Communion and the stuff that matters - Rev Allister Lane
READINGS: ACTS 10: 34-48 AND JOHN 15: 9-17
Sermon on 9 May 2021
I want to do some teaching on Communion…
This was triggered by a reference I made to a portion of the Communion liturgy a few weeks ago. I highlighted how we are witnesses to resurrection life through our worship. When we celebrate Communion, we use these words of scripture:
Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)
We are witnesses to resurrection life. What we say and do by celebrating the sacrament of Communion expresses what we believe, and in whom we trust.
So, this morning, I want to identify some of the most important affirmations about the sacrament of Communion (as expressing what we believe, and in whom we trust).
We will cover:
The origins of Communion – where does it come from?
The purpose of Communion – why do we have it?
How do we celebrate Communion most authentically?
Of course, we must approach this with humility. Communion is always something essentially mysterious.
C.S. Lewis said…
the invitation is “Take, eat.”, not “Take understand.”
Communion is a participation in the life of God, and much of it therefore remains mysterious. In this sense we need to recognise that Communion is an experience of faith.[1]
And so, finally, I’ll highlight the important expressions and moments in the way we celebrate Communion – what we notice in our experience of Communion.
So, what is important to say about Communion?
Firstly, Communion is a meal.
This may be stating the obvious. But, on the other hand, anyone could be forgiven for perhaps not immediately recognising it is a meal.
For one thing, most meals we have don’t have such a ‘preamble’!
And (the way we do it) Communion is a meal characterised by a lack of ‘quantity’; this is a meal that is unlikely to make us feel ‘stuffed full’!
In Jesus’ ministry, meals were a significant way he was present with people.
He fed the 5,000.
He went to the houses of Pharisees.
As well as eating with ‘sinners’.
Communion emerges from a specific meal. The night before his death, together with his disciples, Jesus celebrates the Jewish Passover meal. But he does it differently from the normal custom, and this stuck in the hearts and minds of his followers.
Holding the bread, he announces that it was his body given for them. The wine he called his blood poured out for them.
These things, this life given to death and raised for them, make up the substance of forgiveness and the reality of the freedom experienced in God’s presence.
When these first Jewish disciples found themselves excluded from the Jewish synagogues, they met together as a community of Christians. And they would re-enact that meal Jesus shared. They expressed their trust in the events of salvation; and they experienced the presence of the risen Christ.
So, the origin of Communion is from the memory of a specific meal Jesus shared.
The purpose of Communion, is the continuing expression and experience of God’s saving presence. Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury) says:
For Christians, to share in [Communion] means to live as people who know that they are always guests – that they have been welcomed and that they are wanted. It is, perhaps, the most simple thing that we can say about Communion…Jesus Christ tells us that he wants our company. (p41)
Do you remember the meal Jesus had with Zacchaeus – the short tax-collector? Jesus asked Zacchaeus:
Aren’t you going to ask me to your place?
In other words, Jesus is not only someone who exercises hospitality; he draws out hospitality from others. By his welcome he makes other people capable of welcoming.
One of the great themes of the resurrection stories in the Gospels is that this starts all over again on the far side of Jesus’ death on the cross. When, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples, he asks them:
Aren’t you going to give me something to eat?
The resurrected Jesus is doing what he always did. And that is why it is very significant that in (today’s reading from) Acts, when the risen Christ is proclaimed, the apostles identify themselves as the witnesses who
ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. (Acts 10.41)[2]
So, we’ve heard about the origins of Communion, and the purpose is to express and experience God’s saving presence. What does this mean for how WE celebrate Communion authentically?
As we are invited to be guests, we are also given the freedom to invite others to be guests. We have experienced the hospitality of God in Christ; our lives are therefore set free to be hospitable.
As sharers in Communion, we become involved in Jesus’ own continuing work of bridging the gulfs between people, drawing them into shared life...[3]
Jesus says (as we heard in the Gospel reading today):
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Being reminded that Communion is a meal, helps us recognise this is something we do – Communion is an action; an experience. Jesus says
Do this in remembrance of me.
So, we faithfully follow what Jesus shows us: taking – thanking – breaking – giving. Communion is something we do.
So, let me conclude by highlighting some of the important expressions and moments in how we (will shortly) celebrate Communion.
Invitation
The meal starts with an invitation. This originally comes from Jesus, and we (as guests) echo the invitation to others. We are encouraged to come and receive – physically, spiritually, relationally.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
Giving thanks is at the heart of the celebration. This prayer includes
Thanks to God for creating
Thanks to Jesus for his sacrifice that rescues us (Amenesis)
And we call upon the Holy Spirit (Epiclesis)
…What do you notice about this pattern? (it’s Trinitarian)[4]
By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.
The Spirit connects us with Christ, those around us, and all Christians, united in serving the world. Jesus says “abide in my love… I have appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last”
Give us strength to serve you faithfully until the promised day of resurrection, when with the redeemed of all the ages we will feast with you at your table in glory.
We are nourished – why…? In order to serve God. Looking forward to when God’s Kingdom comes fully, and we will be in God’s eternal presence.
“Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes.”
We come back to where we began.
In this short summary of Communion, we’ve covered
the origins of Communion,
the purpose of Communion
and that to celebrate Communion most authentically is to include others
And, crucially, we remain faithful by continuing to experience the meal together. Celebrating this meal of faith, in the presence of the risen Christ, we continue to be witnesses to the resurrection life, in which we are participating together.
Thanks be to God!
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[1] This mysterious presence of God’s salvation is called “sacrament” from the Latin word sacramentum – meaning ‘mystery’.
[2] “Holy Communion makes no sense at all if you do not believe in the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the Eucharist becomes simply a memorial meal, recalling a rather sad and overpowering occasion in the upper room.
The starting point must be where the apostles themselves began, eating and drinking with him after he was raised from the dead, experiencing once again his call into a new level of life together, a new fellowship and solidarity, and a new willingness and capacity to be welcomers themselves.” Rowan Williams Being Christian p45-46
[3] Rowan Williams Being Christian, p46-47.
[4] And in this experience we express:
Sharing with God: Trinitiarian. The centre of the world is Christ’s gift of self to the Father.
Discovery of people and all things in relation to God – we re-member reality, preventing us from shrinking into a diminished understanding of ourselves, of others, of our situations, and our projects.
We are okay because of what God has done (in Jesus) and what God is doing (in the Spirit) and what is yet to come (fulness of the Kingdom).