Worship on August 18/19, 2018, was the conclusion of our “God is on the Move” summer theme. After a short sermon (really short since I forgot my manuscript!) we watched a video recapping the summer service projects our congregation did, including Vacation Bible School and a youth mission trip to Chicago.
Here’s a picture of the bulletin board from the summer:
The other unusual part of this service was that we sat around tables for worship and to celebrate communion. So, here’s my sermonette for Sunday, August 19, on John 6:51-58.
How many of you were surprised when you walked into church this morning? Be honest! For those of you who aren’t usually here, sitting around tables is not our normal worship setup. It’s probably a little awkward, I know.
But we wanted to try something different today because we’re talking about community, and in both Bible times and in our own world today, community is formed around tables. We get to know one other by sharing meals together.
For several weeks now, we’ve been talking about Jesus as the bread of life. When Jesus describes himself, when he looks for words to describe the way God is moving in the world, he uses this image of the bread of life.
Throughout history, God has often worked through food, especially bread. Last week, we heard about God providing bread for the prophet Elijah. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus multiplied a few loaves of bread to provide enough food for over 5,000 people, plus leftovers. When the chosen people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, God provided manna, bread from heaven, for them to eat.
Now, God is giving a new kind of bread, bread that nourishes not just this earthly life, but that gives eternal life. And this bread, Jesus says, is his flesh. This bread is Jesus Christ himself.
We remember this promise every time we celebrate communion, because as we’ll hear, Jesus took the bread and gave it to his disciples and said, whenever you eat this sacred meal together, remember me, and I will be present. Whenever you drink from this cup, you are drinking of my life, given for you.
If you were here last week, you might remember we talked about how ordinary this all is. Jesus promises to be present in ordinary things, in pieces of bread, in ordinary wine, in ordinary water used for baptism. We’re taking that a step farther today.
As we celebrate communion, instead of coming up to the front, you’re going to actually eat this meal around the table where you’re sitting. And you’re going to serve each other.
It might seem strange to have communion wine out of a normal glass, or to take a piece of bread off a normal Corelle plate, but in many ways, it’s closer to how Christians first understood this communion meal in the early church. It’s ok if it’s strange, or even a little offensive.
In the gospel story we just read, the people around Jesus got upset because eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood sounded a lot like cannibalism. He uses this language that’s almost not abstract enough. It’s too physical, too earthy sounding. For a number of Jesus’ followers, this was too much, and they left. They went back home. We’ll hear about that next week.
But the important part of this meal is receiving it in faith, trusting that Jesus is really present in these ordinary things. This is the meal that defines the church.
Our Lutheran Confessions define church as the place where the Gospel is proclaimed and the Sacraments are rightly administered. (See the Augsburg Confession, Article 7.)
This meal joins us together as God’s people, because around this table, we are all equal, and Jesus is our host. Sharing Jesus’ body and blood together in, with, and under these ordinary elements, joins us together as God’s people. We eat Christ’s body and we become Christ’s body. Christ is given for you.
We’re made Church by sharing this meal, and then we do what Christ’s body does. Jesus sends us out to serve the world God loves.
All summer, we’ve been using the image of a footprint to represent how we are the hands and feet of Jesus, how God is on the move, walking around and through us. When you leave today, take one of the pebbles in the bowl on your table home with you. Carry it in your pocket, or put it somewhere you’ll see it.
Let it remind you that God is on the move. Let it remind you that as God’s people we are gathered into the one body of the church, we are fed at Jesus’ table, and we are sent out to serve.
Amen