Last week we talked about the labyrinth as analogous to our lives, with a pattern of moving both toward and away from the center. It is very much like our lives as they move toward and away from God. I talked of a God who remains steadfast, constantly seeking, constantly wooing, and constantly desiring a deeper relationship with us. Today we look deeper, at one means of centering our lives, something that focuses our lives, and an action that in the depth of its meaning moves us consistently closer to the heart of God: communion. Communion has become a consistent part of our worship – once a month we gather to celebrate but I often wonder how often any of us really thinks about why – why communion, why these ancient words, why bread or cup? Why these movements like a symphony of call and response? Why remembrance? Why the move into the center aisle row by row only to stand and wait? Why all of this? So today, as we look again at centering we’ll examine communion. And as always, let’s begin with prayer.
Today we celebrate this Holy meal. Lying before us are the elements: the bread and the cup – representative aspects of so much more than a simple loaf, pieces of bread and cups of juice. For us, these represent the very center of our Christian universe, the definers of faith, and the central table of the community. It is what Bruce Neal calls, “one of the few dramatic common denominators of the Christian faith.” The table set before us helps us understand two essential relationships – with God and with each another. The importance of these relationships are as ancient as the church. I thought it important, particularly as we talk of centering, to remind us of why we partake of these elements, what they can mean for us, and what they can mean for the church. The author of Ephesians helps us considerably along that journey by using some wonderfully descriptive language. He describes, even frames both relationships; he then offers us reason to take and remember each element, and describes the potential outcomes of the relationships if done appropriately and well. Let’s unwrap some of this.
To get started let’s remember that Ephesus was a tough place. Paul spent a fair amount of time there both in and out of jail. The letter to the church of Ephesians had multiple themes not the least of which was unity, with Christ as the cornerstone. This is not some evangelical book that sought to bring those outside the faith in. It was a letter written to help believers gain strength and understanding. This author is very specific about how members of the church are to treat each other: with love and trust, forgiveness and grace, accountability and encouragement – all based in what lay at their center. Jesus, as the one who came, lived, taught, healed, saved, died, rose and ascended to sit at God’s right hand. And word about this church had spread.
If you have your Bibles go back with me and look again as we walk through this together. Notice what the author first identifies as what he’s heard. They have “faith in the Lord Jesus,” and a “love toward the saints.” I don’t know if this sounds familiar to you. It should. It is similar in scope to the First Commandment. We love God with all that we are and our neighbor as ourselves. In this case the statement is narrowed. We have faith in Jesus as our guide, our Lord, and the one we are to follow. We study him, talk about him, and seek to be like him in all that we do, trust in him, and allow him to be that which we follow. The second is similar to loving our neighbor yet narrowed a bit. We are to love each other – and at this point we are talking about this community of believers, this church. We are to love each other centered on the love we share in Jesus as Christ or Lord. That’s first in what unites us, first in what creates the community, first in what centers us as one Body. That’s as basic as it gets.
He then writes, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.” Notice that this relationship between God and Jesus is significant. Jesus as “walker of the earth, teacher, healer, messiah and savior is one who followed God, followed God’s Laws, God’s expectations, God’s expansion of God’s kingdom. We are to seek to do the same. If we seek to do the same there are things that will take place in our lives as individuals and as a community. We will be given a spirit of wisdom and things will be revealed to us that we would not have otherwise seen. They will come to us as we study together, live together, agree and disagree together, worship and pray together – “as we come to know him” and seek to follow him. It is a beautiful description of what the church is designed to be.
Then come these words – further definition of what we are to be, “That, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.” Beautiful description centered on “heart” and “hope” and one of the only places in scripture that this phrase is found. In other words, if we can work toward these things that define us, our eyes will move from our heads to our hearts, from being just hearers to hopers. We become those that live and do the acts of God in the world, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened. So we have faith in and seek to follow Jesus. We are to offer love toward the saints – that would be us here. The result is that we are to be given a gift by God and that gift is a spirit of wisdom (understanding, sensitivity, a new way of engaging the world). We will find hope as the eyes or our hearts are enlightened (awakened, or renewed). Finally this author adds one more element so that we understand that it isn’t about us or our power. He states that within this movement is also “the immeasurable greatness of God’s power for those who believe.” Combined, this all defines us.
Luke then takes us deeper. As we prepare to “do this in remembrance of me” we need to remember that what Jesus did, what we are preparing to remember is, as Luke states, both the result and the culmination or fulfillment of what we find in the Old Testament - the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, the completion of the words of the Prophets, and the completion of what is promised in the Psalms. How does this take us further, and to the table today? Luke states, “The Messiah (Jesus) was to suffer, then die, and then rise on the third day.” That fulfillment of suffering, dying and rising, according to the Law, opened the possibility of a different kind of relationship with God, and one that didn’t previously exist. No longer was it distant – through Jesus it became intimate and available. No longer was it centered on sacrificial animals offered at the Temple – but on daily choices in daily relationships. And as wonderful as all of this may sound, as much as it is given as a gift of grace, as much as it creates a possibility, there is one more statement that needs to be filled in here if we are to fully understand. It’s the set of actions we are to take. And like the spiritual practice I talked of last week, it isn’t easy. We are called to believe, repent, and accept the forgiveness offered to us by God, through Jesus Christ. Our lives are to change – from focus on self to focus on God. Pure and simple. The result – our lives change and the eyes of our hearts are enlightened.
What I’ve just described is as basic a description of Christianity as I know how to give. No matter our understanding of our Christian faith, most would agree the it begins and ends with Jesus. We go deeper as we are surrounded with a community who is also seeking to live this out; a community who will love us, support us, teach and hold us accountable to what we profess to be at our center. Within this community we are consistently reminded that we are not alone in this faith endeavor. God is here, working in us, offering hope, and revealing that desire to offer hope and health to all. We know that because of the gift of Jesus who lived his life in such a way as to teach how we are to live our lives. And let’s remember something more. I’ve talked of this often in this church. In his living, suffering, dying and rising we need to remember both aspects of his life and death. The message we find in the gospels isn’t just telling us the story of why he died – the atoning sacrifice I just described. We also have to talk about and study how he chose to live, and even why he was killed. As important as Jesus dying as sacrifice may be to many, if we miss the other element of life and conviction, we miss one major overlying priority and consistent message of the gospels – the “go and do likewise” aspects. His death and resurrection are what give us hope. It’s his life that gives us challenge and pause – and offer us opportunities for comparisons as we make daily choices about how we choose to live – then repent, ask forgiveness and become refilled and refocused for the work we are to do.
Now back to the table. This table is the reminder of each of the aspects I’ve described, a reminder of why he died and a reminder of why he was killed, a reminder of our relationship with God and our relationships with each other, a reminder of what could be the outcome of these relationships, and a reminder of what lay ahead. Yes, all of that in a loaf of bread and a cup. The bread reminds us of our dependence on God – “give us this day our daily bread,” sustenance that will keep us alive, growing, worshipping, living, trusting, and serving God and others. Bread was the staple of any diet which, like manna in the desert it kept people alive, and fulfilled God’s promise of provision. Bread was broken as a sign of fellowship. Bread is used metaphorically throughout the scriptures to mean a sharing in the kingdom of God, even Christ being shared by all. And the one loaf we break as we prepare represents Christ’s life, lived to show us how we are to live, and broken for us as a living sacrifice that creates a potentially new relationship with God. As we take in the bread we become strengthened by and united with Christ in this kingdom work. Remember, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life…”
And the cup reminds us of blood, shed. There is a movement in the greater church away from the blood aspects but let me mention some of those today. Like bread, blood is mentioned throughout the scriptures, and wine is used in many ways. These combine here at the table. For these ancient people, blood was the symbol of life, the seat of life’s power, even sacred and untouchable. Remember that sacrifices were offered first by the shedding of the blood. It was poured over the altar as a sign of the potential for new life, an ongoing, un-separated life with God. The sacrifice is what kept the relationship sound. Without it there would be separation. And for early Christians, the blood of Jesus was an essential element representing that atoning sacrifice for all humanity. It is what opened and created a new relationship with God. The cup became the symbol of that new relationship (new wine in new wineskins), a new covenant, with new possibilities for life beyond physical or even spiritual death. It very literally represented the new understanding, new relationship, and new or next covenant, a very real future relationship in God’s new kingdom – the power for new life in Christ. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from the (cup) that I shall give them will have within them a spring welling up to eternal life…”
And when combined and taken into our bodies, we become the incarnation of all of this, of what we was written by the author of Ephesians, by Luke’s description of the Messiah, of Jesus and how he chose to live, who he chose to serve, and even how he chose to die; of God and this ongoing relationship God seeks to have with us. We do this, like baptism, in and surrounded by a community – this First United Methodist Church community - bound together in love. By eating this bread and taking in this cup we are reminded to remember – to do this in remembrance of Jesus. And in doing this, we become centered again on the essentials of faith and the eyes of our hearts are opened again to the possibilities being placed before us for hope, and work, and love, and grace.
We gather in the center aisle as a community, share from the same plates and cups, and fully participate as members of this family – not alone, but as a part of this community of saints. Then we sit again, sing, and pray that what we’ve taken in – both physically and spiritually will strengthen and sustain us.
Friends, there are times when we just need a reminder of why we do what we do. This is one of those times – of Patricia returning from a very difficult General Conference, of all of us in this time of transition, as Paul and I move to other calls and others come here to serve you, of this being Big Sunday – a time of significant service to and for others - and of us gathering around this meal. So as you enter the aisle this morning, or are served where you are, or as you take this out to those homebound, remember that we walk the path toward this meal together, one after the other, each with the hope of our eyes being opened to the possibilities of faith which are made stronger in community. As you gather in the center, pray for the person in front of you, and the one behind you, and the one beside you – they are your sisters and brothers in this work. Pray for yourself as you journey forward. Take into yourself the love of God, the compassion of God, the work of God in the world, and re-center yourselves this morning for a week of God’s work in the world. Now, after Mike shares some great news, let’s prepare ourselves for this holy meal. Amen.
© Brad Beeman, 2008. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
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"Centering on Christ - The Bread & Cup"