Sermons

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At This Table
February 13, 2005
Sermon Series on the Gospel of Luke
First Sunday of Lent
Rev. Dan Baumgartner
Luke 22:7-23

A lot has gone on in this sanctuary the last few days...sometimes I come in here and sit and just marvel at all that goes on, day after day and year after year.

On Wednesday night, we started Lent with a quiet Ash Wednesday service, reminding one another that sin and death are parts of our experience. Yesterday, we had a memorial service, and thanked God for the life of Wendy German, a longtime Bethany friend who died at 53. This morning we have already celebrated the baptism of two little twin girls, at the very beginning of life.

Now we gather to read from the Scripture, again peering into the gospel of Luke. Now that we have entered Lent, we'll skip way ahead in Luke so that we can arrive at the right place on Easter morning...then we'll return to read the remainder. But this morning, we go all the way to chapter 22, beginning with verse 7.

It is the final night of Jesus' life, and he is in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Judas, one of Jesus' 12 disciples, has slunk off to meet with the temple priests to negotiate a fee for betraying Jesus.

How many of you are old enough to have gone to a movie at a drive-in theater?

I read this week of the Daytona Beach Drive-In Christian Church (anyone been there?), that has been going for 52 years. It's a drive-in, like an old drive-in movie theater. People drive their car in and park and tune in the service on their car radio. As they arrive, deacons provide them with bulletins and pre-packaged communion elements!

It seems a long way from the story of the Last Supper story we just read. So let's back up for a second.

"Why is this night different from other nights?"

It's a question which is part of the ritual of the Passover meal for the Jews. The Passover was one of the major celebrations, ones which called to Jews from all over the globe to pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate. Jerusalem would swell to several million people, they would worship in the temple, they would eat the Passover meal. "Why is this night different from others?," a voice would ask after the second of four ritual drinks from one's cup.

In eating the Passover meal, they would recall the story. The people of Israel, in slavery in Egypt under Pharoah, have not been forgotten by God. God calls Moses through the burning bush to be a leader, to stand up to Pharoah. And when Pharoah will not release the people, God tells Moses to announce a series of plagues that would strike the land if the Israelites were not released. The last and most extreme of these plagues was the death of the firstborn of Egypt...both children and livestock.

The night before this happened, all the Israelites were instructed to eat a meal of lamb, and to use some of the blood of the lamb to mark their doorposts...and when the Plague came, it would bypass, or pass over those houses, and they would be safe. And that is exactly what happened, and Pharaoh released the people.

In the day of Jesus, and right up until today, this is what the Passover celebrated: God redeeming his people, saving them from slavery in Egypt. But it is even more than just that event...in the Pass Over, God was actually calling out a people, giving them an identity.

Many times after the Passover, when God describes himself in scripture it is not just "I am the Lord."

Instead, it is

"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the hand of slavery."

The people became "the people that God brought out of the land of Egypt." They are "The people God saved ."

The Passover meal and celebration was this event that marked out the people as God's own people, a covenant people...and it continued to be celebrated in Jesus' day.

This is the meal which Jesus quietly gathered his apostles for in our passage. In a guest room, with the symbolic meal prepared and ready as per Jesus' instructions. And Jesus takes his seat there, having looked forward to sharing this meal with them.

Many famous paintings have been done of this scene of the Last Supper. In most of them, the people look very solemn and serious, as well they should have if they understood at all the events lying just ahead of them.

One of our most solemn times of worship is Ash Wednesday. I was so struck again this year, as several hundred people came forward, Linda and I stood here and put crosses of ash onto your foreheads, spoke these terrible words...

Remember you were dust, to dust you shall return. Mortality, death, sin.

Hard words. It was hardest when little children came, so fresh and full of life, and we put the ashes on, and spoke these harsh words of sin and death. And I was so thankful that we went from here, getting the ashes, to either side to take the Lord's Supper. In fact, I wanted to push people from my hard words to the Lord's table where the Lord, who has made provision for sin, for life, for death, for eternity...waits.

But Jesus gathered at that full table, and was surrounded by many kinds of people.

• Peter, the bullheaded fisherman, that Jesus knows will deny ever knowing him in a matter of hours.
• John and the others who will melt into the background. We won't see them again until Jesus is dying on the cross and they "stood at a distance, watching." Some, who will argue about who is the greatest.
• Thomas, who later won't believe Jesus is resurrected.
• Judas.

Way back in chapter 4 when Satan tempted Jesus three times, Jesus resisted and the scripture said Satan "departed from him until an opportune time." Apparently the opportune time is here, because Judas has succumbed and become the betrayer. And yet, Judas sits there at the table with Jesus, along with all of the others. Surely Jesus could have found a more faithful crew? But then, Jesus never has been too particular about the company he keeps, has he?

And notice...that suddenly, at this table...this meal is totally about Jesus. Jesus takes the cup, and gives it to them. Jesus tells them they will next share together after the kingdom of God comes. Jesus takes the bread and Jesus gives thanks and Jesus breaks it and Jesus gives it to them and Jesus says,

"This is my body , given for you ."

Jesus does the same with the next cup after supper, and Jesus tells them,

"this is the new covenant in MY blood poured out for you."

For your forgiveness.

What did those gathered around the table do? They received. That's all. From Jesus. They took, they received, they accepted. That's all. Gathered to receive a special touch from their Lord, one they would never forget. They received a gift.

That's what a sacrament is...a gift. It is not about what we do, it is about what God does. That's why the sacraments are not sacrifices (human gifts to God), but sacraments (God reaches to us).

In our tradition, we have just two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. They are sacred, holy, mysterious moments when God reaches towards us. They are moments when God uses finite things (juice, wafer, water) to bear that which is infinite (forgiveness, cleansing), all of which happens through the Holy Spirit.

Now let's stop there for a minute and fast forward. For 2,000 years, for 2,000 years those who are followers of Jesus Christ have shared in this meal. It is staggering to think about.

Across the world. In every different nation. Across denominations, in huge congregations, in tiny rural churches, those who are famous and those ordinary, those rejoicing and those grieving, for 2000 years! People in prison, and people sick, and people well, the people of God have gathered...to receive a touch from the Lord. To break bread together, to hear again the thing that we are truly hungry and thirsty for: Christ's body was broken and blood shed...for your forgiveness. And mine. For 2,000 years.

And for centuries, the church has wrestled with how to interpret this meal. Some want to see it as symbolic, others as sacramental, as I just describe it, an actual action of God. (John Calvin, who wrote chapters and chapters on just what goes on at the Lord's Table, finished with one of his more helpful statements. He said..."I rather experience it than understand it").

Just as often we have gotten bogged down by the details. Some people use shiny metal trays and plastic throwaway cups. Some stay seated, others go forward. Some use bread, some wafers, some wine, some grape juice, some share in the Lord's Supper each week, some each month, some quarterly. But it's not about how...it's about who calls us here.

I have to tell you this story from when we were in Minneapolis. Our church there had served communion the same way for a good fifty years. People stayed in pews, a large herd of ushers marched around, the little plastic disposable cups were used. When I arrived, I was partly the "help us change" pastor. So I met with the worship committee, and we agreed to do something different. I was to preach a sermon on the Lord's Supper, and we would come forward for communion much like we do here at Bethany.

The one different thing was they wanted to use real bread. Me being me, I delegated the task of getting bread and cutting it up to someone else. In fact, I never even saw the bread until I was at the table giving the invitation. Then I realized that the bread purchaser had bought a bread that had cheese topping on it! You know where this is going.

By the third or fourth person, the cup was a mess. People would dip the bread in the cup, the cheese topping would fall off and...yecch! About the fourth person was a friend of mine, a woman in her seventies who had been there for all fifty of the previous years. It was a big stretch for her to come forward. When she came, and looked into the cup, the look on her face said it all: Lord, what have we done?!!

But it's not about how. It's about who calls us. Notice again what happened in that Last Supper. A people are called out. Jesus is the giver. And the community receives.

When we come to this table in a little while...I believe we experience all of these things. We come as a people who have received their name, their identity. We are the people called out, we are "the people God has saved."

We get to come, and somehow, mysteriously, I believe we are met by Jesus Christ and receive again his forgiveness, in what Augustine called "a visible sign of an invisible grace."

We see this evidence of God's love and forgiveness most clearly when we look at the cross, the place Jesus body was broken and his blood was shed for a purpose ...our forgiveness. And we receive it. It's all that we can do.

And we come together, a motley crew of people broken, stained, tired...people who in our own way have betrayed Christ. Sometimes we know too much about each other's imperfections, sometimes there are relationships that have been strained. Still we come together. To this table.

Richard Pettepiece tells a story of a man imprisoned years ago with nearly 10,000 other political prisoners. On Easter morning, those who were Christians longed to share in the Lord's Supper...but there was no cup, no bread, no wine, not even water. But they gathered, and prisoners who were not Christians said "we will help you...we will talk quietly as you meet," because too loud a silence would have drawn the attention of the guards. The man says,

"I held out my empty hand to the first person on my right, and placed it over his open hand...and the others did the same. "Take, eat, this is my body."

Then all of us raised our hands to our mouths, receiving the body of Christ in silence.

"Take, drink, this is Christ's blood, the new covenant."

And all drank the cup which was empty. And then they said,

"Let us give thanks, sure that Christ is here with us."

It's not about how, but about who provides the meal.

It happened in Jerusalem in an upper room. It happened in a camp for political prisoners. It happens here. At this table. The Lord is surely here with us.

Invitation to Confession:
Almost always when we share in the Lord's Supper at Bethany, we first share in a time of confession. I want to remind you that we don't do this to somehow get ourselves in good enough shape to come to the Lord's Table…that would be a form of earning our way here, of turning a gift from God into something we control, of trying to be worthy…

Rather, we confess our sins and thereby again realize our need to come to this table, to come to Jesus Christ and experience again his grace and forgiveness.

John Calvin once said "the only worthiness disciples bring is a confession of unworthiness."

Let us pray.

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