Matthew 26:26-29

 

While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’

  

 

 

I’ll never forget the moment I knew that I felt called to serve this congregation. I looked at each member of the pastoral nominating committee and I realized that I was going to have the privilege of being a part of their lives – a part of their journeys of faith. I knew that my story of faith was going to intertwine with people I didn’t even know yet… that we would grow together as we studied God’s word, that we would stand together in times of joy and sorrow, that we would step forward together towards the kingdom.

  

There was something powerful in that realization… as I looked at the faces of each member of the committee… knowing, without a doubt in that moment, that we were a part of something bigger… that our stories were a part of God’s story.

 

This moment happened after the forms had been filled out… after the formal interviews… around the dinner table.

  

There is something bonding about sharing food together. As we join in this essential act of filling our bodies with the nourishment we need to survive, something happens to us. There is something about a meal that invites us to let our guard down… and often to let our hair down.

 

So, we laughed and told jokes. We shared about how the church had been there for people at crucial times in their lives. We talked about the challenges we face. We shared our dreams.

  

It was around the table with the pastoral nominating committee, as we passed the bread and poured the wine, I couldn’t help but remember how I’d gathered around the table with other sisters and brothers in faith over the years. And, I couldn’t help but imagine where God might take us – this PNC and this new congregation, who had been total strangers only days before.

  

The past and the future collided as we filled our bellies with morsels of goodness and our hearts with the same. God was present. God was moving us.

 

 

 

Have you ever thought about how wonderful it is that we have a faith where a meal is central to who we are… to what we do? I always brag that this is a congregation that loves to eat… that’s why we work so well together, right? And, our coffee hours are great!

  

But, (walk down to the communion table) this is the meal that matters.

  

Before there were pastors or robes or church buildings … even before the New Testament was written, believers gathered for a meal. This was their worship. Since the beginning of the faith, Christians have gathered on the Lord’s day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, to celebrate the Lord’s supper. Throughout the generations, the Lord’s Supper has been a tangible, essential way of living out our tangible, essential faith.

  

This meal is a remembering, a re-enactment, of when Jesus and his disciples gathered together around a table to celebrate the Passover Supper. As we’ve learned in our bible study, the Passover feast commemorates God’s dramatic act of liberation for the Hebrew people. Ever since God ushered the people out of slavery in Egypt, Jews remember this act of liberation by gathering around a meal.

  

When Jesus and his disciples gathered to celebrate this Passover meal – as their ancestors had for generations – a new kind of liberation would begin when Jesus says those familiar words that we recite every time we gather for the Lord’s Supper:

Songs and prayers are important, reading God’s Word is crucial. But, at our heart, we’re a people that gather around the table. Our faith compels us to take Christ into our bodies… into our very selves. It is in the consuming of the bread and the cup, together, that Christ becomes a part of who we are… at our very core.

  

And, just like the Passover Supper that Jesus and his disciples shared, the meal we share… the way we share it… the words we share… are filled with meaning and purpose. With bread and wine, in words and actions, the promises of God are made visible and concrete.

 

 

 

Every feast requires a host… and an invitation. We begin communion with an invitation to the table. We are all guests of Christ. Through the waters of baptism, we are born into Christ’s family. That family is nourished and sustained at this table. Therefore, all who are baptized and being nurtured in the faith of Jesus Christ are invited to come to this table. We are invited to come, humbly trusting God’s mercy; rejoicing in all God has done for us.

  

The Lord’s Supper is more than a recalling of events of long ago. In the Sacrament we participate now in all that God’s coming in Christ means. The power and presence of Christ is a reality in this gathering at his table. By responding to Christ’s invitation, we are joined anew to him who is the source of life.

  

 

 

With the table set and the invitation given, it’s time to pause to bless the meal. In this Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, we join in a dialogue which Christians have used for centuries when gathering at the Lord’s Table.

  

As the people of God, we praise God for all God’s mighty acts in past, present, and future, based on Jewish blessings from which the prayer comes. We praise God for creating all things, for establishing the covenant, for giving the law and sending prophets, for showing boundless love and mercy, even when we have strayed.

  

Then, we join our voices with believers in every time and place to adore the triune God. We sing “Holy, holy, holy Lord,” the eternal song of praise to God. The prophet Isaiah saw the heavenly hosts singing these words before God’s majesty in the Temple, and the vision of John as described in Revelation shows the angels singing these same words before God’s throne at the end of time.

  

Along with these words of praise, we add the chant that greeted Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!” The eternal song of the angels is joined by the very human cries of those who witnessed Immanuel… God with us… in the flesh.

  

As the great thanksgiving continues, we rejoice most especially in this Immanuel, God’s coming to us in Jesus Christ, who lived, suffered, and died for us, rose from the grave, and will come again to claim his kingdom.

  

When we remember the words and actions of Jesus in the upper room, we are assured of his promise to be present among us in the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup. And so we joyfully proclaim that great mystery of faith. Christ died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

  

After proclaiming this mystery, we call upon the Holy Spirit to make this celebration a true sacrament... an experience of the presence of God in the tangible stuff of our lives. We pray that the life-giving Spirit may renew in Christ’s redemption, rekindle among us the unity we have in Christ, empower us to do Christ’s work in the world, and lead us to the glory of God’s eternal kingdom.

  

The prayer of thanksgiving concludes in a climax of praise to the triune God. Together we sing the great “Amen!” May it be so.

 

 

 

The Lord’s Supper is the family meal of the people of God. We now pray the family prayer of the people of God.

  

After the Lord’s Prayer, the bread is broken for serving and the cup is poured as we remember the words spoken by Christ, the words of our scripture for today. As we remember these words, we are re-membered into the Body of Christ. The apostle Paul saw in the sharing of one loaf and one cup a symbol of our oneness in Christ.

  

 

 

Holy Communion is both a personal and a communal experience. The Sacrament is for each person, but we gather at the Lord’s table not simply as individuals. We come to the table as members together of God’s family, the body of Christ, the church.

  

It is a time of profound recognition of the grace of God breaking into the mess of our lives and a time of exuberant celebration of this gift. We rejoice in this gift, given freely for all.

  

Not only do we remember the salvation events of the past, and God’s grace in the present, but we participate in God’s future as well. This Sacrament is a glad resurrection feast, an anticipation of the great Banquet of the New Age, of the coming of the kingdom of God. We see what we ought to be, the holy community, the pledge of creation’s destiny, the world as God wills it. We are thus given a foretaste of the goal of all the ages, when every creature of heaven and earth will acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.

  

That’s a lot… around this one table. Remembering and being re-membered. Gratitude for the past. Foretastes of the future.

  

All given freely, for you and for me.

  

May we receive. May we delight. And may it become a part of who we are.

  

May it be so. Amen.