Something special is about to happen this morning. Something miraculous. Paul in chapter 10 of this same letter calls it a "participation in the body and blood of Jesus Christ." We know it as communion. As we take a piece of bread and cup of juice, we will be participating in a mystery. Something wonderful is going to happen - but only if you are looking for it. The Lord's Supper is not a passive event. It is active. And it requires each of us to enter into a new type of seeing. A seeing that comes not from physical eyes, but from spiritual ones. Paul, in I Corinthians 11:23-34, reminds us that if we would eat and drink this Supper to our benefit, we must be looking in four directions. In communion, we must be looking back, looking ahead, looking within and looking around. And when we are able to look at the sacrament in that way, we will experience the grace of God.
The first look we must take is a look back. The heart of communion is found in the words of Jesus: "...do this in remembrance of me." In the Lord's Supper we are called to look back to the death of Jesus on the cross. A sacrificial death for us. "For it is while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us." We must never forget that a terrible price was paid so that we might come to this table to receive food for our souls. The bread and the cup are to be ever-present symbols of the body and blood of Jesus offered up for us. Any true celebration of communion must begin with a look back to the self-sacrifice of Christ.
Yet we do not, as someone has said, "walk around a monument and admire it." No, we confess that this same Jesus who died for us; has been risen for us and will return from glory for us. Paul reminds us that we are to proclaim Jesus' death in bread and cup "until he comes." The second look of communion needs to be a look ahead. This is not merely a feast of remembrance; it is a feast of hope. A sure hope that one day soon, our Lord and Savior will come with the shout of the archangel and the trumpet blast and take us home. Home to that place where we will hear the words of John's Revelation ring true: "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb." You see the meal which we celebrate today is merely a foretaste - a glimpse of that glorious banquet to come when Jesus comes again. The bread and the juice should serve only to whet our appetites for the feast waiting for us at the King's table. As we partake by the power of the Holy Spirit today may our eyes look ahead to that joyous time to come.
Now there is a third look that is essential if we are to partake of this Supper to our comfort. We must look within. Paul writes: "A man or woman ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup." We need to look at our lives as we prepare to receive the Lord's Supper. Our thoughts, our attitudes, our motives and our sinfulness needs to be exposed to the light of God's love. The prayer of David in Psalm 51 must become our own: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." The story is told of a communion service in Scotland, where the pastor noticed a young woman who refused to take either the bread or the cup from the serving elder and merely sat there weeping. So the pastor left the table and went to the woman's side and said to her: "Take it, my dear, it's for sinners!" That's right! It is for sinners- it is for us. You see, the apostle Paul does not say we must be worthy to receive the Lord's Supper. Rather, he admonished us not to take it in an unworthy manner. An unexamined heart finds little welcome at the Lord's table. But a heart broken and contrite is given a seat of honor next to the master of the banquet. Anyone who wishes to be worthy of the Lord's table must look within and bring what they find to the one who removes every stain.
There is a final look that rounds out the mystery of the Lord's Supper. Looking back, looking ahead and looking within are useless to us unless we take time to look around. The very name - Communion - negates any individual partaking. We cannot celebrate this sacrament in isolation. It is not only just between me and God; it involves my fellow believers. We must, Paul tells us, take time to "recognize the body of Christ." And who is the "Body of Christ" if not the person sitting next to me? The person in the next pew. The person across the way. As we pass the bread and cup to one another, we who are many become one. During the week we may be students, teachers, farmers and retirees - but for at least one moment, all that might separate us is put aside as we gather as a family around the table of our heavenly Father. Frederick Buechner puts it wonderfully when he writes: 'To eat this particular meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic humanness, which involves our need not just for food but for each other. I need you to help fill my emptiness just as you need me to help fill yours." The Lord's Supper reminds us that we need each other. We need each other for prayer, for encouragement, for forgiveness and for love. As we hand the cup and bread to the person next to us, we need to look at them for who they really are. They are a person for whom the Son of God would dare to die. And when they look back they should see the same in you. If we are so important to God, we should treat each other that way as well. In communion, we are invited to look around and see our true family. To look around and love - as the Father has loved us.
The book and later the film "Babette's Feast" is a powerful story of what can happen when our eyes are open to the table of grace. This short story tells of two unmarried Scandinavian sisters, raised by their stern father, a pastor of a small group of believers. They were taught from an early age to deny all earthly pleasures. Now late in life, they give shelter to a French refugee - Babette, a renowned chef. After Babette comes into an unexpected windfall, she decides to repay these sisters and the church that follows them by preparing an elaborate dinner. Something these people had never experienced. Suddenly they are forced to reconcile their cold and severe strand Christianity with the goodness of this bountiful table. Let author Isak Dinesen tell what happened next: "Of what happened later in the evening nothing definite can here be stated. None of the guests later on had any clear remembrance of it. They only knew that the rooms had been filled with a heavenly light, as if a number of small halos had blended into one glorious radiance. Taciturn old people received the gift of tongues; ears that for years had been almost deaf were opened to it. Time itself had merged into eternity...
The two old women who had once slandered each other now in their hearts went back a long way, past the evil period in which they had been stuck, to those days of their early childhood when together they had been preparing for confirmation and hand in hand had filled the roads around Berlevaag with singing. A brother in the congregation gave another a knock in the ribs, like a rough caress between boys, and cried out: "You cheated me on that timber, you old scoundrel!" The Brother thus addressed almost collapsed in a heavenly burst of laughter, but tears ran from his eyes. "Yes, I did so, beloved Brother," he answered. "I did so."
The old dean's flock were a humble people. When later in life they thought of this it never occurred to any of them that they might have been exalted by their own merit. They realized that the infinite grace of which General Lowen had spoken had been allotted to them, and they did not wonder at the fact, for it had been but the fulfillment of an ever-present hope. The vain illusions of this world had dissolved before their eyes like smoke, and they had seen the universe as it really is."
I love that last line: "The vain illusions of this world had dissolved before their eyes like smoke, and they saw the universe as it really is." What happened around that dinner table was nothing short of a miracle. A miracle of grace. A miracle that can be ours...If we take the time to look back, look ahead, look within and look around as we come to the Lord's table. Open wide the eyes of your soul and come for all things are now ready! Amen!
