A Thought For The Week Of October 29

"He replied, 'You of little faith, why are you so afraid?' Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." (Matthew 8:26) Even as I write this I'm watching CNN's coverage of Hurricane Sandy, and the havoc it's brought to New York and New Jersey, and, at the same time, I'm listening to the wind howling outside, as Sandy approaches my own home. Jesus once faced a storm - out on a lake, with his disciples. They were afraid. The storm was powerful. They didn't know if they'd be safe. And Jesus protected them, calming the storm. I don't anticipate that Jesus will simply make Sandy go away, but on many occasions I have faced my own personal "storms" and I've discovered what those disciples discovered: when Jesus is with you, there's no need to be afraid. Sometimes the storms of life can be fierce and they can seem overwhelming. But trust in Jesus gives us the strength to face them and not be overwhelmed. Facing some kind of storm right now? Any kind of storm? Jesus will calm the wind and the waves. Have a great week!

October 28 2012 sermon - When Love Defines Us

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

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     If - like me - you find it interesting to follow news from the wild, wacky and wonderful world of religion and faith then the name Kateri Tekakwitha will mean something to you. Except that she’s no longer just Kateri Tekakwitha - she’s now (at least to the more than one billion people in the world who consider themselves Roman Catholics) Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. She was born in 1656; the daughter of a Mohawk chief and a Roman Catholic mother who belonged to the Algonquin tribe, and she lived most of her life in a Jesuit mission in Kahnawake, south of Montreal, before dying at the young age of 24. Without going into any more detail, she’s now the first North American aboriginal person to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, as last Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI elevated her to sainthood. I, of course, am a Protestant, and I have to admit that the whole Roman Catholic concept of sainthood is completely foreign to me, which is probably one of the reasons that I chose a church of the Reformation after coming to faith. But I took note of this event, partly because of a comment that was made by a current resident of Kahnawake afterward. To paraphrase, she said that she was pleased to see Kateri Tekakwitha made a saint, because it showed that someone of her tribe could be equal to the other people of God. And I thought - “how sad.”

     The example I’ve used is Roman Catholic, but that’s just because it was in the news in recent days. May sadness isn’t about the Roman Catholic Church. It’s about something that I so often see lacking in many people’s lives. So many seem to have difficulty believing that they are truly loved by God. That lament (because that’s really what it is, far more than celebration) that “one of us is finally as good as everybody else” seems to be a symptom of that problem, and the problem is universal. It crosses denominational boundaries; it crosses racial boundaries. It’s the problem of not grasping the wondrousness of being loved by God, and then of loving as God loves. In 1 Peter, disciples of Jesus are given the following advice: “Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it.” I wonder what it would be like to love one another as if our lives depended on it? What would a community defined by such love look like? Paul was trying to answer that question for the Corinthians.

     Paul spoke of love in today’s passage. You’ve all probably heard that passage many times; it may be the best known passage in the Bible. It may even be that it’s become so common that many who hear it don’t even realize it’s from the Bible. And while it’s wonderful that a passage from the Bible has so impacted our society; it’s troubling that it’s done so by being taken out of context. Folks - this isn’t about marriage. This is not about a romantic love that gets shown by two people holding hands and kissing as a sign of their relationship. It’s good advice about how to love in a marriage; but it’s not about marriage. It’s about the church community; it’s about the family of God; and it helps us to understand what a church would truly look like if it were defined by real love. Jesus himself said that we are to “love the Lord God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength” and that we are to “love our neighbours as ourselves.” Without love, a Christian community can’t function. Without love, the body of Christ shrivels and becomes at best a shadow of what it should be. And so often, we forget or don’t understand what love really is. We reduce love to simply doing nice things for people; we reduce love to a catch phrase like “doing justice” or “seeking justice” and we believe if we do those things we’re acting lovingly, but we miss the point. We can do all kinds of good and wonderful and justice seeking things and still not be motivated by love, and those good things accomplish little if they’re not motivated by love. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

     A community defined by love isn’t defined by the good things it does; it’s defined by how well it builds up the members of the community. A community defined by love is a community where every member puts the needs of the other over and above their own needs - and when everyone is looking out for everyone else’s needs, and is willingly sacrificing for the sake of everyone else, you then create a community without needs. That which God gives us is to be used to build up community by binding us together; too often (and tragically) we use that which God has given us to break down community by worrying about who’s better and who’s more important.  But love doesn’t care about who’s better or who’s more important. Love simply cares. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” This kind of love - the kind of love Jesus spoke about; the kind of love Paul wrote about - isn’t about romance and doing nice things. This kind of love is about giving until there’s no more to give - and then giving some more.

     Many years ago I watched the movie “Crocodile Dundee.”  There’s a scene near the end if that movie that some of you might remember. Alone on the streets of New York City, Dundee is approached by a young thug who pulls a knife on him. Smiling as he looks at the knife in the young man’s hand, he suddenly whips from his belt the biggest knife you or I or anyone else has ever seen. smiling, he said to the young thug, “That’s not a knife - this is a knife.” When love truly defines a community, that’s how people should speak of that community - “this is love.” May that be said of us!

A Thought for the Week of October 22

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance." (2 Thessalonians 3:5) Some people try to suggest that this verse is about our love for God - so that we are pleading for God to help us love God. Doesn't that sound a little bit self-serving on God's part? I believe that what the first part of the verse is saying is that God is actively drawing us; actively pulling us God-ward. Everything God does, everything God reveals and everything about God is directed toward the one purpose of helping us to understand God's love - the love that God has for us and for all creation. Love is the ultimate promise of the gospel, and in a society and a world where a lot of people feel unloved (and perhaps unworthy to be loved) is there a more important message to offer people than that they are loved by and special to God? Just a couple of days ago, Kateri Tekakwitha was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. She's the first Native American to be so honoured. I'm a Protestant, of course, and the Roman Catholic concept of sainthood is quite foreign to me. But one comment made by a native who celebrated the occasion was that it was so good to see that one of her people are equal to the other saints in the eyes of God. That's a paraphrase, but it sums up the comment. I think the gospel tells us that we're all equal in the eyes of God; that we're all equally loved by God. When troubles strike, that knowledge is what gives us the perseverance of Christ to see ourselves through. When you're having one of those rough days, just remember - God is trying to place within your hearts the knowledge of how much you're loved! Have a great week!

October 21, 2012 sermon - Many Equals One

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)

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(Congregation sings:)

We are God’s people, the chosen of the Lord, Born of His Spirit, established by His word.

Our cornerstone is Christ alone, And strong in Him we stand.

O let us live transparently, and walk heart to heart and hand in hand.

We are God’s loved ones, the Bride of Christ our Lord, For we have known it, the love of God outpoured;

Now let us learn how to return the gift of love once given:

O let us share each joy and care, and live with a zeal that pleases heaven.

     This passage of Scripture is a celebration - and maybe it’s best to leave it as that. To this point in 1 Corinthians, Paul has been lamenting the lack of unity that he sees within the Christian community at Corinth. He’s bewildered by what’s happened there; he’s troubled by it; he’s angered by it. The gospel should be giving the Corinthians a sense of shared identity and purpose and mission and instead it’s torn them apart - or, at least, they way they’ve used and abused the gospel message has torn them apart. But enough of lament for Paul - now is the time to start celebrating, and to give the reasons for celebration, because you can’t convince people to be a real community simply by chastising them - you have to tell them what’s so great about being a real community. If you’re in a situation of conflict, where the conflict is endemic and starts to permeate everything and everyone and is everywhere you look, then conflict can become the default position. People can forget that there’s any other way. Churches in conflict are sometimes in conflict because they think it’s a normal way of being church. That’s sad, but true. So, Paul now turns (in the rest of the letter) to what should be “normal” for Christians - and that’s an attitude of joy and celebration, because of what God has done in and through Christ.

     To celebrate this community God has called into being means recognizing the bond that we have with one another, and understanding what that bond means. The church is Christ's body on earth, and what that means is that more than anything else is that, simply put, the church needs a passionate commitment to Jesus and not a passionate commitment to political ideas or doctrines or even to social justice. The church as a whole needs to be committed to Jesus more than to hanging on to influence within society, and followers of Christ as members of the body need to be passionately committed to Jesus rather than to the desire to have things the way we want them. Too often, perhaps, the church loses that passion. We become committed to doing “things” without the focus on Jesus. I hear it said often that the best way to attract people to the church is to give them meaningful “things” to do, but that’s not really true. In the contemporary world, people are more interested in “being” than in “doing.” That’s not to say that they won’t “do” the “things” that Christ calls them to do, but they need to know that it’s Christ calling them to action, and not that they’re being asked to “do things” simply for the church, or to “do” simply for the sake of “doing” as an end in itself. To be truly one, the church has to rediscover the beauty and the majesty and and the power and the spirituality of a strong commitment to Jesus Christ that places him at the centre of everything that happens. When that happens, we won’t get bent out of shape about things that are truly unimportant. The only thing we’ll be concerned about in everything we do is "Did we meet Jesus?" and “Did we introduce others to Jesus?” If the answer to either question is “yes” we’ll celebrate; and if the answer to either question  is “no” we’ll try to figure out where we went wrong, make amends and seek to go deeper next time, but what we won’t be concerned about is “Did I get my way today?” or “Did everything happen the way I thought it should happen?” To be reminded that we are the body of Christ is really to celebrate the fact that we are called to be not so much “Christians” - which sounds so institutional - but rather “followers of Jesus” - because that talks about relationship with Jesus, and relationship with others who follow Jesus. Rediscovering Jesus means revitalizing worship; it means sharpening our mission; it means nurturing one another. That’s what the one body of Christ does when it focusses only and exclusively on Jesus.

(Congregation sings:)

We are the body of which the Lord is head, called to obey him, now risen from the dead;

He wills us be a family, diverse yet truly one:

O let us give our gifts to God, and so shall his work on earth be done.

We are a temple, the Spirit’s dwelling place, formed in great weakness, a cup to hold God’s grace,

We die alone for on its own each ember loses fire:

Yet joined as one the flame burns on to give warmth and light and to inspire!

A Thought For The Week Of October 15

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23) The image of God making a home with us is a comforting thought. We often think of ourselves as being filled with the Holy Spirit, but there's something even more precious (in my mind anyway) about God making a home with us. What intrigues me in this verse is that Jesus attaches a condition: obedience to his teaching. This seems unlike Jesus; and it seems to contradict the idea of grace. Or does it? What is the teaching of Jesus? Does Jesus merely define the "rules" and expect us to obey? I don't think so. Does he just offer us a bunch of interesting thoughts about God that we can spend our lives pondering and debating and arguing about? I don't think that's it either. Jesus revealed God - that's why he came. Jesus showed us what the life of God is about - it's about love, it's about accepting those who are so often cast out, it's about challenging those who so often do the casting out. In short, God's life and God's purpose (revealed through the life of Jesus) is about reconciling each one of us to all of God's creation and to God. To obey Jesus' teaching isn't to obey a legalistic set of rules - it's to pattern one's life after the example of Jesus, and to live in greater and greater conformity to Jesus' life. That's something we can all do, and when we do that, God makes a home with us, because as we sincerely live that kind of life, we're living out the life of God. Have a great week!

October 14, 2012 sermon - All For All

Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom,to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)

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    Have you ever said something to someone - something that you thought was pretty important - and they just didn’t get it. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how hard you went over it again and again, they just didn’t get it. It’s a frustrating experience. You know what you’re saying, you think you’re saying it pretty clearly, you say it over and over again - and somehow the point doesn’t sink in. That’s what Paul would be thinking about this passage today. Everybody thinks that the passage is about spiritual gifts. Bibles with subheadings usually entitle the passage “On Spiritual Gifts” or something like that. And, yes, Paul opens the passage by writing “now concerning spiritual gifts.” But it’s not about spiritual gifts. Paul isn’t giving a list of spiritual gifts, or saying that everybody and every Christian community has to have these spiritual gifts. He recites a few (there are many other spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament; this is only a sample menu, so to speak, and he’s saying what he’s been saying all through this letter - to paraphrase “your problem isn’t spiritual gifts; it’s how you’re using them and it’s why you’re using them. You’re using them to divide yourselves; you’re not using them to create the one body of Christ.”    

     You’ve heard the old saying “all for one and one for all.” I want to push that old saying a little bit farther today (and, who knows, maybe I’ll manage to start a new saying!) Instead of “all for one and one for all” I want to suggest that from the perspective of the church, the real saying should be “all for all.” It’s always “all for all” - or at least it should be. That’s the basis of what we believe. We are called to be the church - but we are more than the church; we are called to be a family - but we are more than a family. We are called to be the one body of Christ, present and active in the world today, motivated and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God - the God who is love. That is our identity. In political terms, I hear people speak of either “the Christian right” or “the Christian left.” But we are neither right nor left; we are love. In denominational terms we speak of United Church or Presbyterian or Anglican or Roman Catholic or Baptist or Pentecostal. But none of that matters; we are love, just as God is love, because we are the body of Christ, who was God in the flesh. That’s the Spirit who moves us to loving service for the sake of others, and who equips us for that loving service, which is always to be exercised for the sake of others, in living out the commandment of Jesus that we love our neighbours as ourself. In other words, the Holy Spirit calls us to unity - not to a lockstep adherence to specific doctrines or particular ideologies, but to the unity of love, which is able to make room for all the differences we have and hold us together to be the love of God and the presence of Christ in the world around us.

     Paul wrote, “Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” Those who confess Jesus as Lord - in other words, Christians - are speaking by the Holy Spirit. This is the one confession that identifies a person as a disciple of Jesus - “Jesus is Lord.” We might not understand the power and the danger of that statement today. We might think of it as mere words; a rather cheap and easy confession. 2000 years ago - in Corinth, in the Roman Empire - to say “Jesus is Lord” was a big thing. It was a treasonous act. Caesar was Lord, and you denied that at great risk to yourself. I don’t know if there’s an equivalent to that in our modern church and society; I’m not sure that Christians in the Western world anyway can begin to grasp how serious a piece of business it is to place oneself under the lordship of Christ over and above all the other things that call us to serve them - even over and above the nation. Can we even try to put ourselves in the same place the Corinthians were in? Do we understand the full significance of the call of the gospel on our lives? Let’s ask the question in the way Paul was putting the issue to the Corinthians: would we betray our country for Christ if we became convinced that Christ’s call on our lives was incompatible with our country’s call? Would we take the risk? Some will do it for far less reason. According to the news in this past week, Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle sold Canadian and NATO military secrets to the Russians for a measly $3000 a month. All it took was $3000 a month - and that was a reward! If you were in Corinth 2000 years ago you risked literally everything to say three simple words - “Jesus is Lord.” That’s why you needed a community, a church, a family. Strength in numbers, you know. People who shared the risk with you. All for all - in it together. And it all fell apart because some of the folks in that church started thinking they were better than others - maybe loved more by God; maybe better and more faithful Christians; maybe just more important than everybody else. And immediately, once they lost their sense of being “in it” together - once they started to distinguish between those they thought were more important and those they thought were less important - their witness suffered. They couldn’t possibly be the one body of Christ if they weren’t all in it together as equals.

     The Corinthians had fallen into that problem. They may have been taking the same risks to be a public Christian outside the community, but not everyone was comfortable with equality within the community. They started to divide themselves up according to who had this gift or that; this ability or that; this talent or that. Some began to think that they were more important than others because they spoke in tongues or had the gift of prophecy or healing and they looked down on others who didn’t have those same gifts as somehow less blessed. And, in this passage, Paul tries to say that they’ve totally missed the point. What God has blessed you with isn’t a sign of greater or lesser love; it’s simply a call for you to use what God has blessed you with for the benefit of everyone - not to divide up on the basis of what we’ve been given, but to pool our resources together for the sake of the community. “All for all” in other words.

     It still happens today. I understand the psychology behind it. Generally, we like to be recognized for how important we are. Years ago, on my first pastoral charge, one of my congregations still printed in their annual report (in fact, basically it was their annual report) what they called “the subscribers’ list.” It was a detailed listing (by name and amount) of every person who had donated anything to the church in the past year and how much they had donated. I opposed it. It seemed to me to be unChristian, an attempt simply to make the big givers feel good about themselves and increase their control over the congregation’s life, and to shame those who didn’t have as much or who couldn’t give as much into letting the big givers have their way on everything. Unsurprisingly, the loudest voice in favour of the list was also the biggest giver, and the power broker of the congregation who always got his own way on everything. That stranglehold on power within the congregation was a symptom of a deeper spiritual sickness - the same as the sickness that infected Corinth. We do it in different ways today, but we do it. A “subscribers’ list” is one example. I know Christians today who are adamantly convinced that if you don’t speak in tongues you don’t really “have” the Holy Spirit - as if the Holy Spirit is a commodity to be possessed. I want to say to you quite frankly that I don’t “have” the Holy Spirit, but I sure hope that the Holy Spirit “has” me. That’s all that matters. Some in the modern church talk about “good” Christians vs. “bad” Christians or - even worse - they make lists of the “real” Christians and dismiss everyone else by doing so. Some in the church get fixated on voting but all voting does is create winners and losers - and the church isn’t called to be democratic, it’s called to be discerning, and when voting to determine the will of the people rather than praying to discern the will of God becomes the priority, then the church is in trouble (and I have to say that in most church meetings I’ve attended over the last 20+ years in all congregations and at all levels of the church there tends to be a lot more voting than there is praying!) Some in the church think of themselves as the “spiritual” ones and are dismissive of those they see as less “spiritual.” And Paul (and probably Jesus too) would watch all this - and weep.

     What happened to “there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” Same Spirit; same Lord; same God. We’re all called for the same purpose - to respect and hounour each other’s contributions, to work together, to share our gifts and talents, to pool our spiritual and maybe even our material resources to further that purpose - all for all - to share love and grace and hope with one another and to bring love and grace and hope to others. That’s all that we’re about. And all of us are about it. All for all. There is no other way.

A Thought For The Week Of October 8

Thought for the week: "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’" (Acts 20:35) Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. The holiday was established by a proclamation of Parliament on January 31, 1957 that designated "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed – to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October." I have no argument with that. As a nation we should be grateful for the blessings we have, and as the people of God (no matter what country we're from) we should always be thankful to God, who is always with us, and whose love for us is a constant. We need to remember, however, that our gratitude should be for more than simply what we've been given - because that implies that we think of what we've been given as ours. I'd prefer to think of Thanksgiving Day (or of the spirit of thanksgiving) as a reminder to be thankful for what we're able to give, rather than simply for what we have. If, indeed, "it is more blessed to give than to receive" then it seems to me that giving back, helping "the weak," and somehow being there for those who are less fortunate is the best way to live with a spirit of thanksgiving. Tomorrow, I get a chance to help serve at an Out of the Cold Dinner. That's an act of thanksgiving because I can give back in time and service by helping those less fortunate. I encourage all of you to find ways to give back. That's the best way of remembering those words of Jesus; "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Have a great week!

October 7, 2012 sermon: All Are Equal At The Table Of The Lord

Certainly not! For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. (1 Corinthians 11:17-34)

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     A few years ago there was a public opinion survey done. Those polled were offered 20 short phrases to choose from and were asked to pick which one was most meaningful to them. The top three choices seemed especially relevant for today. The words most people appreciated were “I love you.” The next most appreciated words were “I forgive you.” And third - and I can relate to this one as well - were the words “Supper’s ready!” In a way, although this wasn’t a religious poll, those three sayings do a not bad job of summing up what’s important about our faith, and today those three statements kind of sum up what we’re about as a worshiping community. We have a mix of symbols before us. On the one hand, we have our Communion table set. You’ll be invited to partake of what we call formally “the elements,” and informally “the gifts of God,” and colloquially “the bread and wine” - except they’re not really bread and wine … but that’s a whole other issue! You’ll come forward to the table (all of you who want to, without exception) and receive a little round (and admittedly rather tasteless) wafer, and a tiny cup of grape juice, and that’s Communion. And you’ll do it confronted by the signs of abundance with which we have the front of the sanctuary decorated this morning. And we have these two contrasting images before us because of the great collision between Thanksgiving and World Wide Communion Sunday - a collision that only happens when October 7 is a Sunday: the first Sunday of October is set aside as a Communion Sunday by as many Christian denominations as could be convinced to do so, so that as many Christians as possible could actually receive Communion on the same day, and October 7 is the first Sunday of October; and since the second Monday of October is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, October 7 is the day before the second Monday in October, and so it’s Thanksgiving Sunday in church for us. And so we have the collision. It’s not exactly Titanic meets the iceberg, but it explains the contrasting images.

    

     I’ve skipped over a fair chunk of 1 Corinthians. These were the sections in which Paul briefly addressed some of the more “worldly issues” the Corinthians were struggling with. I skipped over them because they really aren’t issues that are a part of the modern church or world. We’ve moved today to the part of the letter that deals with more spiritual concerns, and Paul begins this part of the letter with a discussion about what we call today Holy Communion. This passage is the only scriptural depiction we have of the early church’s commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper - and it’s not a pretty sight. As in so many other ways, the Corinthians were having a lot of problems with this memorial. But what we can also figure out is that what we call Holy Communion isn’t what the earliest church thought of as the memorial to Jesus’ last supper. I think - given the type of elements we use in church today - that we’ve forgotten that this was a “supper” - a full meal; indeed, a Passover meal, and so probably a fairly substantial one. If we wanted to recreate the type of meal they had at Corinth to remember Jesus, it would have been more appropriate to have done it last Sunday down in the banquet hall after church over the peameal on a bun (although Jesus, of course, wouldn’t have eaten bacon!) As in so many other things, though, the Corinthians had a problem with their version of Holy Communion. It had become the source of division around which the people of God were divided into the haves and the have nots, rather than the table of unity in which the people of God acknowledged themselves as brothers and sisters, God’s children, equally beloved by God.

     “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.” It seems pretty clear from the context of the letter that what was happening was that the wealthy Corinthians Christians were claiming the abundance of the meal for themselves, and that the poorer Corinthians Christians were being left on the outside, kept away from the table, as if they weren’t worthy to be there. That’s why Paul goes on to say “do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?” Communion is nothing if it isn’t real communion; if it isn’t the occasion for God’s people to gather together in complete equality and setting aside all of the differences of social class or race or age or gender or opinion or ideology or whatever else it might be and simply enjoy the fellowship of the table. In a society in which there is greater and greater distinction between the haves and the have nots - a society in which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer - the church must be the place where those distinctions are set aside, and the table of the Lord is the place where that has to begin. I’m thinking again about that survey I mentioned. The table of the Lord is the place where “I love you,” “I forgive you,” and “supper’s ready!” come together as we share not only the supper provided by God, but also the love and the forgiveness of God.

     So, the table is open. It’s open for all. And all are equal at it.

A Thought For The Week Of October 1

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4) Who is the "them" John refers to? Who are we to overcome? In context, the verse seems to be talking about false prophets; people who claim to be messengers of God but who really bring the message of what John calls "antichrist" - that which is opposed to God, Christ and gospel. Let go of the Hollywood thoughts about the antichrist. We're not talking about a baby born as the spawn of the devil. The spirit of antichrist is all that divides us and makes us selfish and self-centred. It is all that makes us forget the call of the cross - the call of sacrificial love for the sake of others. I would say that there are people infected with this spirit, but antichrist is not a person. It's exactly what it sounds like - it's that which opposes the reconciling, loving, grace filled and life giving work of Christ in our midst. We need to stand for Christ and not antichrist. Standing for Christ isn't subscribing to a political program or a social program or an ideological position or even a religious affiliation. It's simply doing the things that Christ did to the best of our abilities. Friends, have a great week, and remember to represent Christ to all whom you encounter!