Sermonstudio

(Place a variety of breads, representing different parts of the world, on the altar. You might include pita, french, sourdough, matzo, tortillas, corn, rye, whole wheat, rice cakes. Choose several or use a different one each communion.)

Call To Worship:

Beloved, this is the joyful feast of the people of God. Men and women will come from east and west, north and south to sit at the table where God reigns. Come, let us worship God.

Hymn: "I Come With Joy"
(words: Brian Wren; music: The Southern Harmony by Charles H. Webb)

Children's Time:

A visitor was given a glimpse into heaven and into hell. His first visit was to hell. There he saw a magnificent banquet table filled with food. The people were dressed in rich and beautiful clothing, but the people themselves were groaning, and were only skin and bones. The tools they had to eat with were three--foot long forks, which they were unable to get into their mouths. "Now let me see heaven," the man said to the angel. In heaven he saw the same magnificent banquet table filled with food and the same three--foot long forks, but here the people were plump and jolly, for in heaven the people were feeding ... one another.

Talk Together:

Why were the people in hell so thin? Why couldn't they eat? What about the people in heaven? (Dismiss the children with a prayer of thanksgiving.)

Prayer Of Confession:

We are tempted to pray stones into bread, but Jesus said, "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." We confess our need for forgiveness and this spiritual bread. Amen.

Words Of Assurance:

Jesus said, "This is my body, given for you. Take, eat!" You are forgiven. Amen.

Psalter Reading: Psalm 105:40

Old Testament: Isaiah 58:10--12

Epistle: l Corinthians 10:16--17

New Testament: John 6:35--58

Sermon:

One of the basic stories in Western literature is the quest for the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus used at his last meal with his friends. It is the hunt for the holy - be it a holy place, or a holy word, or a holy sacrament - for that which gives us our meaning.

For years I sought the "hidden treasure" that would uncover the meaning of life for me. Today I do not believe it is an "answer" to be found, a pearl to be purchased, but a life to be lived. Some of life is lived with choices and control. Some of it is empty and lonely. There is some pain. Some joy. Some song. Some tears. But always there is a choice with lights on the path.

Christ was born at the darkest time of the year, bringing his "light" into the world. The teacher asked his students how we know when darkness is ended and light begins. They gave their teacher their answers and asked him for his own. He replied, "When you look into the eyes of another and see your sister or brother, you will know it is light, but if you do not, you will always be in the dark."


Wrenched from the womb of mother

we are born,

death is not burial in a tomb

but a return to our mother, Earth,

in whom we live and move and have our being,

as Jesus, born of Mother Mary,

lying in a manger,

fodder for the animals,

his death,

bread for his people.


The bread and wine of communion unite us with participants around the world in different times and different places.

There is a village in the South Pacific where the people have a tradition of giving a clump of grass to the priest who visits once a month to celebrate the Mass. The clump of grass is a sacred reminder of God's presence, a sacrament symbolizing harmony and peace for the people. It passes from one villager to the next until it returns to the chief, completing the ritual. Then the Mass can begin, but not before. On one visit the priest received word that there would be a delay because of a bitter disagreement between a father and his son. There was no celebration of the Mass that month nor the next. It took three months before harmony was restored and the Eucharist was given and received.1

Community is the gift of shared rituals. On the one hand, infant communion was practiced in the Christian church until the eleventh century when there were complaints that the babies could not swallow the bread. Then they were given the cup only. In 1215, at the Fourth Lateran Council, it was decided that confession must precede communion and that could come only at the "age of discretion."

On the other hand, John Calvin wrote, "As far as the Lord's Supper is concerned, I would rather experience it than understand it."

This is Worldwide Communion Sunday when we unite in the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving feast that brings us all together to the table of our God. There is a rich diversity at God's table. I used to be disturbed by the fact that Christians could not agree on using the same words in the prayer of our Lord. I would pause after the words, "And forgive us our ..." and wait to hear which word would be used. Recently I hear the glory of the words "debts" and "wrongs" and "trespasses," said at the same time. There is a unity in that diversity.

Jesus, knowing the hunger of his friends, physically and spiritually, said, When you pray, say, "Give us this day our daily bread." And help us share it with others.


Some say there is only one way -

You must rise up from the pew and

Come forward to receive.

But others say, you must stay

Seated and be served,

Kneel or sit,

Wafers, cubes, or loaf,

Unfermented - never!

Fermented - hardly!

Around a table or an altar,

But I say you cannot argue the Eucharist.

It drains the sacred out.

You do it!

Sing it! Dance it! Cry it! Try it!

And remember him.


There was a time when suspicion and hatred ruled in the hearts of the people toward those whose skin was a different color than their own. In 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player in the Major Leagues. The Brooklyn Dodgers' owner, Branch Rickey, warned Robinson there would be ridicule, racial threats, and rejection. His warning proved true. Robinson was physically and verbally abused. The crowd, even the players themselves, were vicious. Mid--season Robinson had a horrendous day of disaster, fumbling grounders, overthrowing bases, batting poorly. The crowd went wild went with anger. Then the miracle happened. The team captain, Pee Wee Reese, walked over to Robinson and put his arm around him. Robinson later said, "That touch saved my career and my confidence. I felt I belonged."

In communion we belong to God and to one another, connected as well with the participants of the original Last Supper and with all those who have entered that communion of saints ever since. This is the purpose of sacrament, bringing the past into the present. From the secular point of view, it doesn't make sense. It is absurd.

One Sunday afternoon in confirmation class, the pastor asked, "What did we do today in church that we do not always do?" With that question, they were launched into a discussion of communion.

The pastor began, "Once our people brought the best of their lambs to offer a sacrifice to God, burning the sacrifice on the altar, and the priest and the people ate together." The children, who were beginning to outgrow their "concrete" stage of reasoning, noted that the meal recognized God--with--us, yet beyond, as unseen Mystery. Others said that the eating and drinking were symbols of the transfer of energy, and still others, that it was a meal in memory of Christ.

"Where did the bread come from?" asked one of the younger children, meaning, "Who made the bread?" Her friend quipped, "John Dough." The children laughed. From the secular point of view, it is foolishness. After the laughter, there was silence and out of the silence and the trust, a child asked, "Isn't eating Jesus cannibalistic?"

An article in a newspaper told about a yogi in India who ate a car, slowly, over a year. Carburetor? Steering wheel? Radio? Tires?
When the teacher told the story to the children, they asked, "Why?" and then "Ugh!" But one child began laughing. It was absurd!

Jesus commanded his disciples to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of him. With time plain old bread just wouldn't do for a "sacrament." Superbread was needed and the fish--food, stick--to--the--roof--of--your--mouth wafers were invented. Then on to piles of white cubes. Paul wrote that the cross was a stumbling block and foolishness to the Jew and to the Greek.

We take communion not to eat Jesus who is present in the bread, for Jesus is present in the parking lot and the bakery, in the shoe store and the sanctuary, as well. We celebrate the Holy Mystery to connect, for through the sacrament of communion we are connected to one another and to the whole of creation, animals included. We are connected in order to care for one another.

When the child wandered out of the open door into the wheat fields, no one paid any attention, but soon the entire town was searching for the toddler. It became dark and wet, but they continued the search. At last someone said, "This is crazy. We have no plan. Why don't we line up, take hands, and move in a straight line field by field?" So they held hands and walked down the first field and found the child unconscious. They carried him to his mother and the doctor, who cared for him. It was a long time before the boy was well again, and the mother had only one question, deep in her heart. "Why, in God's name, didn't the people hold hands sooner?"

So we unite and hold hands in God's name, and in communion we are one, holding hands together. Through baptism we learn the source of our existence, and through communion the unity of that existence. It is remembering not only the Passover, the Exodus, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, but also God's creation, the sun, moon, galaxies, and their seasons. Amen.

Sacrament Of Holy Communion

Hymn: "One Bread"
(words and music: John B. Foley)

Prayers Of The People

Pastoral Prayer:

God, our provider, we give thanks for your creative, loving power that feeds and fills us with the grain of the earth, the words of Holy Scripture, and the Word, who is the bread of our lives.

The Lord's Prayer

Offering

Doxology

Hymn Of Commitment: "Bread Of The World"
(words: Reginald Heber; music: John S. B. Hodges)

Benediction:
Go now and share with the world in the name of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


____________

1. Brian Cavanaugh, Fresh Packet of Sower's Seeds - Third Planting (New York: Paulist Press, 1994), pp. 42--43.