The Sacrament: Gathered on Our Knees
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
November 2, 2014
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 22:14-23
Exodus 12:1-14
Let
us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For
your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
14 When the
hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 He
said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer; 16 for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled
in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving
thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I
tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the
kingdom of God comes.” 19 Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he
had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body,
which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And he did
the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for
you is the new covenant in my blood. 21 But see, the one who
betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. 22 For the Son
of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is
betrayed!” 23 Then they began to ask one another which one of them
it could be who would do this.[1]
So now on
the first Sunday of November, we continue with our look at the Order of
Worship, and it just so happens that today with the Sacrament, it corresponds
with when we celebrate Communion. It's almost like I planned it that way or
something. When I was growing up the parts of the service were divided into the
Preparation for the Word, the Word, Responding to the Word, and last, the
sending, and so today and the next two weeks were all part of this Responding
idea: Communion, Offertory, and Prayers of the People. So I was thinking this
week, about how might we respond to what we talked about last week, over the
next three weeks, since the first three weeks of this series took a look at
forces swirling around us as a church in this world--our battles with the
outside world we can't control, the Amazing one holy, creator, redeemer,
sustainer God who we serve, and who gives us strength, possibilities, as well
as purpose, and then faced our weaknesses, our faults, our sin-- only to look
last week at the challenges we face as a church, trying to come full circle,
honest about where we are, where we are going, what exactly we are up against,
and what exactly is the source of our hope, only God. I also last week talked
about some of the pitfalls we could run into as we move forward in hope: 1 was
the fact that I as a leader could get caught up in promising it will all work
out, saying things like all you need to do is listen to what I say, do this,
that, and the other, and we will be in good shape, when I can and should only
speak what I am called to say, not what is the most expedient. . . and then the
other issue could be that we would get so caught up in forging ahead that we
lose eachother, that we lose the love that holds us together, like the church
at Ephesus in Revelation, they do so much to combat the evil that surrounds
them and remaining firm, but they lose touch with eachother, they lose love. .
. and there are so many places in the Bible that we see love being so central
to who we are and what we do.
So yeah,
how do we respond to that. . .how great is it that our response starts at the
table. We come together on our knees, joining arm and arm at the table, invited
by Christ, to Commune with Christ. Our initial response is an humble act of
love and togetherness. . . And so if we were concerned with me leading without
following God, or that we should allow divisions to drive us apart, how
appropriate it is to come together at the table. . . sharing a meal, and not
just any meal, but a meal that has so much important religious and symbolic
significance. As Presbyterians part of
our Reformed tradition is that we are distrustful of empty ritual, anything not
found to be Biblical, and any that is connected to some kind of superstitious,
luck type of thing. Calvin was very critical of the Medieval Catholic church,
and they even went so far as to distrust church music and other "Church
Traditions" where there didn't seem to be a commissioning for from Christ
himself, but Baptism and Communion are different and unique, for they come
directly from Christ himself, with words describing a perpetual observance.
Communion,
or the Last Supper is connected by the original historical event to Passover,
which is a traditional Jewish observance, which had its beginning in the Old
Testament reading read for us this morning, and from that reading we remember
that it is also for Remembrance, this time to remember the night that the Angel
of Death passed over the houses of the Israelites, the 10th plague, the one
that was the last straw for Pharaoh and finally set them free. Could you
imagine sharing the meal of that original feast. . . the trust of God that you
would have to have. . . there are so many levels to it. Here you are a slave,
and you have been for some time, but now you have this deliverer, this Moses
character, and he grew up with the Egyptians, but then disappeared, but then
returned, across the desert, and he says that he is a messenger of the God of
our ancestors, the God who we tell the old stories about, but haven't known
much of personally because we live in a world where we are lost in a sea of
pain and hard work, and suffering, and the people in charge, they seem to have
a much different view of the world, they seem to have a much more decadent and
powerful view of the world, and those days of Abraham and Jacob and Joseph,
well they might have been great, but they landed us here, so how great could
they have been, but we've seen things that Moses has done. . . could there be
more to it, could our time be now, could that God be real. . . is what he says
right, how will we know. The Angel of Death that sounds pretty serious, but
Moses says if we sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on our doorposts we will be
okay, alright I'll submit, we'll see. . . I always think of the Ten
Commandments movie with Charlton Heston when I think of Passover. . .and in
that movie they could hear, safe inside their bloodstained house, the cries of
fear, death, and loss of the Egyptians all around them. Could you just imagine.
. . the faith there. It was so important for the descendants to imagine and
remember that the Feast of Passover became something that was to be done in
perpetuity, every year. . . to remember.
Even up
until Jesus' own time, and for that holy Passover, many had flocked to
Jerusalem, as was a tradition for many Jews at that time to make a pilgrimage
at some point in their lives . . . and so Jesus comes, with his disciples, and
they break bread, and remember, back to that first Passover, but Jesus breaks a
new bread, makes a new covenant with his disciples, and makes a new memory, a
new thing to remember. . . remembrance of me. . . of Christ. . . lest we could
forget, as if right? But maybe we could, maybe not in name, or in picture, but
we might lose the memory of what Jesus really is, or really was. . . and so
wrapped up in the Last Supper, this new passover, is a remembrance of Jesus as
servant, humble enough to wash the feet of the disciples. . . humble enough to
serve each of them. . . and humble enough not just to serve them food, but food
representing himself, giving of sacrifice, again of a lamb, but for a new
purpose. . . .but certainly symbolically connected to the first. Take some time
to ponder that connection. . . it is impressive and impactful to do so.
It's
funny, I get a movie picture every time I think about communion, too, and for
me it is Passion of the Christ. It's one of those images that once it is in
your head it is hard to get out, kinda like an open casket. . . no matter how
you want to try to picture something else, some other version in your head, it
always creeps in there with it. And so with communion there is that picture of
the crucifixion, it's there. . . always, the extremes of human barbarity and
cruelty. . . .but as I was studying, thinking, and living this week, a
different idea crept into my head, and it was in many ways connected to last
week, and also in some ways connected to the Israelites on Passover, trying to
think about what it would have been like for them. . . I was drawn to thinking
what it would have been like to be a disciple at the Last Supper. . . imagine.
. . here you've been following this guy, and he has done wonders, but now
you've come to Jerusalem and it seems like there is a culmination coming soon,
like all of everything you've done up to this point following this guy is all
leading to this. . . and then Jesus starts talking about new covenants,
forgiveness, broken bodies and blood poured out. . . and remembering. . .
remembering, but not just God working all those years ago with their ancestors,
but God working very much now, and in our midst, it is all made new and it is
all made personal. . . and I think that is what it would have been like for
most of the disciples. . . awe, wonder, intrigue, curiosity for the future, all
mixed with apprehension and fear.
But then
the story takes a very different turn for two of the disciples because Jesus
calls two of them out. The betrayer and the denier. . . Judas and Peter, and
the more I thought about it this week, those two disciples with their stories
are very similar to our concerns from last week. Think about Judas. . . in most
accounts of him, he is a disciple who wants more out of Jesus, he wants Jesus
to be much more radical. He wants Jesus to overthrow the Romans. He wants a
traditional and military Messiah, and he has trouble waiting, he would rather
take things into his own hands. .. very much like the over promising pastor. .
. there is a sense that waiting is not part of the game, but rather doing,
going beyond your call, your mandate, your command, because things just aren't
going right. . . like saying, come on Jesus, now, act, do something, we need
you, we serve you, now, do it, or I'll just do it myself. I'll take that
shortcut road, I'll do the more practical thing. . . here in the real world you
fight the Romans with swords, knives, and money. . . that is what we need, not
prayers, and sacrifice. . . that might work in some kinda perfect world, but
here on Earth its real deeds that matter. . . action. . . definitive. . .
action.
And Peter
then is the other. . . lost the love. . . when the chips were down, when the
pressure was on he denies. . . denies relationship. . . denies the friendship.
. . denies even knowing Jesus. It can happen. . . Jesus knows it, even to Peter
it can happen, the first to recognize Jesus, the Rock on which the church is to
be built, falters in the faith when it really matters, leaving Jesus to be very
much alone to face the cross by himself.
So
instead, Christ invites us to the table and we come. We come to wait, we come
to share in the food, we come to discern, we come to be in awe again, we bring
all of our fears and doubts, and we partake of the living sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. We remember, not just in our minds, but with our bodies, with our
senses. . . we remember who it is we serve. . . we remember that he served us.
. . that he loved us enough, through anything, through the worst painful
barbaric punishment that human beings can deliver, the most cruel, long death,
pain, thirst. . . all of that, we remember it, and our problems do not seem
quite as bad. . . our crisis not as dire. . . and our divisions and
misunderstandings not as deep. . . and we join arm in arm, and we wait for the
Lord, we wait for Christ to serve us, to show us the way, to tell us what is
next. . . and we as disciples of Christ, seek not to betray, taking it all upon
ourselves, our own way, nor to deny, placing those limitations on love. . .
letting our love and our faith wither and die. . . no as disciples of Christ we
seek not to lead, but to follow, so that call can be fulfilled, and our will
can be made to be Christ's. . . that it will be done.
It is with
this waiting and kneeling and arm in arm love that I wrote the poem I sang earlier,
I'd like to close with it spoken. . . so as to remember. . .
Waiting, O
God, are thy faithful people
Silent and
still, their hearts unfurled
For brothers
and sisters, our actions full and feeble,
Take on
ourselves the weight of the world
But they with
doubt and sin, infecting
Spreading
corruption, pain, and greed
When will
faith its armor protecting
Give to
mankind the strength it needs?
So from our
knees, to the Lord Almighty,
Praise be thy
name, thy will be done.
Help us to
bend and to love, always rightly
As we are led
to follow thy Son.
‘nd when
temptation, doubt, and fear o'ertake us
When we
cannot endure the pain
Please then O
God, do not e'er forsake us,
Drive us
humbly to our knees again.
Now on our knees we come humbly to thy
table
Arm in arm, our love made clear
We come not because we are worthy or are
able
But save that Jesus Christ invites us
here
He gives us his body and blood he's
shedding
Forgiving our sins, all washed away
To himself our souls embedding
That we would not ever go astray
Amen. .
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 22:14-23). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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