Mcdonald's Mcdonald's Kentucky Fried Chicken And A Pizza Hut Series

Based on a sermon preached 2nd September 2001 at ST John’s Bethnal Green - preached with a few more visual images on 2nd June 2024 at St Barnabas Northolt

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When my kids were little there was a really annoying song that used to get played at the parties they went to -

[sing:]

A Pizza Hut a Pizza Hut Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut

A Pizza Hut a Pizza Hut Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut

McDonald's McDonald's Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut

McDonald's McDonald's Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut

What’s your favourite Takeaway?

(Take answers from multiple people)

Right - I want you to hold that thought - we are going to come back to it.

Lets Segway across to the theme of Sacrifice.

Tell me what you think of when you hear the word “sacrifice” ?

(Take several answers)

We talk quite a lot about sacrifice in worship

“The Sacrifice made once for all upon the cross”

“Almighty God we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we offer you our souls and bodies as a living Sacrifice”

“I will offer up my life in spirit and truth

Pouring out the oil of love, as my worship to you

In surrender I must give my every part

Lord, receive this sacrifice of a broken heart”

But what is all this language of Sacrifice about?

If you are an aficionado of Horror Movies or perhaps Indiana Jones movies - then perhaps you are thinking of some human victim [grab a member of the congregation and act out] tied to a stone altar as a pagan priest brings down a long knife to tear out a victims heart.

Or perhaps you think of it simply as a metaphor -

“Oh I sacrificed SO MUCH for my children when they were little”

Well when you are reading the bible - you need to think of something a wee tad less brutal than the first, but with quite a lot more gore than the second.

As may you know - before Jesus came along, at the heart of the Israelite religion was Sacrifice. The priest would take an animal - perhaps a Sheep [whip out toy of Shaun the Sheep] - and sacrifice it to God

The first of our Readings was from the letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians - who really deeply understood the Sacrificial System - and explains why now that Jesus has died on the cross we no longer need to take Shaun and his friends and sacrifice them.

The early Jewish Christians opened the book of Hebrews and they knew everything about sacrifice, so they immediately understood what this letter was on about. We don’t! Shaun here is very pleased about the fact that sheep don’t tend to get sacrificed anymore! Most of us have never seen an animal being sacrificed, so it is not obvious what it is all about.

Now for the bit of this sermon that follows - I am going to oversimplify massively! Any Old Testament Theologian is going to say {in elderly academic voice} - “Hang on - its more complicated than that”

But if you will forgive me, today we are just going to deal with the basics.

I am going to talk about the most important sacrifice of the year. The Sacrifice has two main functions

A) It deals with our sin

We have all done bad things – and those bad deeds deserve to be punished. But Shaun here takes our place. So when Shaun here is sacrificed {speaking to the Toy} “sorry mate” – that’s the punishment we deserve and our sins have been dealt with. Of course by the time we get to next year’s Passover, you and I have all committed more sins – so we need another sheep to sacrifice – year after year after year

B) And secondly its about Covenant

A covenant is an agreement between God and his people, and it is sealed by a meal together. You take the Lamb chops from the sacrifice- and part of it you burn as a way of offering it to got – and part of it you take home and eat as a special meal- the Passover Meal

The Passover meal reminds the Jewish people of how God historically rescued them from slavery in Egypt- and so by sharing a meal with God they renrew their relationship with him, renew their covenant with him

So the two sides to Sacrifice

1) You take Shaun and kill him and that deals with your sin

2) You take the meat from the sacrifice – and share a meal with God and renew your sacrifice.