Communion

Maundy Thursday 4/17/14
Exodus 12:1-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

O Lord, I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. Amen.

Several years ago some of my friends brought their roommate to church. It was the first time that person had ever been to a Christian worship service. He seemed to be fascinated by it, and paid close attention to everything that we did.

And when it came time for Communion, he chose to stay in his seat. He didn’t really understand what was going on with this ritual when his roommates and all the other worshippers stood up and walked forward to receive a small piece of bread and sip of wine… but he could tell that it was something holy.

And as an outsider – a first-timer – someone who wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to stay – he figured he shouldn’t violate our sacred moment without being able to give it the full honor it deserved.

This person’s experience in worship spoke two things to me.

First, he had a great deal of respect for religion and its teachings and practices. In this, he was not unique – many young adults are respectful of and curious about what religion has to offer, even if they have never participated in worship before.

The second thing this experience taught me is that this young person was able to figure out from the way in which the congregation treated Communion that it was a holy meal that deserved to be treated with respect. Even if he didn’t understand it’s meaning, he understood its importance. That understanding was due to the reverence of the other worshippers.

Tonight, we are at an advantage over this acquaintance of mine. We don’t just have to sit back and wonder at what’s going on. We are blessed to have the chance to learn and to fully experience what Communion, our weekly worship practice, one of our two sacraments, really means.

Tonight we heard the story of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, and we heard the Bible verses that get repeated every time we celebrate Communion. So let’s remind ourselves of why we share this meal together as part of our worship.

The Eucharist and the Lord’s Supper are other names for this ritual that we consider to be sacred – a sacrament. In order for something to be a sacrament, according to Lutheran theology, it needs to meet three requirements. It must be commanded by God, it must be accompanied by an earthly sign, and it must carry a promise of God’s grace and forgiveness.

The practice of Communion was commanded by Jesus when he shared his last meal with his disciples, and told them “do this” as often as you gather, in remembrance of me.

The earthly element of Communion, of course, is the bread and the wine.

And the promise of forgiveness comes with the belief that Communion is really the body and blood of Jesus, which were sacrificed on our behalf to save us from our own sinfulness.

That’s a lot to try to digest during your first experience ever of Christian worship.

And we don’t necessarily do a good job always explaining what Communion is or why we practice it.

But hopefully, we treat the sacrament with reverence, like that congregation did in my story. Hopefully a visitor to our worship service would recognize that the small meal we share together is the highest, most holy moment of our gathering.

When he celebrated his final meal with the disciples, Jesus wasn’t just throwing a dinner party. He was giving a new meaning to an old tradition.

The phrase “we’ve always done it this way!” would carry no weight with Jesus. He was all about doing things in new ways, and with new meanings.

On this particular occasion, Jesus was celebrating the Passover with his disciples.

We learn about the Jewish holiday of Passover in tonight’s first reading, from the book of Exodus.

On Passover, the people of Israel remember the night when the angel of death passed over their homes. Because they had followed God’s instructions, God spared the people the death of their firstborn. Any household that failed to follow God’s command had to suffer losing their eldest child.

This plague, the death of the firstborn, was what finally convinced Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt several thousand years ago. Jewish people still celebrate this holiday, remembering how God helped to bring them freedom.

Actually, today is the third day in this year’s Passover celebration – it’s such an important holiday that Jews observe it for a whole week.

Passover is celebrated as a festival to the Lord, as a day of remembrance, and a commemoration of freedom from slavery.

So Jesus and his disciples were sharing the Passover meal together. They were remembering when God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. And then Jesus takes this old, sacred, symbolic meal and turns it into something else.

         God doesn’t just free us from slavery.

         God frees us from ourselves.

God frees us from our sins, from our mistakes, from our selfishness. God saves us from our human nature that keeps us from living life perfectly.

We know from the story in Exodus that God is all about granting freedom to people. And we learn more about that freedom in the reading from Corinthians and in the story from John. The freedom that God has to offer comes through the death of Jesus. The saving grace is that because Jesus died, we are free from death.

That’s the freedom we celebrate when we share in the meal of Communion.

Jesus took an old tradition and turned it into a new promise of God’s grace.

Just like God saved the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, God continues to offer us freedom from sin and death, through the body and blood of Jesus.

Each time we celebrate Communion, we remember that promise of grace, of forgiveness, and of eternal life with God.

God is present with us, whenever we share this special meal, in memory of Jesus.

Whether we actually eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, or whether we sit back and observe the ritual, as my friends’ roommate did, we recognize that there is something holy happening.

God is here.

Forgiveness is here.

In the gathered community that follows the commandments of God using earthly elements, a sacrament occurs – a sacred moment appears.

We are that sacred community of God.

Living in God’s grace, old things are made new – God takes our old selves and makes us new. That’s the promise of Communion. That promise is why we celebrate this meal together.

In remembrance of Jesus, and in thanksgiving for his sacrifice on our behalf.

Amen.