This is week two of our five-part sermon series “Practicing Faith” exploring the five promises of baptism. Today, we’re looking at what it means to “Hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper.”
Our Scripture readings for today are John 1:1-5, 14-18; Psalm 119:9-16; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; and Matthew 7:24-29. The car manual illustration (which I’ve used before) is adapted from Nicki Gumbel’s talk, Why and How Should I Read the Bible? in the Alpha course. A transcript can be found here. For this entire series, I drew upon John Herman’s book, Called to Follow (Amazon affiliate link).
Here’s this week’s worship livestream from Living Hope and the sermon audio from Christ the King.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
Thank you for being here with us for worship, or for joining online. We talked last week about what it means to “live among God’s faithful people” and how important it is to all be on this journey of faith together, so thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for coming to worship, for sharing your gifts, time, and talents in this congregation, thank you for being part of our family of faith.
If you weren’t able to be with us at Living Hope for that message—the first week of this Practicing Faith series—remember you can go back and watch the whole service on our website, or you can listen to the podcast of just the sermon.
The baptismal covenant we’re exploring—those promises of faith we affirm as we practice our faith in community and grow as disciples—it starts with living among God’s faithful people—community, gathering together. Then the second promise, the one we’re looking at today, starts answering the question of what do we do as a community. What do we do when we gather?
Well, each week when we meet together, we gather to “Hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper.”
The definition of a Christian community—the way you know you have a church and not a social club or service organization or something—according to the Augsburg Confession, “The church is the assembly of saints in which the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly.”
To have a church, we need to proclaim the Gospel—the good news of God’s grace as found in Scripture and revealed in Jesus Christ God’s living Word—and we need to administer the sacraments. We need to baptize and share in communion. Hear the word of God, and share in the Lord’s supper. This is what we do each week when we gather as church.
We’ll start with the second part, which is pretty straightforward. “Share in the Lord’s supper” means receive Holy Communion. Not to be legalistic about it, but in our church constitution, it’s actually the duty of members to receive Holy Communion regularly (Living Hope: at least once every two years). We’re a sacramental church.
Writing to the church in Corinth, Paul says, “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you” and shares the words of institution, the story of the last supper when Jesus instituted communion. We don’t need to understand all the details or exactly how it works, but Jesus promises that when we receive these little bits of bread and wine or grape juice, somehow he is going to be present. This is Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for you.
Pastor John Herman writes:
“The Lord’s Supper is the visible word in which God feeds us with the presence of Jesus Christ. The meal draws us into a communion with God and a communion with each other (and with the world). The Holy Spirit gathers and forms us into the Body of Christ around God’s gifts of grace: the Word of God and the Lord’s Supper.
In the Body of Christ we are connected to the larger community of faith, and we are reminded who we are and whose we are. We become the body of Christ as we receive the bread and wine. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit in us empowers us to become broken bread and poured-out wine for the life of the world.”
So the promise is simple—share in the Lord’s supper—but what happens is profound. “Martin Luther called the celebration of the Lord’s supper the second ‘high point’ of worship,” God speaking the Gospel to us in bread and wine.
“Communion is a meal for us, for all; food for faith; food for our soul. In this meal, our forgiveness is proclaimed, and we taste the Word of Life.” We are fed for the journey of faith, given a physical sign of God’s grace.
And I won’t go into it now, but Paul writes this passage about Jesus’ words of institution as instructions to the church in Corinth because they were failing to make communion a community celebration. They were dividing into different factions, some people feasting on lots of food while others had nothing, some even getting drunk, and Paul told them they were missing the point. Communion forms community, and everyone is invited to come and be fed with grace; all are welcome to receive the forgiveness and promise of God’s presence.
Come to the table. That’s the more straightforward, tangible part. Share in the Lord’s Supper.
The first part—the call to “Hear the word of God”—is actually more interesting, I think, because we understand “the word of God” to mean two things. Word of God means both the written word in the Bible, and Jesus, God’s Word made flesh.
First, the Bible. We Christians believe the Bible is God’s written word. We believe somehow the Holy Spirit worked through at least 40 different people writing over 1,500-2,000 years to reveal the story of God to us. The words of the Bible are inspired by God, different than any other human book.
The Psalm we read together talks about keeping our way pure by guarding it according to God’s word. It talks about seeking God with our whole heart. If you want to seek God, if you want to grow in faith, if you want to know Jesus better, start by reading the Bible. This is where we meet Jesus.
If I’d planned a bit better, we’d have given out Bibles to our kids today instead of last Sunday, but I’ll say it as a reminder today for them and for all of you. Your Bible doesn’t do any good sitting on a shelf! The Psalm says “I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” For God’s word to make a difference in your life, you have to pick up your Bible and read it.
Sometimes, though, we get stuck on the Bible itself. Remember, the Bible is God’s word, but the Bible itself is not the focus of our faith.
Let me tell you a story about a man named George. George got a brand-new car, a really nice BMW. He was so excited about his new BMW, and when he got in, he noticed right there in the glove box was a glossy, full-color owner’s manual.
George started reading the owner’s manual, and he just loved it. He began reading it every day, keeping it on his nightstand next to the bed. He took a highlighter and marked some of his favorite passages.
Then he thought, I’ve got to memorize some of this, so he started wrote little excerpts on sticky notes to put on his bathroom mirror to see while brushing his teeth. He took some of the best parts and posted them on Facebook over nice pictures of the open road.
He got a guitar and set a few of the most inspiring sections to music. Then he thought, “I wonder whether other people like the BMW manual. Perhaps I’ll join the BMW club and go to some meetings.” He even started learning German so he could read the BMW owner’s manual in its original language instead of a translation!
The problem is, George missed the point. The point of the owner’s manual is to help you drive the car!
Martin Luther described the Bible as “the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies, and to which the angel points the shepherds. Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them.” We value the Bible because it reveals Jesus to us. The Holy Spirit moves us from knowledge about God to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who moves us to put faith into action. That relationship with Jesus is the point. Jesus is the one who changes our lives.
The first chapter of Hebrews says, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days [God] has spoken to us by a Son.”
Jesus is God’s living Word, God’s Word with a capital W. God has spoken to us by entering the world. John 1 says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Jesus is God’s incarnate Word, the most clear way God speaks to us. I know you didn’t come to church today expecting to hear the Christmas Gospel reading, but that’s the point, right? God has come to us; God has spoken to us in person. Jesus is the one we are listening for when we gather to hear God’s word. He is the one teaching with authority.
When you hear God’s word and act upon it—and we’ll go more into the acting and responding in the next few weeks—when you hear Jesus’ words and act on them, Jesus says, you are like a wise man who built his house on a rock. God’s word is eternal. It endures when everything else fails, when the other promises of this world turn into shifting sand. Jesus is the firm foundation you can build your life on.
God’s word to you is love. God’s word calls us to discipleship, calls you to live God’s way. Through God’s written word in scripture, through God’s Word revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, through the tangible good news shared in Holy Communion, God is speaking grace and forgiveness and mercy and love to you, claiming you, and washing you clean.
The God whose word spoke you into existence is still speaking to you today, offering new life and hope. Hear the Word of God, share in the Lord’s supper, and let God’s love spoken to you change your life. Amen