Matthew 26: 17-30

August 6, 2023

“Coming Into Church” – Sermon by Doug Moore

About a month ago, I came into this church on a Sunday morning for the first time in a long time.  I came because my sister-in-law Rev. Mary Thompson, who I’ve known for almost 60 years, was leading the worship.  I came to focus on her words, her style, her preaching.   I came to show Mary my support.

I came into this church as a very retired minister, one who promised himself he was done with preaching.  Preaching is too stressful, too difficult, and demands a level of attentiveness I can no longer muster. 

It is fair to say I came into this church as a spectator, an observer only.  And yet, I left here and raced home to tell Judy that here, inside this church, I encountered church in communion.  Real church, real communion.

In the UCC we only have two sacraments: Baptism and communion.  I think baptism is much easier to understand than communion.  When we baptize a baby for instance, we welcome the infant into our lives and we promise to help guide and care for the child and to help the parents as well.  Baptism is pretty straightforward.  Communion is more challenging.

The Gospels give us four differing accounts of what has become our model for communion Sunday.  Jesus is heading into Jerusalem and to his crucifixion.  He has warned his disciples of his impending demise but they refuse to believe him. 

Jesus asks his disciples to arrange for the traditional Passover meal.  Then, the disciples and Jesus gather in what is known as the “Upper Room” to share the traditional meal.

The disciples are a mixed bunch of men.  There are fishermen, farmers, and others, working class all.  We know very little about most of them. 

We do know that Judas, who will betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, was at the meal.  Peter, who will deny ever knowing Jesus when challenged on the night of Jesus’ trial, was present. And Doubting Thomas was also present.  We also know that all of the disciples fled when Jesus was taken prisoner to be crucified by the Romans.

“Am I leading a rebellion,” Jesus asked the Romans, “that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? ⁴⁹ Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”  Then everyone deserted him and fled. (Mark 14: 48-52)  Not a single disciple had the courage to stay with Jesus.  Only the women stayed with Jesus.

At the meal, Jesus says something incredibly strange, something beyond the comprehension of the disciples.  He takes the bread, he blesses it, and offers it to each of the disciples.  Then he pours wine into a cup, blesses it and begins to pass the cup around to each of the disciples. 

As he does this, Jesus tells the disciples this is not just bread, and not just wine.  This is not just another meal shared in the same old way.  Jesus tells the disciples that the bread and wine he offers are his body and his blood.  Then, having eaten the bread and drank the wine, they sing a traditional hymn and go out into the garden to enjoy the night air and perhaps a little conversation.  The Romans are waiting.

How did this meal become our sacrament? How did this strange meal become the focal point of our faith?  Why do we keep trying to recreate this meal every single month?  

I certainly do not have all or perhaps even most of the answers to these questions.  I am not at all sure there are absolutely final answers to the questions at all.  What I do have to help me understand is the Gospel story, the long tradition of the Christian church, and you gathered here this morning.  We gathered here this morning are communion.

“Communion is a corporate grace. It requires other people. To receive the bread is also to pass it on.  To take the cup is to pour it out for another. “You are, we are, what you eat.” You become the body of Christ in the eating of the bread, become the actual, living person of Jesus when you take the cup and drink.”  by Melissa Florer-Bixler , Christian Century, August 2023

 In some wonderful and powerful way, we become Christ to each other: to care for each other, to love each other, to help and lift each other, to share with each other what Christ shares with us.

We are not perfect, I’m sorry to say.  Actually, we are very much like the disciples whom Jesus loved and taught and shared his life and death with.  We are the disciples with whom Jesus shares his body and blood now.

When I come into this church, I encounter Communion – a powerful sense of being together in Christ, of being together in shared love and life, of being together here.  As we receive the bread and the wine, as we turn and face each other to sing “God Be With You”, I know that coming into this church I have entered into and been received into communion.   I know, here is church.  Thank you.  Amen.