"knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you"
1 Peter 1: 18-20
The cup, the bread, the cross are all wrapped up together during this Holy Week. Tonight, we are to focus on the cup and the bread, but we cannot do so without remembering the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for us.
Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. For you and for me. And to remember and to relive and to foretaste what is to come, He gave us this meal, this cup, this bread.
For us, the Lord’s Supper is at the same time a present event, a past even, and a future event.
It is a past event as it recalls to us the sacrifice Jesus made on the garbage heap outside the city gates of Jerusalem. His sacrifice was real. He died on a cross, between two criminals, at a place where the roman soldiers gambled for His clothes, where the thieves probably cursed their pain, where roman soldiers felt no pity, no remorse, no sense of guilt for what they had done.
This cup and bread bring into this moment all the pain of Mary as she watched her son die such a miserable death. This bread and cup bring back the cowardice of the disciples as they ran to the upper room away from the roman soldiers so the same fate would not become them. This bread a cup bringing back the words of Peter as he denied that he even knew that man on the cross.
From the cross, Jesus lifted our his arms and accepted all the sinfulness of human kind. On that cross on that hill far away, Jesus gave his body and blood for us.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was and is a saving act of a selfless person.
It is like the mother in the following story of the dramatic rescue of her child. Workmen were blasting rock in a quarry. One day after they had attached the fuse and retired to a safe place and gave the alarm they saw a three year old child wandering across the open space where danger threatened. Every passing second meant death was closing in on the child.
The workmen called to the child and waved their arms, but he only looked on their strange antics with amusement. No man dared run forward knowing the explosion was only seconds away. The child most certainly would have been killed, had not his mother appeared at this moment of crisis.
Taking in the situation at a glance she did what her mother’s heart dictated. She did not run toward her son or yell to frighten him. Instead, she knelt down, opened wide her arms and smiled for him to come. Instantly the child ran towards her. Shortly later the area shook with the force of the explosion, yet the child was safe in his mother’s arms.
We the children of God are safe in the arms of Christ on the cross of Calvary. This cup and bread bring into this present moment all that sacrifice he did for us, for you and me individually.
And that brings us to the present moment. As we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ we believe that Jesus is with, under, through and around the bread and wine. We believe that something very special happens in this present moment. Jesus, by his actions, not the pastor’s, comes to the bread and wine, and we partake in His saving act of sacrifice again in this moment.
In this moment Jesus comes to us through the cup, through the bread, and brings His life saving grace into our lives. it is his action, not ours. We don’t have to make ourselves right, or prefect to come to this table. We come as sinners to receive a meal that will bring forgiveness, and salvation, and grace into our lives as we deal with all in this world that reminds us we are not as God intended for us to be.
James W. Moore of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston tells a story about one of his minister friends.
His name is Tom and he does a fascinating thing each month. Even though he has an extremely busy schedule he still makes the time each month to go down to the homeless shelter in his city to work in their soup kitchen.
After the homeless people have been fed, he then invites them to join him in a service of Holy Communion and many of them will come with him to the little chapel in the homeless shelter. and join in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. They have shared soup together in the soup kitchen and then they come to share the bread and the cup together at the altar in the chapel.
One day, Tom had an unforgettable experience in the communion service. As he was moving down the altar serving communion, he came to a man kneeling there who looked like he had been out on the streets for quite some time.
The man looked up at Tom and whispered: "Skip me."
"What? Pardon me?" Tom said.
In a louder whisper, the man said again, "Skip me."
"Why?" Tom asked.
"Because," the man said, "I’m not worthy."
Tom said: "Neither am I." Then Tom added: "I’ll tell you what. I’m going to serve communion to these other people. Then, I’m going to come back and serve communion to you and then I would like you to serve it to me."
The man blinked and said to Tom: "Father, is that legal?"
"Yes, it’s legal; it’s beautiful and that’s what we are going to do!" Tom answered.
Tom went to the altar and served all the other people kneeling there. Then he came back to the reluctant man and said: "What’s your name?" And the man said, "Josh." Tom placed the elements of the Lord’s Supper before him and said:
"Josh, here is the Body of Christ and here is the Blood of Christ given for you. Eat this and drink this in the remembrance that Christ came for you and Christ died for you. Amen."
Josh blinked back the tears in his eyes. and he received Holy Communion. Then, Tom knelt and handed Josh the trays of bread and wine and said: "Now, you serve me."
Josh nervously took the trays and again he said: "Father, are you sure this is legal?"
"Yes, it’s legal. Just do it."
Josh’s eyes were darting from side to side as he looked over this shoulder and then the other. as if he expected (at any moment) the police, the FBI, the CIA or the Pope to come rushing in to arrest him.
Finally, he held the trays toward Tom and as Tom received the Sacrament Josh muttered: "Body - Blood - for you, Hang in There!"
Tom said later: "Of all the communion rituals I have ever heard, I don’t recall the words ’Hang in There’ in any of them. but at that moment for me, Holy Communion had never been more ’Holy.’
We come to the table in this present moment as sinners in need of the power of the cross to save our lives. We come to eat and to drink, to experience the power of Christ in our every day lives.
"this is my body given for you, " this is is my blood, shed for you".
And we come to the table to experience a foretaste of the feast to come. As we eat and drink, we have a taste of what the heavenly feast will be like when we shed these mortal clothes and live in the heavenly mansions.
There is a pastor that speaks about the foretaste in this way:
I enjoy eating -- too much, I guess. I enjoy stopping by the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon, just in time for samples in white pleated cups or on a tray bristling with colored toothpicks, displayed in all their finery by an aproned hostess at the end of a grocery aisle.
"They’re on sale today. Wouldn’t they taste good for dinner?" she suggests, hoping I’ll put some in my cart. Yes, the tasty sample does make me hungry for a feast tonight.
Sometimes, though, I get samples from a feast that’s already over. My wife comes home with leftovers from a women’s club potluck lunch. "It was really good," she says. "I thought you’d like some." I do! I do! And for a moment as I snack, I can almost imagine the full meal as it must have been, dish after dish, spread out buffet-style.
Sunday morning during the Lord’s Supper, as I partake of the bread and drink from the cup, I think about this as a small portion from the Feast. I savor the aftertaste of the bread on my tongue and the sweetness of the grapes on my lips, and I imagine.
I imagine partaking of the Passover feast, the Last Supper, along with the disciples. While I wasn’t there to be served personally, it’s like they saved some for me so I could have a taste and feel a part of the great fellowship of Jesus’ Table that now circles the world.
Or are the bread and cup a foretaste of a feast to come -- our fellowship at Christ’s Table in heaven? The Bible speaks of drinking the cup with Jesus in the Kingdom of God; of sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; of participating in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The tiny portion I taste on Sunday morning wets my appetite and reminds me of my personal invitation to this Feast.
It’s not much to eat, I suppose -- a wafer, a fragment of bread and a sip, just a sip. But it’s enough to recall who I am, who you are.. To realize how privileged we are to belong to the band of Jesus’ followers who are asked to eat of His body and drink of His blood. How privileged we are to know that our names appear on the guest list for the Great Feast to come.
"As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup," the Apostle tells us, "you proclaim the death of Jesus until he comes." Yes, it’s a pretty tiny portion of the Feast, but it’s enough for now. Quite enough."
So now I invite you if you brought bread and drink to the table as you listened to this Maundy Thursday message, that you partake in this simple holy communion, remembering Jesus’ words.
"Take and eat the bread, this is my body given for you, after the bread was eaten he spoke these words "take and drink this is my blood, shed for you".
Remember our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep the feast now and always.
Amen
‒ Pastor Pam
