Sermon Title: "Coming to the Table of the Lord"
Date: June 6, 2010
Minister:  The Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson:  Matthew 26:26-29

Do you ever do something so routinely that you can’t remember whether you did it or not?  Do you go to bed at night, wondering if you locked the front door?  You get up to go check, and it’s locked.  Do you stand at your bathroom or kitchen counter and wonder whether you took your pills or your vitamins?  Sometimes I can’t remember, so I check the weekly pill box.  Yep, Sunday’s empty.  I guess I took them!

It could be the same in worship.  We recite the Lord’s Prayer every single Sunday, but do we ever pause to think what each phrase means?  We serve the sacrament of communion on the first Sunday of each month, but do you find yourself so concerned in carefully passing the elements that you forget to think about the sacrifice behind the meal?

Each month the ministers say the same words of institution over the sacrament of communion as the Bible records Jesus said.  Of course, there was no recorder or scribe in the Upper Room that night, documenting every word Jesus uttered.  The nearly identical words found in both Matthew and Mark’s Gospels were written down after the Apostle Paul wrote similar words in his first letter to the Corinthians, beginning:  “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.’ . . .”  (1 Cor. 11:23-24)

We are aware that an oral tradition existed and thrived among the early Christians before the Gospels were committed to paper, but I believe the important point nearly twenty centuries later is that we still say the same simple, unadorned words each time we break bread and drink from the cup.

Communion has already been served this Sunday morning in any number of manners throughout the Christian church in Africa, Europe, the Far East and the eastern United States.  For some, it was served from some high altar, far away from the people.  Communion here used to be served from that altar, but in 1987 we moved the communion table unto the main floor and brought the sacrament closer to the people.  This was a great change for Protestants as well as for Catholics as a result of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s.  Many congregations use real wine and wafers; others like ours use bread cubes and grape juice.  Some come forward to take communion at the rail by the altar.  Others are served as they sit in the pew.  Still others use intinction, where the recipient dips the bread or wafer into the chalice.

For those of you with Roman Catholic backgrounds, you will remember the sound of bells on the altar during Mass as the bread and cup were consecrated.  In Catholic theology of the Eucharist, at this moment the elements are changed into the actual body and blood of Christ.  Adopted by the Church in 1215, this doctrine is known as transubstantiation. 

When I was in seminary, one of my classmates fulfilled a worship class requirement by designing an Advent liturgy.  Now he was an Episcopalian, and there is no higher-church Episcopalian than a former low-church Methodist, which he also was.  The day of his class presentation, we met at the chancel steps of a local church.  James stood on the steps, and as he consecrated the bread and began to pass it, he accidentally dropped the loaf.  He stood frozen on the steps, his empty hands outstretched in the air, his mouth open in abject horror.  He had dropped Christ’s body!  One of us stepped forward, picked up the half loaf, and continued to pass it around our little circle of a dozen students.  James remained appalled at his own actions for some time to come.

Most Protestant churches view the elements of communion as symbols of Christ’s body and blood, not tokens which magically or mysteriously have been transformed into something else.  Anyone is welcome to come forward after worship and eat some of this good bread (which it still is) in lieu of, or in addition to, a donut!

Whatever substance we believe the elements to be, they can be powerful ones.  They can signal for the recipient Christ’s love for them, forgiveness, acceptance, worthiness, and inclusion in the body of Christian believers.

The frequency of communion varies with church, denomination, and an individual’s preference.  Until the middle of the last century, most Protestants thought quarterly was often enough.  Too often and it loses its meaning.  Other churches, including Roman Catholic, Disciples of Christ, and selected Protestant denominations prefer every week.  It’s so important that it should be received frequently.  For the past fifty years, a lot of Protestant churches, including ours, moved to the tradition of the first Sunday of each month.

Some churches are very restricted in who is able to receive the sacrament.  In the Catholic Church, it is for the faithful in good standing with the church.  Some very devout Catholics I know are denied the sacrament because of divorce and remarriage.  And while Rome has one view, here in the United States the practice is varied.  Some priests announce that the sacrament is only for Catholics; others have been known to welcome all people of the Christian faith to come forward. 

In the early ’70s I was in a ministerial association in upstate New York which had lunch each month at a different church.  At one Missouri Synod Lutheran church, other clergy and I were surprised to find we would be excluded from receiving the sacrament in that church.  The host pastor explained that the sacrament was only intended for members of that congregation in good standing, and any other visiting Missouri Synod Lutherans who had a signed pass from their pastor.  Such restrictions do not apply to other branches of the Lutheran Church.

I do not believe in a narrow and restrictive view of the sacrament, nor do I believe Jesus intended it to be such.  It may be presumptuous of me to speak for Jesus, but my belief is that he would want it to be an open and welcoming sacrament – one that drew people into the faith, not excluded them.  I cannot picture Jesus turning anyone away; after all, he broke bread with Judas.  Anyone is welcome to receive the sacrament here, member or not, young or old, regular worshipper or guest.  I would hope that those who choose to receive do so with some element of faith and a desire to be in closer communion with Christ, and not just as a chance to stave off certain hunger until Fellowship Time begins in the Concert Hall!

I want people to come to the Lord’s table in love and charity with their neighbors, feeling the forgiving love of Christ, ready to receive the sacrament because they want to be here and they believe God wants them here.  I do not believe some hierarchical figure in the church should deem them worthy or not.  In the words I repeat every month, words I really believe in: 

“This is the Lord’s table, and all are welcome here.”