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Today we are starting a sermon
series talking about Holy Communion. I hope that this series will give us a
better understanding of what communion is, why we do it, and why we should want
to do it.
I’ve asked for you to send me
your questions and comments about Communion – things that confuse you or you
don’t understand; things you really like. I’ve seen a few responses, and I will
address those things. During this series, if you have questions, I want you to
ask them. I will answer and address some of these things over the next couple
of weeks, but then the last Sunday of August, I will spend some time directly
addressing questions you have as well as some common questions.
Our scripture for this series of
sermons comes from John’s gospel. The 6th chapter. This section is
called the “Bread of Life Discourse.” It is a section of teaching that follows
Jesus’ feeding of the 5000.
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John 6:24-35
24So when the
crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got
into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25When they
found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you
come here?” 26Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking
for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the
loaves. 27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that
endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him
that God the Father has set his seal.”
28Then they
said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29Jesus
answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has
sent.” 30So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then,
so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31Our ancestors
ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from
heaven to eat.’” 32Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not
Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the
true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and
gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35Jesus said to
them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and
whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. [1]
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Our reading takes place the day after Jesus fed a crowd of over
5000 people. That next day, the crowd went looking for Jesus, so they went back
to where Jesus had fed them. He wasn’t there, so they went looking for him.
When Jesus sees them, he tells them, “You’re only looking for me
because you’re hungry again.” And, well, they admit it. They are looking for
Jesus, for no other reason than they want more bread – or they want to see him
perform another miracle. Or they kind of ask him to teach them to multiply
bread.
Jesus tells them, “God gives you bread that gives life to the
world.” Now the crowd is intrigued. “Give us that bread! Give us that bread
always.”
Jesus tells them, “You are looking for bread? I am the bread of
life. I am the bread that satisfies completely.”
The crowd is looking for bread – physical, fill-our-bellies bread.
But Jesus, as Jesus often does, is not simply talking about the physical. He is
talking about the spiritual as well. The bread that satisfies our physical hunger
will be digested and go away. But he offers the bread of life – bread that
truly satisfies.
So, what does this have to do with Communion? First, it is this
idea of the physical and the spiritual. Holy Communion, along with baptism, is
one of two sacraments we practice. A sacrament is, according to the Book of
Common Prayer, “an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace,
given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.”[2]
This ties into this idea of the physical and the spiritual. A sacrament is a physical sign of spiritual change and empowerment brought by God’s grace. St. Augustine said that in a sacrament, “the physical likeness is seen, and the spiritual aspect is grasped through it.”[3] I heard it put this way once, “Sacraments use what is earthly to disclose what is heavenly.” In the sacraments, the physical helps us to see and understand the spiritual.
This ties into this idea of the physical and the spiritual. A sacrament is a physical sign of spiritual change and empowerment brought by God’s grace. St. Augustine said that in a sacrament, “the physical likeness is seen, and the spiritual aspect is grasped through it.”[3] I heard it put this way once, “Sacraments use what is earthly to disclose what is heavenly.” In the sacraments, the physical helps us to see and understand the spiritual.
The sacraments are more than simply signs, though. Our Book of Discipline calls sacraments
“certain signs of grace…by which [God] works invisibly in us.”[4]
In other words, they are a sign of what God is doing AND they are a means for
God to work in us. A sacrament is a physical thing, or a physical act, through
which God conveys spiritual grace to us. By grace, I mean the free, undeserved
gift of God’s love and God’s power.
God works through the sacraments – God works through Holy
Communion to impart grace – love and divine power – upon us. What happens in
Communion does not happen because we do it right or say the right things. What
happens, happens because of what God does.
Holy Communion is a sign or an indicator, a reminder of God’s
love, but it is also a means by which God’s love and grace are given to us.
Gayle Felton calls Communion a “channel by through which the undeserved and
unlimited love of God is made available to us.”[5]
John Wesley grouped the sacraments with what he called the Means
of Grace. He said the means of grace were “outward signs, words, or actions,
ordained and appointed by God, to be the ordinary channels whereby God might
convey preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.”[6]
Wesley thought of Communion as one of the chief means of grace. He described the Lord’s Supper as “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God.”[7] He wrote that Communion is “the food of our souls. This gives us strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection.”[8]
Wesley thought of Communion as one of the chief means of grace. He described the Lord’s Supper as “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God.”[7] He wrote that Communion is “the food of our souls. This gives us strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection.”[8]
Wesley believed in the effectiveness of Communion so much that he
would partake an average of 4-5 times per week.[9]
He believed that Christians should partake as often as possible and was known
to take Communion multiple times in one day.
One of the questions I received from a few people was, “Why do we
serve communion once a month?” Our tradition was born out of the Church of
England, the Anglican Church. The early Methodists were members of the Anglican
Church – including those in the American colonies. They would take Communion every
Sunday. This practice was established in the early church and continued through
most traditions into the 18th and 19th centuries.
How did we, in the Methodist church, get away from that? When the
American Revolution began, many of the Anglican priests returned to England. Communion
was only to be presided over by ordained clergy, and most Methodist preachers
in America were lay preachers. This meant that many American Methodists were
left longing for the sacrament. This led John Wesley to provide ordained elders
for America. When the Methodist Episcopal Church as formed, there was still a
lack of clergy. Preachers known as Circuit Riders served most churches. They
served multiple churches and typically visited a church only quarterly. This
meant that churches typically observed Communion quarterly.[10]
Even though, today, most churches are served by ordained, commissioned, or licensed pastors (who can preside over the Sacraments), weekly observance of Communion never returned to normal practice. That is unfortunate. It is, after all, the “food of our souls!” It is a means to God’s divine grace. It is one of the ways, the “grand channel” by which, we “receive, live in, and grow in divine grace.”[11] We should long to have that experience as often as we can.
Even though, today, most churches are served by ordained, commissioned, or licensed pastors (who can preside over the Sacraments), weekly observance of Communion never returned to normal practice. That is unfortunate. It is, after all, the “food of our souls!” It is a means to God’s divine grace. It is one of the ways, the “grand channel” by which, we “receive, live in, and grow in divine grace.”[11] We should long to have that experience as often as we can.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to examine the many
spiritual benefits of Communion. This morning, I want to offer a quick overview
of the many meanings of Holy Communion that help us understand the ways it
benefits us.
A few years ago, the United Methodist Church published a document
called This Holy Mystery. This
document offers our understanding of Holy Communion. That understanding
includes 6 major ideas that help us understand the meaning of the sacrament.
Those are thanksgiving, fellowship, remembrance, sacrifice, the action of the
Holy Spirit, and eschatology.[12]
Communion is first an act of Thanksgiving. We come together to celebrate and give thanks for God’s love and God’s past, present, and ongoing action in our lives. We celebrate God’s acts – creating, redeeming, sustaining, perfecting. The ritual we use is a prayer of thanksgiving. It is called The Great Thanksgiving, and it offers thanks for all that God has done and continues to do in and through us.
Communion is first an act of Thanksgiving. We come together to celebrate and give thanks for God’s love and God’s past, present, and ongoing action in our lives. We celebrate God’s acts – creating, redeeming, sustaining, perfecting. The ritual we use is a prayer of thanksgiving. It is called The Great Thanksgiving, and it offers thanks for all that God has done and continues to do in and through us.
Communion is also an act of fellowship. It is not an individual
ritual – it is the gathered community of faith. It is personally meaningful,
but it is a sharing. As we gather around the table, we gather as the assembled
Body of Christ.
In Communion, we remember – but it is more than an intellectual
recalling of past events. It is a re-presentation of God’s past works. In a
way, we relive what God has done for us.
One of the things we remember is Christ sacrifice for us. We
remember Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that make God’s ace available to
us. We also offer ourselves as a “living sacrifice” to be used by God for the
continued redemption of creation.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is active in Holy Communion. The
Holy Spirit is the continuing, continuous presence of Christ in the world. It
is the action of the Holy Spirit that conveys grace to us. It is the Holy
Spirit that makes Christ’s presence real in the elements of Communion. It is
the Holy Spirit that joins us with Christ and one another in ministry.
Communion is eschatological. Eschatology is one of those big
churchy words. It means having to do with the end of history – the redemption
of all of creation. I love this statement from This Holy Mystery, “To
participate is to receive a foretaste of the future, a pledge of heaven.”
This morning as we join to experience the physical and the spiritual
in Holy Communion, I invite you to watch for these things. I invite you to
experience them as if for the first time. Christ invites you to come and to
partake of the Bread of Life.
[1] New Revised Standard
Version, ©1989
[2] The Book of Common Prayer, p. 857
[3] The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Volume 5; p. 17
[4] The Book of Discipline of the UMC ¶104, Article XVI
[5] Felton, Gayle – United Methodists and the Sacraments, ©2007; p.
13
[6] Wesley, John – "The Means of Grace"; I.1
[7] Wesley, John – "Sermon on the Mount-Discourse Six";
III.11
[8] Wesley, John – "The Duty of
Constant Communion"; I.3
[9] This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion,
p. 5
[10] Ibid., p. 6
[11] Ibid., p. 7
[12] Ibid., p. 8
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