager was standing there when I started to check out and she asked why I was doing this and she told the cashier to mark them down even more to $5 a jacket, $3 a polo, and $2 a baseball shirt. Then she asked what kind of church we were and I said the kind of church that thinks about total strangers at Christmas when Christmas is six months away and buys clothes for them. I learned that model from Tony Campollo. Then the assistant manager asked me some questions about the church and stated that I knew a lot about it and I said, “Well, I should because I am the pastor.” A few heads turned and the first lady said that’s the kind of church I want my family to go to. Case ad point….I was focused on relationships and God moved.
The third thing I remember to have gratitude for at this table is the fact that God makes my life relevant. He gives me purpose. Folks these clothes are just a sample of only one thing going on in the life of the church. We are players for God in this world and we are making a difference. In Africa a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. Malaria. A disease that is containable and more importantly preventable because it is transmitted by mosquitoes. When babies and young children get bitten and are infected they have a greater chance of death than adults. The United Methodist Church is working in conjunction with Sports Illustrated, the NBA, the NFL and many others to provide nets for children to sleep under at night in Africa. The Bill Gates foundation heard about this project and pledged to match dollar for dollar the funds raised. What does it cost to save the life of a child who has no choice of where they live or the conditions into which they are born? $10. $10 buys a net that will be shipped and given to every mother, who will be instructed on how to use the net properly, when the mother goes to get their children vaccinated for other diseases, which the United Methodist Church is also helping fund around the world, including the United States. We will talk about this more in the coming weeks. We are building a new worship center, we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, we help put roofs on houses and repair the rooms beneath them. Folks, I would not do that except for the power of the resurrection in side of me, the relationships I have with you through Jesus, and in it all Jesus makes my life relevant!
So Jesus took the bread (accepted the gift), gave thanks (had gratitude for the gift) and then what was the third act of Jesus? He broke the bread. The act of breaking the bread was to be able to pass it around. It is a reminder that when I come to this place I do not come here to eat by myself but I come here to break bread and share bread. Generosity.
Greed is the cancer of the human spirit. It is the fruit of Fear and mistrust. What is the fear here? That there is not going to be enough. But God is the God of abundance. The fruit of Greed is gluttony and hording. What does this mean? It means that today in our world 30,000 children died of starvation and 60% of Americans are so over weight that they are in the midst of a health crisis and at the risk of dying themselves. That is gluttony. Hording is keeping more resources than we need to live. One little girl in our church wanted to help with the campaign for God’s Vision…Our Mission so she ran a lemonade stand with her sister. They gave all the money to the church. So when I come to this table I remind myself that I need to be committed to disciplined, generous living. Disciplined means moderation in all things and generous means that I am responsible for the resources that God has given me and to not consume all of the bread but to rather break it and share it to pass it around. We are the community, the body of Christ, the loaf from which the world eats.
Today there will be at this collective St. Luke’s table about 700 people who partake of this bread. Here is the miracle. Because of you we will help feed, clothe and shelter over 1000 families this year.
Why Communion? It is a reminder of the gift, it is a check on my attitude of gratitude for the magnitude of what all God has done and a renewed commitment of the lifestyle of generosity that Jesus modeled for us using his own body given for you.