Why Communion?
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Image: Nathan Hale Nathan Hale was a young man who had every prospect for a happy and fulfilling life. He was very well educated for his day—a Yale graduate in an era when very few went to college. He was vividly remembered and admired by his acquaintances even 60 years after his death. Accounts from classmates, friends, relatives, fellow soldiers, teachers, and students all say he was kind, gentle, religious, athletic, intelligent, good looking and as one contemporary testified, “the idol of all his acquaintances.” In 1775, Hale accepted a commission as 1st lieutenant in the Connecticut Regiment and later served under Washington as the commander of a ranger company whose mission was forward reconnaissance. One evening in September, 1776, Hale was captured as a spy. After making a “spirited speech” to those few who were there, the former schoolteacher and Yale graduate was executed by hanging—an extremely ignominious and horrible fate to one of his time and class. Upon his hanging, he spoke the words by which he was remembered, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”
The author Circian says about Hale: “An insignificant schoolteacher who never wrote anything important, never owned any property, never had a permanent job, never married or had children, never fought in a battle and who failed in his final mission—made history in the last few seconds of this life. And there is a familiar ring in the story of Nathan Hale, an echo from 1743 years prior. Jesus, who was kind gentle, religious, who never personally wrote anything important, had no where to lay his head, never married or had children, who in the world’s eyes failed at his final mission—made history in the last few seconds of his life. When we come to this table we remember the last moments of a dying man—“Christ Jesus, who died for us.”
Why communion? The very first thing we do in communion is remember. What do we to remember? We remember 3 things Jesus did at the Last Supper. First, Jesus took the bread. That act of taking or receiving calls us to remember the gift of God. Now bread is one of the most basic elements of the sustenance of life. As a matter of fact it is so basic to every part of the world that it is the first item your server places on the table, no matter where you are. For generations, it has been the staple of our diet. When my dad was in seminary, money was never in great supply. There was a large Bunny Bread factory across the street. And when the bread was just done baking you could smell it for miles, and that’s all you could think about. For a nickel he could buy a loaf of bread unsliced out the back door of that bread factory and then he would walk over to the Piggly Wiggly and buy a stick of butter, slit the bread, stick it in and then wrap it up and walk home to their dorm room apartment. And my parents feasted. Whenever Giovanna bakes bread, the dessert for that night is the first slice of bread out of the oven smothered with butter. And it just melts in your mouth and you cannot believe how wonderfully good it tastes. You know what that’s like. The focus is how wonderfully tasty this bread is.
Here’s the problem, you can begin to worship the gift rather than the giver. Bread is the gift but you can begin to focus on the gift rather than the one who gave the gift. And that can lead to worshipping the gift rather than worshipping the giver. You live to eat, that’s the danger, instead of eating to live. Everything in this world is a gift of God but sometimes we forget that and instead focus on the things of this world. That’s exactly what Satan tried to do with Jesus in his temptation in the wilderness. He him to take that focus, power and energy for his purpose and mission, and instead focus that on making bread and satisfying his hunger. And the same is true for us: we can spend so much of our time and energy on making bread and preparing and eating the bread instead of worshipping the God who gave us the bread in the first place. Slide with 3 Scriptures Jesus said, “People do not live by bread alone but every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils but for the food that endures for eternal life which the son of Man will give you.” John 6:27 I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” John 6:35 That is what we called to remember every time we come to this table. But it’s so tempting to do otherwise. We can focus on work and begin to worship work. We can focus on money, power and prestige and begin to worship that. But Jesus says No, no, no, no, I am the bread of life. I am the gift of God so when we come to this table, we see the gift of Jesus for us and remember that I don’t live by bread alone but by Jesus at the center of my life.
Image: feeding of the 4000. Now, not only do I remember God’s spiritual provision but I am reminded of God’s promise of physical provision as well. In Mark 6, Jesus and the disciples pull away for some time alone. But the people recognize them. Jesus then begins to teach the 5000 people gathered there and the dinner hour arrives. It was a remote place and they had no food to eat. The disciples bring their concern to Jesus. They want Jesus to send the people away to the surrounding towns to get their own food. But Jesus refuses saying, You give them something to eat! They protest. That would take 8 months worth of wages! So Jesus tells them to see what food they did have, 5 loaves and two fish, just enough to feed one or two people. And Jesus blesses the bread and they fed all the people and 12 basketfuls of leftovers were picked up. In Mark 8 Jesus is teaching 4000 people and they hadn’t eaten for 3 days. The disciples ask where in this remote place can we get enough to feed them? They say this to the one who is the bread of life and has already fed 20,000 before!
The disciples are focusing on what they don’t have. It’s amazing how easily the scarcity mindset can set in on us! The disciples get in the boat and they start fighting with each other. You didn’t bring the bread. That was your job. No I distinctly said that was your job. No it was yours. What are we going to do? Jesus turns to them and says, Why are you talking about having no bread. What did I just do? Verse 19, “When I broke five loaves for 5000 how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up. They fed over 26,000 people and they went around picked up 12 basketfuls of leftover from these 5 small baggettes. Jesus is reminding us that when you are relying on my provision, not only do you have enough to eat but you’ve got enough for leftovers. When I broke the seven loaves for the 4000, how many basketfuls did you pick up? Seven. And then he asks, Do you still not understand? Every time when I come to this table I need to keep my focus on the living bread, Jesus Christ, and I need to keep my life focused on his priority and his mission. Not only am I going to have what I need, there’s going to be such an abundance that there’s leftovers! But this wasn’t the first time this happened.
Slide: with image of Israelites and manna in the wilderness and the words, “Manna Economy.” Write down this word, manna economy. Ex 16 When the Israelites were following Moses out of Egypt to the land of promise, every day they got up and had this scarcity mentality. They would question why they left Egypt in the first place because at least there they had three square meals there. There’s something wrong with that! They you would prefer slavery and having three square meals a day rather than the adventure of living by faith in a God who created the universe and everything in it and as Jesus reminds us even feeds the birds of the air. So God said to Moses, “Moses, tell my people, that as long as they obey me, as long as they make me first in their lives and be about my priorities and my work, then I am going to reign manna from heaven. So many of us are still hungry in our culture because we keep focusing on bread that does not fill us up and satisfy. We spend most of our week focusing on bread that does not give life. And the promise of God is that when I come to this table and I make God’s priority my priority, then I am going to have abundance overflowing in my life. So every time I come to this table, I remember the gift and the promises which come with it. When I seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness then everything else is taken care of in my life. Deut 8:2-4
The second thing Jesus does is give thanks. That reminds me I need to have an attitude of gratitude. I need to give thanks for the magnitude of what God has done for me in my life. There are 3 things I need remember to be grateful for. Slide: Image of Jesus on the cross. The first is Jesus’ sacrifice. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, a man would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. He did this out of gratitude. Image: Captain Eddie Rickenbacker with white hair Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life. Somewhere over the South Pacific his plane became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five and the biggest shark 10 feet long. But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. “Then the pilot, Captain William Cherry “read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off. Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food…if I could catch it.” Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically 100’s of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. Captain Eddie made it and he never forgot. So every Friday evening, about sunset on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast you could see an old man walking white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls…to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle…like manna in the wilderness.” When we come to the table, we are to remember one who gave his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world and for me…and give thanks.
Second, we need to be grateful for Jesus’ resurrection in my life. Sometimes we need to recognze where we would be without Jesus’ resurrection. I know this: I would not have been any kind of blessing to other people. All of life would have been about me, my toys and my wants. If I don’t remember gratitude for Jesus’ resurrection in my life every time I come to this table and receive the bread and this juice, then I will begin to take it for granted. I will begin to believe I don’t need it. I will begin to believe that I can do this thing called life on my own and then I am one day away from implosion. I need to remember the power of Jesus’ resurrection in my life.
The third thing I need to remember is the blessing of relationship that God has given me. Jesus changed the whole metaphor of relationship with God from temple to table. In the Methodist church we don’t have altars, we have communion tables. Acts 2 “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” It is around the table that relationships are formed and nurtured. So when we come to this table we need to recognize the relationship with God that it enabled and we remember the relationships around the table with each other that it encourages from the beginning of the church.
Image: Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was an enemy of the Nazis because he refused to go along with their idea of a church that practiced anti-semitism. In fact, he became a hunted man who upheld authentic Christian principles. As part of the German underground he was not safe to worship openly. During such dark times, Bonhoeffer came to know there was no other community and fellowship like that experienced within the Body of Christ. He said: "Baptism incorporates us into the unity of the Body of Christ, and the Lord’s supper fosters and sustains our fellowship and communion … in that Body". During the Nazi reign, Bonhoeffer was cut off from other believers, and it took a toll on him. Donald LaSuer says "Bonhoeffer’s painful discovery is instructive for us. Cut off from the nurturing fellowship of other Christians, he felt a deeper hunger for the fellowship that was no longer available to him. Like a hungry man who knows the taste of bread though he can no longer reach and break from the loaf, he knew the power of fellowship when it was painfully absent". From this experience Bonheoffer wrote, “God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother/sister, in the mouth of a man/ woman. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him/her. He/she needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying their truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ.”
Slide with quote Bill Hybels puts it this way, “The Bible says true fellowship (or relationship around the table) has the power to revolutionize lives. Masks come off, conversations get deep, hearts get vulnerable, lives are shared, accountability is invited, and tenderness flows. People really do become like brothers and sisters.” We not only come to the table being thankful for our personal relationship with Christ but for the relationships we have in the body of Christ through which our relationship to Christ is lived out.
Third, remember we are called to a life of relevance. The third thing Jesus did with the bread was he broke it. The reason you break it is to be able to pass it around and share it with others. It is a reminder of when we come to this place I do not just eat for myself so that I can focus on my needs, desires and dreams but rather I eat so that I might be able to share and serve others. Jesus breaks the bread and it is a metaphor of his body which will be broken for us. But I also believe that when we come to Jesus and His table, we become broken too. The reason we are broken is so that we might move away from a life focused on ourselves and instead a life focused on others. The purpose of life is to be generous. Jesus makes my life count because he gives me purpose and that is to be generous by serving others. In a world which easily leads us to focus only on ourselves, our needs and our desires, we are called to be relevant to the world, in other words, to be of service to the world. Jesus is our example of how to live and truly worship God with our lives. We now have a critical role to meet the needs and minister to the pain of others. We are no longer consumers but rather contributors to the world.
Greed is the cancer of the human spirit. And it is the seed of human distrust. What do we fear: that there’s never going to be enough. Yet our God is the God of abundance. God is the God of the banquet. The fruit of greed is gluttony and hording. What is gluttony? Today in our world, 30,000 children died of starvation and 60% of Americans suffer from obesity. That is gluttony. Hording is when I keep resources other people need to live. Hording is when we keep more resources than we need when others are struggling just to survive one more day.
Now when I come to this table, I remind myself that I am committed to generous living. Discipline is moderation in all things generosity means that I am responsible for the resources God has given me not to consume all of the bread but to break it down and pass it around. For we are the community, the body of Christ from which the world eats. From one loaf of bread we all partake which is broken down to feed the world. That I why we take a special offering each time we receive communion, to remind us we have been blessed so we might be a blessing. So that you and the church can be there when someone has a medical bill to pay, lights which are about to be shut off, a home that is about to be lost through eviction or a hunger because the cabinets and pantry are empty.
Communion is a reminder of the gift we have received in Jesus Christ. It’s a reminder that we need to come with an attitude of the gratitude for the magnitude of what God has done in my life, is doing and has promised He will do. And it is a renewed commitment to a lifestyle of generosity and humble servanthood. Slide 1 Cor 11:27-28 , So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
Roger Rose tells the story of when he was a boy more than 60 years ago. A dirt road ran alongside their house, and only on rare occasions would there be a car on it. But one day as his brother was crossing the road on his bike, a car came roaring over the hill, and he was run over, killing him instantly. Later, when my dad picked up the mangled, twisted bike, I heard him sob out loud for the first time in my life! He carried it to the barn and placed it in a spot we seldom used. Father’s terrible sorrow eased with the passing of time, but for many years whenever he saw that bike, tears began streaming down his face. Since then I have often prayed, ‘Lord, keep the memory of your death that fresh in me! Every time I partake of your memorial supper, let my heart be stirred as if it occurred only yesterday. Never let the communion become a mere formality, but always a tender and touching experience.’
