Sermon #6 @ St. Paris UMC (8.2.09)

Pastor Dave Kepple

Text: John 19:1-6a, 16-19, 23-25, 28-30 and Mark 14:32-42

Title: “This Table”

Date: Aug. 2, 2009 (9th Sunday after Pentecost)

Internet Link for primary scripture texts used in this sermon:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2019:1-6a,%2016-19,%2023-25,%2028-30&version=31

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2014:32-36;&version=31;


A homily leading into Holy Communion . . .

OK, it’s confession time.
I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, but I am wondering –
How many of you winced a little when you got here today, and saw the Communion elements on the table?
Maybe you quietly thought to yourself, “Oh, great! It’s gonna be a long one today.”
I guess we might call this an “eat-your-peas” mentality toward the Sacrament of Holy Communion. We know it’s good for us, but we might not be all that excited about it. In fact, there may be times we’d just as soon avoid it.
I understand. I’ve been there myself. In the past, there have been times I thought the very same thing.
But somewhere along the way – and it’s been a few years now -- God opened my mind and changed my heart about receiving the Lord’s Supper. You could say my attitude has been adjusted.
I’ve gone from “eating my peas” to feasting with the Lord of Life.
At times, I’ve come to the table feeling discouraged, and I felt my spirits lifted by the assurance of His presence.
I’ve also come with joy to the table, only to feel that joy magnified by the sure knowledge that the Living Christ is with us, through the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup.
This table . . .
This table is a place where we can come and silently lay our burdens at the foot of the cross, even as we receive the bread of life -- and the cup of salvation.
This table is also a place where we can rekindle the fire of our “first love” for Jesus Christ, and make a new beginning in our walk with the Lord.
For today, for just a few moments, these gifts of grain and the fruit of the vine can become the center of our universe, as we draw close to the Living God – and He draws close to us.
J. Ellsworth Kalas, professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, writes of this experience with a sense of wonder in his book, “New Testament Stories from the Back Side.”
Kalas writes:
“There is, after all, no table like it. This table reaches from that upper room in Jerusalem all the way through the cathedrals in Europe and America, to the place where you will next take the sacrament.
“This table is revered in mud hut churches in Africa, where people speak the sacred words in languages you and I have never heard. It has often been set up, in crude fashion, in the darkest pits of confinement, where people imprisoned for their faith in Christ have saved a fragment of bread and a spoonful of water just so they can say, “His body. His blood.” And they do it with a triumph that shakes the dungeon walls.”
Dr. Kalas continues: “I ponder that once, long ago, there was a table where 13 men sat. Who could have imagined that night that . . . hundreds of millions would sit at the same table, two millennia later, everywhere on this planet. And someone will say, “The body of our Lord. The blood of Christ, shed for you. And in that moment, eternity will break in upon human souls.
“At a common piece of furniture called a table, you and I will eat a crumb of bread, we will drink from a cup, and for that moment, all of the company of heaven will observe in splendid awe. Such a table! Such a table!” (1)

Friends, we gather at this table to remember Christ’s sacrifice for us – just as He instructed: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not complicated.
The Word became flesh in Jesus -- God's only Son -- and God made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat the power of sin and death. Jesus was raised to life on the Third Day by the Power of God, and He will come again in glory to complete the establishment of His Kingdom.
You know, even that complicates things more than necessary. We can simplify things even further. How about this: Jesus died for our sins. That is the Gospel, and it is Good News for all of us -- since all of us are born with a genetic predisposition to sin.
Keep it simple.
It doesn't get much more simple than a bookmark I picked up at the Family Christian Store not long ago. The message printed on this bookmark may only be one sentence, but it is a sermon in itself. The bookmark states: "It was not the nails that held Christ to the cross, but His love for you and me."
Think about that for a moment. . . .

Jesus allowed himself to be sacrificed for us. He made that surrender during his terrible moments in the Garden of Gethsemane. He made that surrender -- not easily -- but he made it, knowing full well the suffering he would endure. In the 19th chapter of John, we heard just some of the physical trauma the Lord sustained in His passion.
But it was finally His utter and total separation from the Father, as Jesus took on the sins of the world, that nearly broke His spirit. It was in the midst of that absolute desolation that Jesus cried out in despair, using the words of the 22nd Psalm: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" . . .
Remember, "It was not the nails that held Christ to the cross, but His love for you and me." . . .
It is this same point which Christian author Max Lucado makes in his best-selling book, He Chose The Nails. God did not have to make this sacrifice of his Son. Nor did Jesus have to follow through on the will of his Father. The sacrifice on the cross is a gift, freely given.

And evidently, it was important to Jesus that his followers remember this sacrifice, and remember it often. . . .
The Sacrament of Holy Communion is that sacred moment in the life of the Church when we remember this sacrifice Jesus made for each one of us. By eating bread and drinking from the cup, as he instructed, we reflect on this outpouring of God's grace in Christ Jesus. We experience anew the presence of the Risen Lord, and look forward to his coming in final victory.
When you come up here in a few minutes to receive the elements -- or when you receive them where you are seated -- I invite you to use all the senses you have at your command. Feel the soft texture of the bread in your fingers. Notice the sharp, sweet scent of the grape juice in the cup. See the cross on the altar through the eyes of faith. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
It would be well to pause and listen, too. And, as Max Lucado says, perchance you will hear Him whisper:
"I did it just for you." (2)
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1. J. Ellsworth Kalas, “New Testament Stories from the Back Side,” Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2000.
2. Max Lucado, “He Chose the Nails,” Thomas Nelson Inc., 2000.