WE ARE CALLED TO BE WHAT WE RECEIVE

Sermon, by Pastor Nelson

Body and Blood of Christ Sunday

Corpus Christi Sunday

June 2, 2024

Exodus 24:3-8

Psalm 116

Hebrews 9:11-15

Mark 14:12-26

I begin by saying, sad to say, you will not find this Sunday listed in the Lutheran proper’s. That is the lessons and prayers for Sundays and festivals.

I find it strange, that even though we say, we think the Eucharist is very important, we only directly say anything about it on Maundy Thursday. It was only when I started to look at the Roman Lectionary that I realized there was such a Sunday devoted to the Eucharist. I was surprised to hear that this celebration was started because people of the Roman Catholic community were not participating in communion. They would go to church but leave at the beginning of communion. Rc Bishop Frank Murphy said in 1964, to about-to-be-ordained priests, “your main task during Eucharist is not just to say the right words or make the right gestures; it is to help form the participants into the body of Christ.” We “protestants” often had communion only four times a year, and even then, I remember people who did not participate in communion. I guess, we really are not much different from one another. By not having communion this morning, I thought it would be a good time to see what we are missing. I recently attended “the Festival of Homiletics” at Pittsburgh, PA. by zoom, just like today and I heard, Otis Moss iii, a preacher at Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL. say; “when we do right theology, it will change our anthropology, shift to a new psychology, move us to a new sociology, give us a new ecology, and will change our biology.” Well, I am not sure if that will all happen this morning, but here we go.

Something unique happened at the last supper. Just look at all the ”paint by number” paintings that have evolved. I think at least one member gave me one at each parish I was at. But seriously, I believe something happens whenever we share the Eucharist. Jesus initiated a new covenant. The covenant between God and us means that we are deeply connected not only to God, but to one another. Our connections, and the commitments they imply, extend to all people everywhere. Participating in the Eucharist may be the most challenging thing we are invited to do. Remember Alice Munro said, “one foot in front of the other gets you where you are going, but it is the detours that make the journey worth it.” Friar Scott Surrency wrote a poem called; “Can You Drink This Cup?”

Drink not survey, or analyze,

Ponder or scrutinize –

From a distance.

But drink – imbibe, ingest,

Take into you so that it becomes a piece of your inmost self.”

This poem creates a question from the challenge Augustine gave his people when he preached on the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the fourth century. Now that is a long time ago but remember Luther was an Augustinian monk. When Augustine spoke of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, he said, “they are called Sacraments because in them one thing is seen, while another is grasped, … what is grasped bears spiritual fruit.” Today’s liturgy of the word guides us through the religious developments that led to the Eucharist. We begin with the first lesson from exodus as Moses leads his people in a liturgy of sacrifice. It was theatre at its ‘best’ or its ‘worst’? The people renewed their covenant with God, who they believed, led them out of slavery and gave them commandments to assure them a good life. The people listened and then they were sprinkled with blood (Word and Sacrament).

Now I have no explanation for the act of sprinkling blood other than that they looked at blood as life giving and thus, they believed they were given life with the act of sprinkling blood. Thank goodness we have gotten away from that and even gotten away from the idea we have to use red wine at communion, “because it looks like blood!” This early celebration evolved into the temple liturgies that kept the Israelites conscious of their covenant relationship with God. We get some of the story of a High Priest in our second lesson from Hebrews, showing that Jesus the Christ has become the final High Priest.

Again, we get the mixed metaphors of animal blood and Jesus’ blood and someway that gives us salvation. In fact, Robert Zimmerman wrote, “never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine.” Is that not interesting? [Bob Dylan was really Robert Zimmerman, from Minnesota.]

In my favourite gospel, Marks’ account of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples brings this theology down to earth through a poignant story, we have today. When the disciples talked to Jesus about the Passover, He reminded them that eating this meal together, pledged them to share the same commitment and fate that was waiting for him. Jesus thanked God for the saving actions of the past and then he added himself to the mix, “my body, my blood.” He was telling them/us that this is the symbol of losing their/our lives for one another and in doing that we will be “saved.” The version from Mark of the good news is a theological and Christological jewel, representing the insights, inspirations, and beliefs of the Christian community of the late sixties C.E. This covenant is ratified in two ways; by the actions of Jesus, and our sharing of this Passover-Last supper meal. At every Eucharistic gathering, we are renewed by the continuing blessings of Jesus’, once-and-for-all, Passover, and as well as the eternal covenant.

In Marty Haugen’s hymn “Gather Us In” we say,

“give us to drink the wine of compassion,

Give us to eat the bread that is you,

Nourish us well,

And teach us to fashion lives

That are holy and hearts that are true.”

When Jesus took the cup of the Passover that they were accustomed to sharing, Jesus explained that it was the cup that he had promised to share with them. No matter how we understand the story of Jesus on the cross, when we receive the bread and wine, we are entering into a blank cheque of solidarity with Jesus and his cause. Namely the salvation of the people, one person at a time. They/we pledge to have full Communion with one another. In the account from Mark, we are really learning how the community celebrated the Eucharist, rather than what precisely Jesus did and said at the supper. The community derived this from what the disciples told of their experience with Jesus in the upper room.

Today we are asked again to ponder Jesus’ question: “can you drink this cup? Do you want this Communion with me?” We can too easily say, yes? Remember the disciples were looking for glory. But Augustine through Fr. Surrency said; “drink not to survey or analyze, ponder or scrutinize – but drink – imbibe, ingest, take into you so that it becomes a piece of your inmost self.” We must say “Amen” to what we are in God and our response must be a personal signature, affirming our faith, being a member of this community and then and only then can we truly say, “Amen.” When we again take our place in a communion procession, we must realize that beyond our hymns of praise we will grasp what God offers to us and we will offer that love to others. We must not wrestle with, “how the bread and wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ.” Remember the way the world works is not the way we should work in the world. We must hear what God says to us;

“Receive what you are and become what you receive, be flesh and blood given for the life of the world.”

• Body and Blood of Christ, incarnate word of God, come to live among us…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, broken and poured out for the salvation of humankind…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, broken and shared with sinners who hunger for forgiveness…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, risen in glory as the pledge of our eternal inheritance…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, broken and suffering from hunger and malnutrition…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, children broken and died alone…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, wounded, maimed and slaughtered by war…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, whose helpless members are abused and neglected…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, whose civil rights are denied by unjust governments…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, denied freedom to immigrate in search of a better life…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, suffering from the burden of illness and the added burden of ignorant and judgemental attitudes of others…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, from whose pleading eyes and outstretched hands I avert my eyes and close my wallet and my heart….Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, belittled by ethnic jokes and racial slurs…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, addicted to drugs of all sorts…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, punished but not rehabilitated within the prison system…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, denied child support by negligent parents and/or the system as a whole…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, suffering the loss of memory, mind and personality because of disease…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, whose mental and physical challenges are misunderstood or ignored…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, affronted by media and others peddling false values, brutal violence and perverted sexuality…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, who because of a corrupt social system, have inadequate medical care, pensions, food, welfare, housing and the list goes on…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, people who are lonely and isolated, and whose pains and tears, whose needs and fears are my responsibility…Amen!
  

[And one that should have been first but it took the Ontario

legislature last Wednesday to remind me,]

• Body and Blood of Christ, Government, along with help from catholic and protestant churches, ripped first nation children from their homes and punished the children when they spoke their own languages…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, beloved children…Amen!

• Body and Blood of Christ, who is saviour and Lord, mother and father, sister and brother, friend, and neighbour, to me and to you… Amen! Amen! Amen!

Quite simply the community in Mark celebrated the Eucharist at the conclusion of their common meal. Their sharing appeared to be structured around seven actions and three words spoken by Jesus.

Those 7 actions were: Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave bread, then he took, gave thanks, and gave the cup.

The 3 words were given: over the bread, over the cup, and the reign of God.

This continues to be the structure of the Christian community’s Eucharistic sharing even to this day. At each Eucharist we enter once again into the evolving experience of our history. Each sharing of the bread and the cup traces its roots to the exodus covenant. But because we have broken that covenant again and again, we need to re-establish that covenant with God through the Eucharist. I do not know how all of this happens, so I will quote two Lutherans smarter than me.

Dr. Harvey Kwiyani said, “to realize the fullness of the holy spirit, we must come together in spaces and communities that allow people to bring their authentic gifts and to celebrate expressions of faith that reach across our differences.”

Dr. Gail Ramshaw said, “we as faithful God’s people will at our end go with Christ to God. This is how I taught my daughters about death: when we die, we go to God. And where is God? Well, besides everywhere, God is in the assembly at the Eucharist each week.”

Yes, I believe with death defeated and sin held at bay, all who participate in this new and everlasting covenant can anticipate, at every sharing of the Eucharist that there is a promise of good things yet to come…As we celebrate this feast, a reprise of Holy Thursday, we are invited to join with the disciples, once again, in hearing Jesus’ invitation to receive the bread of communion and to drink of the new covenant with God. Quite simply, as Augustine would tell us; we are called to be what we receive - the body of Christ. When we dare say “Amen!” we proclaim “yes, we will receive what we are and be what we eat.”

Amen! Amen! Amen!

Thank you to, Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, for the idea and many of the

words of the body and blood litany.

For God so loved the world

Re-posted Sermon

by Pastor Joel

Holy Trinity

May 30, 2021

Isaiah 6:1-8

Romans 8:12-17

John 3:1-17

In Nova Scotia, my home province, the wind sets the direction of our sails, both literally and metaphorically. When you are sailing, you use the wind to your best advantage by the position of your mainsail and your jib. A good wind carries us to shore; a vanishing wind leaves us floating directionless. News comes on the wind, the saying goes, both good and bad. An old story tells of the mothers and sisters picking blueberries on the hills above Lunenburg; when a strong wind would come up, they would pray for the safe return of their husbands, brothers, and sons caught out at sea. The wind brings death – in hurricanes that sink ships and flood shores. And it brings life, by spreading nature’s bounty. It blows away the fog and brings clarity. We cannot change the wind; we can only try to adapt to its direction and harness its power.

Yet the wind is invisible; we cannot see it – we can only see the change that it brings. The waves building on th3e sea. Leaves rustling. Fog lifting.

The wind is invisible, and yet it touches everything in its path. It is a power for change.

As our gospel says: The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

Jesus is offering us a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, this aspect of God which we can never truly understand. The original text used the Greek word “pneuma” – which means either wind or Spirit. And in the gospel, Jesus seeks to differentiate the Spirit from the Flesh. The spirit exists outside our earthly needs, our human wants and desires. It cannot be contained by us or controlled; and yet we may adapt to its direction and harness its power. It lifts the fog and brings clarity. We cannot see the Spirit; we can see only the difference it makes.

Jesus is also giving us a metaphor for how we view our lives and the way we interact with our environment. We have our flesh, which includes the physical side of it: our basic needs – food, water, housing. It also includes our wants: the material items we desire, the personal recognition we seek. Our wants may get out of control, driven by greed and envy and power and selfishness. We struggle to keep those wants in check.

The Spirit, however, brings meaning and purpose to life. It’s described in our gospel as an invisible force that we can hear but never fully understand. The wind never bends one tree just like another: it touches everything in its own unique way. And when the wind changes, those same trees bend with it in an equally unique way. So it is with us – we are, each of us, uniquely bent and moved by the Spirit. And from one day to the next, how we experience the Spirit may also change.

So how do we truly hear the sound of this invisible wind of God in a way that matters? We know what happens when the wind blows too hard against a rigid thing: it doesn’t bend, it breaks. To harness the wind, we must move in its direction rather than try to change its course.

And so what Jesus is telling Nicodemus, in answer to all his questions, is that the key to harnessing the Spirit, is openness. If we think we have all the answers, we cannot bend. If we sit in judgement of others, we cannot move in the direction the wind wants to take us. If we cannot be freed up to hear the word of God, we cannot harness the power of the wind.

I think we forget this mystery of God sometimes, perhaps especially right now, when we are so focused on rules and regulations and how to get out of this pandemic. We want to know what will happen to our community, to our families, to our churches. We want to solve the problems we face – and so we have meetings and memos and emails and brainstorming sessions. And yet, where is God in all those meetings? Where is Jesus in our plotting? Where is the Spirit in our brainstorming? We so desperately want to control the future, to know the future, that we close ourselves off to the spirit. We want control, and so we don’t bend to the wind.

And yet, Jesus says, we do not know where it comes from, or where it goes. In other words, we must be patient. We must accede control. We stop plotting every point on the path. We must wait for the wind to take us where we need to go.

My wife can tell you that one of my favourite sayings is: “Everything always works out.” Much like it did for my mother, who was equally perturbed by my use of this phrase, I think it both frustrates Erin and soothes her. But it is not naïve; I am not being the fool when I say this. I have experienced and seen enough in this world to know that things do work out. Not the way I had thought. Not always the way I had planned. But I wake up one day and realize that life has set me a new course. I realize that the wind has bent and moved me, and it will be okay.

That takes faith. It takes patience. It requires that we accept a mystery that we cannot solve; a riddle we cannot answer. We just know that the wind – the Spirit - is with us. We cannot know from which direction it comes, or where it goes – although we do know who sends it. We must wait, and listen, and be open to where it may take us. Amen

Confirmation Sunday

Sermon by Pastor Joel

Day of Pentecost

May 19, 2024

Acts 2:1-21

Romans 8:22-27

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

An opening crawl is played on the monitors at church with the following words to the Star Wars theme song: About 14 years ago in a font not so far away six human babies were taken against their will by parents and sponsors and cold water was poured over their heads. Some of them screamed. Some of them slept through the whole event. Some of them just looked up with wonder. Over the years they came to understand what had happened to them. Their understanding grew as they approached the age of reason. During the last two years they have spent significant time together learning about the love of God and serving their neighbours in need. And today Thomas, Delphine, Liam, Kaiden, Elisabeth, and Thomas #2 come forward in community to say yes to their baptism. Today is the confirmation of their faith.

It’s been 47 years since the movie came out – I was only eight years old – but I remember the cultural phenomenon that Star Wars became, from the moment those words appeared on the screen, and a starship soared over our heads. It seems, perhaps, a sign of the frivolous nature of our society that a science fiction movie can have become so ever present, ingrained even into our language.

But Star Wars, aside from being a marvel in special effects, arrived on the big screen in the wake of a terrible war, and a political scandal, and at the end of a decade where too many seemed to have lost direction. In that void the story of a hero and his disciples, and of an all-powerful, life-giving force equally inspired kids and their parents. Certainly, it continues to fire up the imagination of most of the 8-year-olds I know today – who can describe all the characters, even if they haven’t seen the movies.

This is the power of myth; it gives us a story around which to shape our belief system. Star Wars swirls into our myths because it contains the archetypes of our cultural beliefs – and in not-very-subtle ways – our religious faith. We have the boy hero, Luke Skywalker who must take on great responsibility, and lead a motley band of followers to shape a new world. We have the disciple, Han Solo, who comes to believe. We have sacrifice, and faith. Guiding it all, we have an unseen powerful force, in which the characters must choose freely to believe.

Doesn’t this sound familiar?

Sometimes, Christians might get a little frustrated – the images of the Bible, that first story of Jesus – are so often lifted into popular culture, that it might seem the message is being twisted and diluted. But in fact, the responsibility is ours – to make the link back, to use the myth as a way to build onto our understanding, to develop our relationship to the original truth upon which every story since has been built.

This is the lesson of Pentecost – the freeing message of this Sunday. In our first lesson, the disciples are all together, when suddenly a violent wind fills the entire house, and tongues of fire appear above each of their heads. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” And the crowd that gathered became bewildered because they could understand the disciples as they spoke of the deeds of God in their own languages.

This lesson of Pentecost went unheard for many centuries in the Christian church, when the Bible was only printed and spoken in a language that most of the common people could not understand. But Martin Luther, of course, understood that God had always meant for the message to be heard in a way that people could hear it for themselves, to take it into their own hearts: and so the Bible was translated into German – and since then into just about every language on earth.

Pentecost teaches us that the message of God can be heard in many different ways, and from endless angles of life. One could even make the connection with a TV show like Jack Ryan or Liam’s favorite Bridgerton. We often make the mistake of confining that message of God to speech – but of course, the power of faith and belief reaches out from our art, and our music (except for Taylor Swift), our literature and our movies. The more times we find God in the images around us, the better, stronger and more complete becomes our relationship to God. Our most powerful myths inform our most primary truth.

This is our role as Christians – and our life’s assignment, to remember to look for God – and to be freed up enough to see God – beyond one hour a week when we come to church and God stands so clearly before us – in what we say, and sing, and in holy communion. It is what we need to do especially, when our faith begins to wander, and life throws us in so many directions that we forget where we are going and why.

For in the end, our myths, which inform our cultures, also serve as a mirror for each one of us: we want to see a bit of ourselves in Luke Skywalker. And taken one step further, the most fundamental, we need to know that Jesus resides in each one of us; as we are promised in the Gospel this morning, with the Holy Spirit: “You know him,” the gospel says, “because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

This is my message to you on this day of your confirmation, Thomas, Delphine, Liam, Kaiden, and Elisabeth– a message we all need to remember. Look for God; and feel confident enough to see God in those untraditional spaces, where sometimes God may seem to speak to us most clearly, and with the most passion.

If you do this, I guarantee your life will be better. It may not always be easy but in those more challenging moments there will be a guiding force beyond your comprehension that loves you without reservation. Trust it. May that force be with you both. Amen