"Re-embodying the Table"
As a child growing up in this church, I have to confess that
I would offer refer to Communion as “Snack Time.” And I would remember reading
the bulletin and seeing “Communion.” I would, with dread, think, “Great, now
the service is going to be even longer.” And now, you don’t have to raise your
hand, but I am pretty sure some of you are thinking the same thing. As
Presbyterians, we are ready to be in and out within an hour.
Often, sitting in the pew Communion would add length, but
not real meaning. As I heard those familiar words, I affirm that when we take
these elements, when we perform this sacrament, that we are re-enacting and
re-membering, Jesus Christ, his saving grace, and his mercy to his people
through the cross and crucifixion. I remembered that this was a time of
celebration of the future Kingdom of God. I did not realize the magnitude of
this sacrament until I liked it in college, and fell in love with it in
seminary. So, being able to be a part of this is something that I hold with
high honor, love, and compassion. It is in seminary that I began to re-embody
Communion, and understand how it is so much more than a mid-service snack.
Our text today is the beloved John passage where Jesus shows
his divinity and humanity. Jesus reflects on Exodus 16, which ironically I
studied all summer through my Clinical Pastoral Education work as a chaplain at
the University of Louisville Hospital. Jesus returns to the struggle of the
Jewish people in Scripture, saying: “Your ancestors ate the manna in the
wilderness, and they died.” How morose. Great uplift there Jesus.
Actually I believe there is more to Jesus words than the
death of God’s chosen people. Providing everlasting manna, Jesus is the bread
that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. Jesus
Christ shows his divinity of eternal life, and his humanity that will be
sacrificed on the cross, at the crucifixion. Just as the Israelite people were fed
and nourished, today, and every day of our lives including the life to come, we
will never be hungry or thirsty. Jesus Christ is the sustenance that we need to
survive. This is what we need to survive in our Christian faith.
This sacrament is an involvement of all of our senses. This
is where the re-embodying comes into play. Jesus says, “ Whoever eats of this
bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the
world is my flesh.” This is Jesus saying, “I am going to give my life, my body,
my whole self for you.” How more meaningful can we get?
This is the reason I love Communion so much. We are re-embodying
the saving life of Jesus Christ. It takes all of our bodies: our whole selves,
all of our senses to perform and partake of this sacrament. We engage our eyes
to see, noses to smell, ears to hear the Word proclaimed, hands to re-enact, and
our tongues to taste the sweet mercy of Jesus Christ. We engage our whole self
to participate in this process of remembering and reliving Jesus Christ
himself.
It is here that we witness Jesus’ humanity and divinity. It
is written in the prophets that “I will raise that person up on the last day.”
The divine realm of heaven and the human world of earth are experienced
together, in this moment.
The importance of the sacrament of Communion is found in our
experience of the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ, while we ourselves we embody
his life and mission. As important as this is, it is still not why I find great
comfort and hope at this Table. For you see, when we invite people to the
table, we invite “all believers,” and this means we do not discriminate. We do
not push away the outcast, the marginalized, those viewed as “less than,” or
the Other, we join together in one moment where all persons are equal before our
God. This is the unity we celebrate each time we gather together at this Table.
Our unity is also expressed beyond the four walls of this
sanctuary. It is expressed when we take mission trips, when you support me in
my seminary dreams, and when you help the neighbor across the street whom you
barely know. Communion is meant to be lived out. It is not simply taking bread
and juice: it is re-membering, re-embodying the life of Jesus Christ and all
that he did here on this earth, and will one day do again. Jesus Christ is the
bread of life and the cup of salvation.
He gave up his body on earth: his fleshy body, to save us,
his people. Christ was, is, and will forever be the bread of life, the living
bread of life amidst us, his people. Whenever we take the bread and the cup, we
are doing a lot of “re”’s we are re-living, re-membering, re-embodying, and
re-imagining Jesus Christ. It is also in this act that we are becoming a part
of Jesus himself. We will live forever, through Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ.
For me, each time I take a piece of bread and sip of juice,
I feel a sense of humility; it is
something that as soon as it enters my body I feel humbled, I feel motivated,
that Jesus is present not only at the table, but inside of me. I feel inspired
to do the work Jesus did. I find peace in the knowledge that I am following
God’s call for my life.
I am called to this place, with these people, in this
moment. I am called to serve Christ in the church. I am called. I am called,
and so are you. We are called here, together, to this place, to live, breathe,
and explore all that this story teaches us. Jesus Christ is the blood of life
and the cup of salvation. May you experience these elements, may you live out
the meaning, and may you know everlasting joy in the love, mercy, and peace of
Jesus Christ.
But the love, mercy, and peace of Jesus were not tame. While
we remember the good stories of Jesus, Jesus’ sermon on the mount and the
plain, cleansing lepers, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc. it is
important to remember Jesus was also a rebel. Jesus went into the temple turning
tables saying, (or as I perceive screaming) “Get these out of here! How dare
you turn my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:16). So, the calm, humble, simple Jesus is
overturned here. This is how we are called to act. Now, while we may not go
into temples overturning tables, we are called to stand up against the
injustices we see: metaphorically overturning tables. We are called to remember
Jesus acts of love and mercy, but also his acts of standing against the
opposition, of being a rebel rouser.
At this
Table, we are fed the courage to be different, just as our Savior was different.
The difference Jesus made at this Table means that we are all invited. The
redeeming grace of Jesus means that while we have no reason to be worthy, we
already are. It is through this grace that the love of God is experienced in
each one of us. This is what challenges me everyday I see people on the
streets, hear about tragedy on the news, or read about pain in the newspaper. I
am called to a life of service by the One who will never stop entering into
situations like these. We are all called to a life of service. I cannot stand
up here today, preaching this sermon, reading and proclaiming the Word to you,
without remembering, re-embodying, re-living all that Jesus has done, and
therefore, I have to help my brothers and sisters who are marginalized, who are
cast down, who are listed as the Other, a foreigner, a stranger, a nobody, a
no-body. We are our bodies. We are who God has made us, and we are called to
join hands together, around this Table, Christ’s Table, to move beyond the
walls of this church.
So, my
challenge to you today, is to not simply take the elements, not to just pray to
God thanking God for the life of Jesus Christ, for the service Jesus performed
here on earth, for the divinity and humanity of Jesus, but pray that you find
comfort in healing those around you, pray that you share this Good News with
all you meet, pray, believe and enact Communion out there, in the world, with
all peoples you come into contact with. Live a life of service, because that is
exactly what Jesus did, and that is exactly what this is all about. For as
often as we eat the bread, and drink the cup, we are remembering Jesus Christ
until He comes again. Wendell Berry writes,
“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we
do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament (The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays
Cultural and Agricultural 1981, 281). Let us
remember, re-member, re-embody, re-live all that this Table means outside these
doors. Our role is not passive; let us live into
our active role not only during Communion but each day. Let no one be ostracized
or feel unwelcomed at this Table. Let us re-embody what Jesus did in the
temples, and what we are called to do in the world, and let us do it with the
greatest virtues of peace, justice, humility, and love. It is in Communion that
we join together as a community, a broken community, a disjointed community, a
sinful community, a joyful community, a community of many words…a community of
many actions. All of these actions grow out of this Table, where we not only
remember who we are, but we re-imagine who we are called to be.
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