Luke 22:14-20
“A Meal to Share Around the World”
On the first Sunday in October, many Christian Churches across the world celebrate what is called “World Communion Sunday.”
And so, this year, that is today.
World Communion Sunday is set apart to try and demonstrate how all Christian Churches, no matter what denomination or non-denomination they are—are interconnected…
…share something very special…
…something that is at the heart of our faith.
When Jesus wanted to give His followers a way of understanding what was about to happen to Him, He didn’t give them a theory.
He gave them, and thus—US—an act to perform.
He gave them a meal to share.
And it’s a meal that speaks more volumes than any theory could.
Meaning, the best way to find out what it says is, of course, to do it.
When we take Holy Communion we do it to celebrate the GREATEST GIFT ever Given to Humankind—The Gift of Jesus’ life for the salvation of the world.
It is something Jesus has commanded us to do…
…like other commandments such as “Love one another” or “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
Or as Christ did on His final night on before His Crucifixion, “He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to [His disciples], saying, “This is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me.”
In other words, “Do this and it will cause you to remember me.”
Jesus knew how easily the human mind forgets.
And if you are anything like me, it seems as if time wipes just about everything out…like a sponge on a chalkboard.
Jesus was basically saying, “In the rush and stress of your life you will forget me.”
Can any of us relate?
We forget because that’s the way the brain works, not necessarily because we want to.
So Jesus is saying, “Come together in as my Family and do this again and again and again with your brothers and sisters, sons and daughters—and you will remember.”
Somewhere deep in the human brain is neurological link between food and memory.
Many of us have “food triggers”—distinctive tastes or smells that immediately carry us back to another time.
Maybe these favorite foods were prepared by someone special to us…or maybe they remind us of where we used to live.
When we eat these foods, the memories come flooding back and we taste a kind of joy!
The seasons do this for me as well.
How about you?
(pause)
We come into this life from out of the presence of God, and when we leave this earth, we return—by God’s grace—to heaven.
But there is a way in which we can be said to live our entire lives in a haze of forgetfulness.
A famous biblical scholar once said that one of the most important things in being a Christian is “to practice memory in a world of amnesia.”
The Lord’s Supper is a very important way, a command Jesus has given us, so that our consciousness will come alive to the reality that there is a world beyond this one—the world that is Most Real.
We came from that world and we return to it through faith in the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
(pause)
Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived at the same womb.
Weeks passed by and the twins began to develop.
And as their awareness grew, they laughed with joy and said, “Isn’t it great that we were conceived!
Isn’t it great that we are alive!”
The twins explored their world together.
And they found their mother’s cord that gave them life, and they sang for joy: “How great is our mother’s love that she shares her own life with us!”
Weeks stretched into months, and the twins started to notice just how much each of them were changing.
“What does this mean?” one twin asked the other.
“It means that our stay in this world is coming to an end,” the other twin said.
“But I don’t want to go.
I want to stay here forever!” the first twin replied.
“We don’t have a choice,” said the other.
“But maybe there is life after birth,” the other one said.
“No, we will shed our cord. How is it possible that we will live without it?” asked the other.
“Besides, we’ve seen evidence of others who have come before us and gone on.
Yet none of them have come back to show us that there is life beyond.
No, this is the end.”
And so the other twin fell into a deep despair saying, “If life ends at birth what’s the purpose of the womb?
It’s meaningless!—Maybe there’s no mother after all.”
“But there has to be,” the other protested, “how else did we get here?
And how do we stay alive?”
“Maybe she’s just a figment of our imagination.
Maybe we made her up, because the idea made us feel good,” the first twin said.
And so, their last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and a lot of fear.
Finally, the moment of birth arrived!
And when the twins had passed on from their world, they opened their eyes and cried…
…for what they saw exceeded their greatest expectations!
(pause)
Jesus has given us an act to perform; a meal to share.
And it is something we have in common with other believers ever where and at all times throughout history and beyond.
In John’s Gospel we see that before this meal, Jesus prayed that all of us who believe—whether we be black, white, yellow, brown…
…whether we live in the United States or Canada or Russia…
…whether we are male or female, rich or poor, slave or free—you name it—this meal makes us one with each other and one in Christ!
And when Jesus prayed for us before the Last Supper He prayed that we would ALL be ONE just as He and the Father are One—
--as Jesus prayed, “I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Well, we have a long way to go in order to live-into Jesus’ prayer for us.
The divisions in the Church, the inability of us to love one another despite our differences and different ways of understanding things—this is a horrible sin.
“A new command I give you,” Jesus said before the meal as well, “Love one another.”
“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
This seems to be the most important thing we can do.
As John Wesley, the Founder of the Methodist Church once said, “Even if we cannot all think alike.
Can we not all love alike?”
That is something to think about and ponder on this World Communion Sunday, when the Church is so rattled over disagreements and the world looks on in disgust.
(pause)
Jesus has given us an act to perform, a meal to share.
Here in this place, with these people, we are to remember!
We are to remember that there is more to this life than meets the eye…and no we don’t understand it all…
…and no, we aren’t expected to understand it all, as Paul puts it so eloquently in 1Corinthians Chapter 13, but we are to remember and to love one another as Christ loves us—unconditionally, without prejudice.
And we are called to remember that God’s plan of salvation for the world means that we come together in love…eating the bread, drinking the cup—finding our lives through His death!
The powers of evil do rage, but they have ultimately been defeated and our rescue is secure.
There is something both human and divine about coming together to experience this sacrament.
“Do this in remembrance of me,” says our Lord.
And as we go about these everyday actions of eating and drinking, we know—in a way that can’t really be put into words—that Jesus’ REAL PRESENCE is here with us.
“Do this in remembrance of me,” Jesus teaches us.
And so we shall.
