Response to an Invitation
Sermon
HOLY COMMUNION IS ...
Thirteen Communion Messages
I want to begin this morning by reading an important letter to you (Note: Please amend this letter so it is appropriate for your congregation):
Dear Reverend (your name):
I extend to you personal greetings from the President of the 'United States!
As I am sure you are aware, our president has announced his candidacy for a second term in office. One of the important planks in his platform is to return our nation to her strong religious foundations, especially as they express themselves in voluntary prayer in public schools and the abortion issue.
To help build support for his position and to receive the opinions of the "grassroots religious
people" of America, the President will sponsor a Religious Banquet and Forum at the White House on Sunday, June __, 19__. Your congregation has been randomly selected to send two (2) representatives to the event as we gather 500 Lay Persons from all over this great nation of ours to share their concerns and convictions with the president. Please forward to us the names, addresses and phone numbers of your representatives by February 29th.
I thank you in the president's behalf as together we work toward strengthening America.
Kindest Regards,
White House Press Secretary
What do you think about that? Would you like to go to the White House and have dinner with the President? What if you already had something planned for that day, would you cancel it in order to go to Washington? If you were chosen as one of our representatives, how would you feel? Excited? Nervous? Joyful? Scared? Well, don't get overwhelmed by your feelings just yet because I do not really have a letter from the White House. That was a hoax. But even though I don't have a letter from the President inviting you to a banquet at the White House, I do have an invitation from the King of the Universe inviting you to a banquet at his table of grace. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings has invited you to a banquet in his honor today. Have you canceled other important plans in order to attend today? Do you value the Lord's invitation as highly as one from the President? How does his invitation make you feel? Excited? Nervous? Happy? Let me mention just two reactions we should have to Christ's invitation to dine with him at his table of grace.
First, we should be overwhelmed with joy! Just think about it for a moment, won't you? Among all the millions of people in the world you and I have been invited to come dine at his table ... that's exciting! We have been chosen to attend his great banquet and share with him all our burdens and pains ... our sorrows and sins. The Lord wants you and me to dine with him ... be in communion and intimate fellowship with the King of the Universe. That alone should fill us with joy. That is the reason for what Lutherans sing in the Post-Communion Canticle in their service. Just after all have received communion, they sing together: "Thank the Lord and sing his praise: Tell everyone what he has done. Let all who seek the Lord rejoice and proudly bear his name. He recalls his promises and leads his people forth in joy with shouts of thanksgiving. Alleluia! Alleluia!" (From the Lutheran Book of Worship) This is what we sing but is that what we show? Do we radiate with joy at the Lord's invitation to commune with him?
Too often, I fear, we come to communion with negative feelings and thoughts: We become impatient because the service will be longer rather than rejoicing in the added blessings we receive. We feel bored because we must sit and wait for everyone else to commune. We complain because there is no children's church or children's sermon. We approach the altar without having genuinely examined our lives in light of the Gospel. We kneel without having really confessed our sins and laid them on the Lord's table with repentant hearts. Therefore, we leave without experiencing the tremendous joy of knowing that we have been truly forgiven - our guilt removed - our relationship with God restored. For these and many other reasons, we oftentimes leave the banquet table looking sorrowful and sad rather than joyful and jubilant.
The German philosopher Nietzsche was very scornful of the Christians of his day. He said, "I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little more like people who have been saved." Too many of us do not look like saved people. Too many of us do not radiate with joy at being in communion with our Lord and King.
It reminds me of the little girl named Terri who was visiting her Uncle Joe on the farm. Her uncle was a very religious man ... known by everyone to be a devoted Christian. But Uncle Joe never laughed or smiled and usually had a long, sad look on his face. Terri began to think that being a Christian meant being sad and serious all the time. That afternoon Terri went with Uncle Joe to the barn to feed the old mule. She noticed that the mule also had a long, sad face. When they put his food into the trough, the mule snorted and grunted very gruffly. Little Terri looked at her uncle and said, "That old mule is so sad and stern - I guess he's a Christian too."
It's sad when people get the impression that the Christian life is one of sadness and sorrow because nothing is farther from the truth. Joy is a hallmark of our lives in Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him ..." And again in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 he said, "Be joyful always." That joy should especially be evident in us today because the king of the universe has invited us to come to his banquet and dine at his table of grace! I hope that invitation makes you feel as joyful as it does me!
The second thing the Lord's invitation should make us feel is awe. Awe at being in his powerful presence! If indeed we were invited to a dinner at the White House one day, we would not make our acceptance of the invitation contingent upon what was to be served during the meal. It would not depend on the quality of the entertainment or how beautifully the banquet hall would be decorated. We would quickly accept the invitation just to be in the presence of the President. Being with the President would create a feeling of awe in most of our hearts. Well, how much greater awe would be generated in our hearts by being in the presence of the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ. We come into his powerful presence in a very unique and mysterious way when we partake of Holy Communion. The basic focus of our Lutheran theology of the Lord's Supper is the "real presence of Christ" ... that in some mysterious, unexplainable way Christ is actually present, in with and under the elements of Bread and Wine ... that it is, in fact, his supper... he is the host. It is Christ who has invited us, Christ who is feeding us with his body and his blood, Christ who is offering us his love, grace and forgiveness. He is here this morning, to do all that for us and more. If we genuinely believe that, then why aren't we filled with awe at being in his presence? I believe it is because we become too distracted by unimportant things. Perhaps you remember the dialogue from this childhood poem: "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?" "I've been to London to visit the Queen!" "Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you do there?" "I chased a mouse from under her chair!" After hearing that we want to say, "You foolish cat. You were in the presence of the Queen and you spent your time chasing a mouse? What a waste of time! What a waste of opportunity!"
But are we not just as guilty of letting mundane, unimportant thoughts and things distract our attention from the king in our midst? We come to the Lord's Table thinking about how we look in our new suits rather than asking the Lord to dress us in righteousness. We come with minds cluttered with judgments against other worshipers mumbling, "How dare those persons kneel at this altar after what they've done!" We come to the King's table hoping that so-and-so in the congregation is noticing us rather than our taking notice of the King!
Many of our hearts are not filled with awe at being in the presence of Christ either because we don't care that he's here or because we don't really believe he is here. But I want to assure you with all my conviction and all my might that Jesus Christ is present with us today in our celebration of Holy Communion. When you come to the altar and receive these simple earthly elements of Bread and Wine, the King himself will dine with you. He's here this morning to hear your confession of sin. He's here to listen to you unburden your soul. He's here to give you strength to overcome that enslaving habit. He's here to offer you his grace, his forgiveness, his love.
I may not be able to extend to you an invitation from our nation's President, but I can extend an invitation from our heavenly King. The Lord God himself wants you to come dine with him! So be filled with joy that the King of the Universe has invited you to his banquet of grace. And be filled with awe because the King himself will be present! Come, let us dine with the King!
Dear Reverend (your name):
I extend to you personal greetings from the President of the 'United States!
As I am sure you are aware, our president has announced his candidacy for a second term in office. One of the important planks in his platform is to return our nation to her strong religious foundations, especially as they express themselves in voluntary prayer in public schools and the abortion issue.
To help build support for his position and to receive the opinions of the "grassroots religious
people" of America, the President will sponsor a Religious Banquet and Forum at the White House on Sunday, June __, 19__. Your congregation has been randomly selected to send two (2) representatives to the event as we gather 500 Lay Persons from all over this great nation of ours to share their concerns and convictions with the president. Please forward to us the names, addresses and phone numbers of your representatives by February 29th.
I thank you in the president's behalf as together we work toward strengthening America.
Kindest Regards,
White House Press Secretary
What do you think about that? Would you like to go to the White House and have dinner with the President? What if you already had something planned for that day, would you cancel it in order to go to Washington? If you were chosen as one of our representatives, how would you feel? Excited? Nervous? Joyful? Scared? Well, don't get overwhelmed by your feelings just yet because I do not really have a letter from the White House. That was a hoax. But even though I don't have a letter from the President inviting you to a banquet at the White House, I do have an invitation from the King of the Universe inviting you to a banquet at his table of grace. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings has invited you to a banquet in his honor today. Have you canceled other important plans in order to attend today? Do you value the Lord's invitation as highly as one from the President? How does his invitation make you feel? Excited? Nervous? Happy? Let me mention just two reactions we should have to Christ's invitation to dine with him at his table of grace.
First, we should be overwhelmed with joy! Just think about it for a moment, won't you? Among all the millions of people in the world you and I have been invited to come dine at his table ... that's exciting! We have been chosen to attend his great banquet and share with him all our burdens and pains ... our sorrows and sins. The Lord wants you and me to dine with him ... be in communion and intimate fellowship with the King of the Universe. That alone should fill us with joy. That is the reason for what Lutherans sing in the Post-Communion Canticle in their service. Just after all have received communion, they sing together: "Thank the Lord and sing his praise: Tell everyone what he has done. Let all who seek the Lord rejoice and proudly bear his name. He recalls his promises and leads his people forth in joy with shouts of thanksgiving. Alleluia! Alleluia!" (From the Lutheran Book of Worship) This is what we sing but is that what we show? Do we radiate with joy at the Lord's invitation to commune with him?
Too often, I fear, we come to communion with negative feelings and thoughts: We become impatient because the service will be longer rather than rejoicing in the added blessings we receive. We feel bored because we must sit and wait for everyone else to commune. We complain because there is no children's church or children's sermon. We approach the altar without having genuinely examined our lives in light of the Gospel. We kneel without having really confessed our sins and laid them on the Lord's table with repentant hearts. Therefore, we leave without experiencing the tremendous joy of knowing that we have been truly forgiven - our guilt removed - our relationship with God restored. For these and many other reasons, we oftentimes leave the banquet table looking sorrowful and sad rather than joyful and jubilant.
The German philosopher Nietzsche was very scornful of the Christians of his day. He said, "I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little more like people who have been saved." Too many of us do not look like saved people. Too many of us do not radiate with joy at being in communion with our Lord and King.
It reminds me of the little girl named Terri who was visiting her Uncle Joe on the farm. Her uncle was a very religious man ... known by everyone to be a devoted Christian. But Uncle Joe never laughed or smiled and usually had a long, sad look on his face. Terri began to think that being a Christian meant being sad and serious all the time. That afternoon Terri went with Uncle Joe to the barn to feed the old mule. She noticed that the mule also had a long, sad face. When they put his food into the trough, the mule snorted and grunted very gruffly. Little Terri looked at her uncle and said, "That old mule is so sad and stern - I guess he's a Christian too."
It's sad when people get the impression that the Christian life is one of sadness and sorrow because nothing is farther from the truth. Joy is a hallmark of our lives in Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him ..." And again in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 he said, "Be joyful always." That joy should especially be evident in us today because the king of the universe has invited us to come to his banquet and dine at his table of grace! I hope that invitation makes you feel as joyful as it does me!
The second thing the Lord's invitation should make us feel is awe. Awe at being in his powerful presence! If indeed we were invited to a dinner at the White House one day, we would not make our acceptance of the invitation contingent upon what was to be served during the meal. It would not depend on the quality of the entertainment or how beautifully the banquet hall would be decorated. We would quickly accept the invitation just to be in the presence of the President. Being with the President would create a feeling of awe in most of our hearts. Well, how much greater awe would be generated in our hearts by being in the presence of the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ. We come into his powerful presence in a very unique and mysterious way when we partake of Holy Communion. The basic focus of our Lutheran theology of the Lord's Supper is the "real presence of Christ" ... that in some mysterious, unexplainable way Christ is actually present, in with and under the elements of Bread and Wine ... that it is, in fact, his supper... he is the host. It is Christ who has invited us, Christ who is feeding us with his body and his blood, Christ who is offering us his love, grace and forgiveness. He is here this morning, to do all that for us and more. If we genuinely believe that, then why aren't we filled with awe at being in his presence? I believe it is because we become too distracted by unimportant things. Perhaps you remember the dialogue from this childhood poem: "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?" "I've been to London to visit the Queen!" "Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you do there?" "I chased a mouse from under her chair!" After hearing that we want to say, "You foolish cat. You were in the presence of the Queen and you spent your time chasing a mouse? What a waste of time! What a waste of opportunity!"
But are we not just as guilty of letting mundane, unimportant thoughts and things distract our attention from the king in our midst? We come to the Lord's Table thinking about how we look in our new suits rather than asking the Lord to dress us in righteousness. We come with minds cluttered with judgments against other worshipers mumbling, "How dare those persons kneel at this altar after what they've done!" We come to the King's table hoping that so-and-so in the congregation is noticing us rather than our taking notice of the King!
Many of our hearts are not filled with awe at being in the presence of Christ either because we don't care that he's here or because we don't really believe he is here. But I want to assure you with all my conviction and all my might that Jesus Christ is present with us today in our celebration of Holy Communion. When you come to the altar and receive these simple earthly elements of Bread and Wine, the King himself will dine with you. He's here this morning to hear your confession of sin. He's here to listen to you unburden your soul. He's here to give you strength to overcome that enslaving habit. He's here to offer you his grace, his forgiveness, his love.
I may not be able to extend to you an invitation from our nation's President, but I can extend an invitation from our heavenly King. The Lord God himself wants you to come dine with him! So be filled with joy that the King of the Universe has invited you to his banquet of grace. And be filled with awe because the King himself will be present! Come, let us dine with the King!
