People of the Chalice
Matthew 26: 26-29
Priscilla Larson, of Lexington, Massachusetts, tells of the time her brother-in-law (a preacher) had been away from home one afternoon donating his blood at the Red Cross.
The preacher’s son was a little concerned when his father didn’t come home by the time he usually did, and the boy asked his mother, “Is Dad going around visiting all the sick people?”
His mother replied, “No honey, he’s giving blood.”
He paused in thought for a moment and then said: “But we know it’s really grape juice, don’t we Mom?”
APPLICATION: As Disciples of Christ we’re people of the chalice. Every Sunday we come to worship and in Christian fellowship we gather at this table to partake of the Lord’s Supper as it was commanded of us so long ago. The weekly Eucharistic experience is what makes the Disciples of Christ unique, among mainline Protestant denominations, yet rarely will you hear sermons about it I don’t know about you, but that bothers me.
So on this beautiful Sunday morning when our two families have come together to celebrate our Lord’s presence in His church, I wanted to share with you some thoughts on Communion and what it should mean for all of us.
POWER IN SMALL THINGS: I think its kind of cool how God uses the small, simple things of life to demonstrate his power. Like the preacher’s kid who associated blood with grape juice, the idea of using grape juice each Sunday should help us remember that it was through Christ’s blood that we are washed and completely cleansed by our sins. It is also by partaking of the bread that we remember that Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. When we eat of this bread, which represents His flesh, we will live forever.
Jesus Himself gave us two commands, two ordinances that we must do – Baptism and Communion. Both baptism and communion are vital to our cleansing, reconciliation, and healing. Jesus calls us to commune with Him and with each other because HE KNOWS WE NEED IT! Otherwise He wouldn’t have commanded us to do it. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?
Yes it is, but unfortunately many folks believe that they shouldn’t commune because they aren’t worthy.
ILLUSTRATION: The story was told about the Scottish Theologian John Duncan of New College in Edinburgh. At communion one Sunday, when the elements came to a sixteen-year-old, she suddenly turned her head aside. She motioned for the deacon to take the cup away, that she couldn’t drink it.
Well, Duncan reached his long arm over to her, touched her shoulder and said to her, “Take, lassie, it’s for sinners.”
APPLICATION: You and I know all of this. Communion is for all Christians who are in the process of being perfected in Jesus Christ. It is the food that sustains us until His second coming. The question is, do we really believe this?
OBEDIENCE: Did you know that this isn’t just a New Testament concept, but an Old Testament concept as well? It is said that in the Old testament God placed His wrath not on individuals but on nations. On the other hand, His deep desire to heal and love always reached out to individuals. Sometimes they would listen to God and were obedient to what He commanded them for their own good, other times they didn’t and they were the worse for it.
THE STORY OF NAAMAN AND ELISHA: Turn with me to 2 Kings 5 and let’s read this together:
2 Kings 5
1
Na’aman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2
Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little maid from the land of Israel, and she waited on Na’aman’s wife.
3
She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Sama’ria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
4
So Na’aman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the maiden from the land of Israel."
5
And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments.
6
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Na’aman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."
7
And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."
8
But when Eli’sha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."
9
So Na’aman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the door of Eli’sha’s house.
10
And Eli’sha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean."
11
But Na’aman was angry, and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.
12
Are not Aba’na and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
13
But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, ’Wash, and be clean’?"
14
So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Here are some things I’d like for you to consider in this little story.
First, Na’aman came to Elisha’s house to be cured. He came to Israel with great wealth, representing the power of the king of Syria, and now he comes to Elisha’s house with great earthly power and might expecting a miracle.
Does Elisha meet the commander? No a messenger does. Can you imagine the insult? He expected Elisha come to him. After all he was pretty important wasn’t he. He wanted Elisha to call out to the God in his presence and be healed.
Next, Elisha’s message made him even angrier. What? You want me to do what? Dip myself in the Jordan River seven times?? (By the way what number in Jewish gamatria indicates God’s completeness or fulfillment of all things??? That’s right 7) I mean, I could take a bath in the rivers of my own country why should I do something as weird as this? You mean to tell me that something as simple as water will clean my body? What are you crazy???
And then the servant tries to calm his master down. You’ve just got to love the servant. Here he has the military commander – a warrior with all his weapons madder than all heck, and he’s trying to calm him down!
The servant pretty much says, “look, if the prophet would tell you do something for something big you’d do it right? Well this is small stuff so don’t sweat it, go ahead and do what he says. After all what can you lose?”
Well, Naaman baths in the Jordan seven times and he is healed. Not only was he healed, but scripture says that his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.
So if you want to be healed, if you really want to be cleansed of your sin, you must come to the table. Oh, and by the way, you’ve also must go to the River Jordan to be baptized.
Na’aman’s problem was that he couldn’t believe that a simple thing like water could cleans him. Well in all fairness in a way he was correct. It wasn’t the substance of the water that healed him, but the power of God that inexplicably was given him through obedience. And you’ll notice that it wasn’t because he had the greatest faith in the world, but with just a little faith God can do miracles.
HOPHI, PHINEHAS AND THE ARK OF COVENANT:
Unfortunately, being imperfect people we can go the other extreme and believe that this bread and this fruit of the vine is like some sort of amulet that will ward off evil. Like something advertised in the National Enquire, it will protect us from terrible illnesses, plague, financial debts all those nasty things you see on the news broadcasts on television.
That’s what happened in the story of Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas and the Ark of the Covenant.
1 Samuel 4
1
And Samuel’s word came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek.
2
The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield.
3
When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies."
4
So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
5
When the ark of the LORD’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook.
6
Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, "What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?" When they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp,
7
the Philistines were afraid. "A god has come into the camp," they said. "We’re in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before.
8
Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert.
9
Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!"
10
So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.
11
The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
You see, Hophni and Phinehas got it all wrong. You just can’t contain God in a box it’s impossible. But you can contain God in your heart. That’s why for YAWEH it wasn’t a big deal that the ark fell into the hands of the Philistines. And when God became incarnate in the Son, the temple would be rendered useless. No longer would there be a need to offer sacrifices in the temple, Jesus would be the perfect sacrifice, a spotless, unblemished atonement for our sins. That’s what we celebrated this morning. The bloodless sacrifice made once and for all so that we may be reconciled to God so that we would not have to do it for ourselves. Now that’s good news!
We as Disciples of Christ receive the bread and the cup each Sunday to remember and live God’s love with Him and with each other. It is not the bread nor is it the cup that saves us, but his redeeming love.
The Greek word koinonia is a beautiful word because it means communion. In his First Letter to the Corinthians 10:16 Paul asks:
“The cup of blessings which we bless, is it not communion in the blood of Christ? The loaf which we break, is it not communion in the body of Christ? Because we are one love, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one loaf.”
In Greek the words are, eis artos, en soma – One loaf, one body. This is why we have joined together today, to be one loaf, one body – may we never lose heart but persevere in our love for Christ and for each other. Koinonia means much more than what we experience at this table in Holy fellowship, koinonia is also what we share with others. Koinonia is the willingness to go where God sends us even though it might be our of our idea of what’s logical. Koinonia is the willing to say no to our agendas and say yes to Christ.
If we as Disciples really understand what the kononia or communion experience is all about then we will know that it doesn’t reside just here in our sanctuary but extends itself out to our homes, to our schools, to our society.
In the weeks and months ahead let us examine ourselves so that we may not eat and drink in an unworthy manner. Let’s us receive these simple things with simple hearts – with humility and patience. And let us love one another as Christ loves us.
Amen.
