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.
Now we move to Jesus
And we have Jesus sacrificed on the cross
Under the old system we’d have a sacrifice to take away our sins – and we would keep on sinning and we would have to have lots and lots and lots of sacrifices to take away our sins
As Hebrews 9.23 puts it “the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own”
But the message of Hebrews is that Jesus is different – he is such a perfect sacrifice that he takes away sin once and for . He takes all the punishment for all the sins that ever have been committed and ever will be committed . He has dealt with all of it
That’s why {Yes – you are Ok Shaun}when you come to church week after week you don’t see a bunch of sheep tied up waiting to be slaughtered. Its because we don’t need to any more because Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sins
End of story – or is it?
Macdonalds, Macdonalds, Kentucky fried chicken and a pizza hut
Lets go back to your favourite takeaways. [reprise what people said earlier]
According to their latest adds Macdonalds make burgers that when you hold them in your hands and smell them you go “MMMMM!” or perhaps for an earlier generation “I’m lovin it”. And KFC may make chicken that is “finger licking good”
Well MacDonalds and KFC and Pizza Hut can cook food in their kitchens.
You can look at the food.
You can smell it.
But there’s one more thing you have got to do with it…
{take the response from the congregation - EAT IT}
You see an important part of the a Sacrificial system was the feeding on the sacrifice. We might be going “Whaaat???” - but that was obvious to EVERYONE at the time of Jesus whatever their religion.
The local Romans in Corinth for example would have posh dinners at the Temple of Aphrodite - You know Black tie events - all the ladies in their fanciest ball gowns - and they would gather to share in these meals where they ate from the sacrifice.
That’s part of the controversy St Paul is addressing in 1 Corininthians chapter 10. Many of the Christians used to go to these posh dinners at Aphrodite’s Temple before they became Christians - hey these were great networking events, important for business. So they are still sneaking off there. And Paul goes {shaking head} “uh-uh!”
Therefore, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols…. 19What do I imply then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons……
It was obvious both to Romans and to Christians that the meal was part of the sacrifice. It is obvious also to Jews
Perhaps some of you have Jewish friends and you have been to a Passover meal? Even though the Romans destroyed the Temple and Jews can no longer have the sacrifices they used to have, they still continue the meal – a sign of its importance
The sacrificial meal is very important because
- It is sharing a meal with God
- And it is taking on board the benefits of the sacrifice
The lamb died so that you might e forgiven so by eating its flesh you take on board that sacrifice for yourself. As St Paul writes in 1 Cor 10:18 18Consider the people of Israel;* are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?
So if its obvious to Pagans, and it is obvious to Jews, surely it should be equally important to us? Yes?
Sacrifices are just as important to us!
This is the point where Shaun panics and hides and you start looking around for the knife and the blood. “Don’t worry Shaun – you are safe – the OLD style of sacrifices are out the window!
Hebrews 13 9-10
9it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by sacrificial foods - which have not benefited those who live by them. 10We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent (ie the Temple) have no right to eat.
The Old style of sacrifices are just not good enough any more –
The altar Hebrews talks about is the cross- where as St Paul puts it in 1 Cor 5:7 “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed”
Under the old system it was {act out} Kill ! Kill! Kill! Kill! And it was never good enough. There are still religions around today – which may not use literal sacrifices – but essentially tell you to strive and strive and strive because you can never be sure you have been forgiven.
Christianity offers you hope – whatever you have done, and however much you struggle to stop doing it, your forgiveness is assured. The price has been paid
10We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat.
On that altar of the cross, Jesus sacrificed himself – he gave up his life so that you and I could be forgiven. A once for all sacrifice.
You remember how I said there were two parts of the sacrifice – the death and the meal. We have a once, never to be repeated, death of Jesus Christ on the cross to take our sins away. But how do we eat from that altar of the Cross?
That is what communion is all about.
St Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 is quite clear that what we do when we eat in communion is the Christian equivalent to what pagans do when they eat of the Sacrifice to Aphrodite, or what Jews do when they eat the sacrificial lamb at the Passover meal
16The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18Consider the people of Israel;* are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?
[And…]
what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons……
A death on its own in a sacrifice is not enough – you have to share in the meal!
So how do we share in the meal of Jesus’s sacrifice? How do we eat of the “altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat”?
{holding up MacDonalds box} - Communion is the TakeAway Meal from the altar of the cross
Well – on the night before he died, Jesus gave us detailed instructions –
It was a Passover meal and Jesus took the bread and the wine [take!}
He said “This is my body broken for you” {break it}
And said
“this is my blood of the new covenant” – remember what we said about covenant?
“blood of the new covenant shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin”
Jesus is saying that the bread and the wine are to take the place of the Lamb in the new meal.
We’ll come back to how it works in a second. But remember – in the old sacrifice you ate the Lamb and that was how you shared in a meal with God and got the benefits of the sacrifice for yourself. In the new system, you take the special bread and special wine and through eating it we can share a meal with God and receive the benefist of the death of Jesus
As St Paul says “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, therefore let us keep the feast”
And
16The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
{picking up song book and singing:}
“So We share in this bread of life
And we drink of his sacrifice
As a sign of our bonds of love
Around the tabel of the king
The blood that cleanses every stain of sin
Shed for you: drink and remember
He drained deaths cup that all may enter in
To recieve the life of God
So We share in this bread of life
And we drink of his sacrifice
As a sign of our bonds of grace
Around the table of the king (1)
All this shows is how important communion is. This is where you and i get to share a meal with God himself. This is where you and I get to share the benefits of the fact that Jesus died for us. Thats how special communion is! But there is still a bit more to say.
You see, under the old system you had lots and lots of sacrifices and after every meal you could take the meal from the sacrifice and eat it.
But under the new system we only have one single sacrifice - the death of Jesus - a death that does not need to be repeated
But since we continue to sin, how do we continue to receive the benefits of the sacrifice? We continue to eat of the meal. Day after day, week after week we have the mass.
I want you to imagine the MOST enormous Pizza ever cooked. Can you imagine that? What flavour is it? {take an answer}
Now its so big - you are not going to just put it in one Pizza box (hold up one Pizza box) Not just two Pizza boxes - but LOADS of Pizza boxes
{handing out pizza boxes} - you and some of your friends eat from it in one venue
{handing out another pizza box}you and some of your friends eat from it in another venue
{handing out another pizza box}you and some of your friends eat from it in another venue
Now even though you are eating in many different venues - how many Pizzas are being eaten? [take answer - just one]
That’s why St Paul - even though he is sitting somewhere in what’s now modern Turkey can write to the Christians who are hundreds of miles away in Corinth in Greece and say “Though we are many we are one body - because we all share in the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17)
Just like you guys [point to people with Pizza boxes] may be eating in different venues but you are sharing in the same Pizza - so Christians worshipping in different places are sharing in the same meal, the same mass.
Now imagine this giant giant Pizza - your box is delivered first, and you and your friends start tucking in
Your box takes a bit longer to get to you - and then you and your friends start tucking in - then [to third lot] your box gets to you a while later {still magically fresh and hot} and you and your friends start tucking in.
Even though you are opening your boxes and eating at different times in different venues - how many Pizzas are being eaten?
[take answer - ONE!]
So whether we are sharing communion in a Church in England or in Punjab or in Poland or in Kenya or in Eritrea or in Barbados - whether it is Christians worshipping this morning or last year, or a hundred years ago or 500 years ago or back in the time of St Paul - how many different meals are there? [take answer - ONE!]
We may be eating in different places at different times, but we are still eating the same meal
“Though we are many we are one body - because we all share in the one bread”
How does it work?
In the bread and wine Jesus becomes present! It becomes the Body of Christ (that’s why we genuflect)
And its the very body of Christ on the Cross - its like a time warp. [“lets do the Timewarp agains”] The actual sacrifice of Christ on the cross is made present
As St Paul puts it “As we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim his death until he comes in glory”
The once for all sacrifice that happened 2000 years ago is made present in our church as Jesus becomes present- as the bread becomes the body of Christ
But now Hebrews adds a twist
“Through him (Jesus) therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name, and do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices God is well pleased
So do we or don’t we need to offer any more sacrifices? What is all this in Herews about offering a sacrifice of Thanksgiving?
[And what about the words in the mass where say “pray that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God”?]
Well we don’t offer any new sacrifice but we do share in the once for all sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
It all takes belief in the Body of Christ
There is the Body of Christ on the Cross
There is the Body of Christ the Bread
And there is the Body of Christ - his people
Question: Does Jesus have more than one body {answer - no}
The body of Christ on the cross
The body of Christ becoming present on that altar {pointing to it}
The body of Christ {pointing around congregation} that is the church
Its all just the same thing - Jesus only has one body!
Do you remember what Bishop Lusa said as he gave you the Body of Christ last week - “Recieve what you are: the Body of Christ”
[singing:}
“Here in this time, here in this place
Here we become what we receive
Here in this eucharistic feast” (2)
So when Christ becomes present, the actual sacrifice of Christ becomes present. In the mass we actually make that once and for all sacrifice present for us today
So when we become linked to him we become linked to his sacrifice.
We don’t offer chicken or sheep or goats or any other animals - rather we offer our very selves through him, through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross
As Hebrews puts it “Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. THROUGH him therefore let us offer God a sacrifice of praise.
Just as God takes the bread and wine we offer him and turns them into the Body of Christ, so he takes us, our very selves that we offer him and turns us into the body of Christ. And united to Jesus on the cross, THROUGH Jesus and IN Jesus and WITH Jesus, we offer our praise, our lives and our very selves, a “single holy living sacrifice”. Thats what offer on the altar. That’s we are doing here this morning. Thats what it is all about.
So pray my brothers and sisters that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God the almighty Father
And {holding up Macdonalds box}
Enjoy your takeaway!
{singing to tune of MacDonalds song}
"Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, The body of Christ, and its full of grace
Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, The body of Christ, and its full of grace"
Amen!
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(1) worship song by Stuart Townend
(2) "Here in this time, here in this place" - Worship song by Chris Muglia
