6^th November 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 7 September 2014

Lessons - Exodus 12:14,21-28; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29; Matthew 26:17-19,26-29

Jesus said, 'This is my body ... This is my blood ... Do this in remembrance
of me.' (1Corinthians 11:24,25)

There is much confusion about what Christians are doing when they participate
in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Some believe that bread and wine are
changed into the body and blood of Christ. Others dislike what they regard as
mere outward observance and recoil at what they see as primitive superstition
and refuse to participate, preferring to focus on their religious experience
or Jesus' moral teaching. Others stress his 'real presence' but reject
magical thinking. Some treat it just like any other meal shared by families,
communities and religious groups. Some do not feel worthy to take part.

Many of us, steeped in Methodist or Presbyterian traditions where the Lord's
Supper was held quarterly, are wary of monthly sung communion liturgies which
have become common in the Uniting Church (and among its ecumenical partners).
There is a danger that set responses can lead to thoughtless repetition far
removed from a lively, personal faith. But they can also lead us to a deeper
appreciation of God's purpose for humanity.

The Last Supper that Jesus shared with the disciples was a Passover meal, an
annual festival when Jews 'remembered' their deliverance from the evil power
of Pharaoh (Exodus 12:14;13:3). On this 'remembrance day', bread and wine,
staples of daily life, were received and blessed as gifts of God's creative
love and symbols of God's saving grace. The 'fruit of the earth and the work
of human hands' were offered as signs of the sacrificial offering of
themselves to God. The mood was sombre but upbeat. 'He brought us out from
slavery to liberty, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to holiday, from
darkness to great light, from servitude to redemption.' (Passover Haggadah,
cited in CK Barrett, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
p267.)

The Passover 'memorial' included an element that resonated with the upcoming
suffering of Jesus. Hebrew lives were spared from God's displeasure at
unrelenting Egyptian cruelty by putting the blood of a slaughtered lamb on
the door-posts of their houses (Exodus 12:1-28). The blood of the sacrificial
lamb saved them from that particular evil and for a life full of hope.

The symbolism of the Last Supper is unmistakeable. Jesus is the new Passover.
Through his sacrificial death, when his body was (really) broken and his
blood was (really) shed, Christ has saved all who fall short of the glory
that God intends for our life-together. In his life and death, the evil that
bedevils fullness-of-life has got its comeuppance.

Furthermore, those called to be his disciples are privileged to share his
costly, self-giving love for the world in a relationship of deepest intimacy
- a truly 'holy communion' of love.

This must be kept in mind as we turn to the Words of Institution, as
'received' by Paul (1 Corinthians 11:24,25), with some variations in the
later Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:15-20).
'This is my body which is broken for you ...' and 'This cup is the new
covenant in my blood ...' or 'This is my blood of the new covenant ...'
(Matthew 26:28).

What are we to make of this close identification of Jesus' death, when his
blood was (literally) spilt and his body (literally) crucified, with eating
bread and drinking wine? What are we to make of the 'Prayer of Humble
Access' which prays to the 'merciful Lord' that we may be enabled 'so to eat
the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may
evermore dwell in him, and he in us'? (Uniting in Worship p237)

It is not surprising that critics of the sacrament, inside and outside the
Church, recoil at a crude literalism that is akin to cannibalism and
vampirism and unworthy of a humane faith. The intent of this bracing and
unnerving physical language is to stress the closeness of the union that
exists between Christ and those whom he has called to costly discipleship.
'What Paul (for one) wants to say is very simple indeed. He underlines merely
the fact that the connection between Christ and his disciples is so intimate
that it involves one totally, ... bodily.' (E Schwiezer, The Church as the
Body of Christ, p35.)

John Wesley - no friend of crude literalism - puts it like this: 'Is not the
eating of that bread, and the drinking of that cup, the outward, visible
means whereby God conveys into our souls / hearts all that spiritual grace,
that righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost / Spirit; which were
purchased by the body of Christ once broken, and the blood of Christ once
shed for us.' (John Wesley, Sermons I, p253, cited in J Parris, John Wesley's
Doctrine of the Sacraments, p66.)

Wesley regarded the Lord's Supper as an outward sign ordained of God to be a
'Means of Grace'. (Ibid p252.) So, 'eating and drinking Christ' (Prayer of
Humble Access) are tangible symbols, not of a weird cultic ritual, but of
God's incredible fidelity in uniting himself with us in Christ and calling us
to participate in the community communion of his Body, the Church (1
Corinthians 10:16,17). 'Do this in remembrance of me' reminds us of our
calling.

The One who re-calls us to our calling is not a distant 1st Century teacher
who does not want his wise words to be forgotten but the One who fulfils
ancient hopes, embodies the love of the Creator and promises that all things
shall be made new. Thus, in concert with the Creeds, we are to 'remember' the
incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended One who shall come again.

To remember Jesus in this sense is not to be stuck in the past, but to
participate in the holy communion that has been brought into being through
the sacrificial giving of his body and blood in love for the world. As the
Body of Christ, the Church is re-called to its vocation as a community of
hope.

* We think that 'remembering' is only about the past - about what happened
long ago. And that is decisive! The God who saved Israel from slavery, called
them to be a light to the nations and promised that their suffering faith
would be vindicated, has acted for all in the coming of Christ.

* But what has happened does not belong entirely to the past. In Holy
Communion we are to 'remember that Christ died and his blood was shed, for
each one of us' - that what took place once for all is also a present,
personal reality. Remembering what Jesus has done for us commits us to
remember that he is the Lord of all. We are emboldened to proclaim his saving
grace today and thus re-call the privileges and responsibilities of our
present 'calling'.

* The future, too, is included in remembering Jesus. It sounds strange to say
that we should remember the future. But it is not. Memorials, at their best,
are not only about the past or present. War Memorials encourage us to honour
the sacrifices of those who have died (in the past) to keep us free so that
we will work for the common good (in the present) in the fervent hope that
the horrors of war will not threaten us (in future). Memorials can be
signposts to hope!

Hope certainly is an essential part of remembering what God has done in
Christ! In the liturgy we use, quoting Paul, 'For as often as you eat this
bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (v26)'

Therefore we are to participate in the Lord's Supper with 'prayers of
thanksgiving' (i.e. eucharist). We are to be mindful that what began in
Israel, was decisively embodied in Christ (past), has been gladly
acknowledged by countless members of his Body through time (present) and is a
foretaste of the heavenly banquet (future).

Let us, then, participate in this sacrament of the body and blood of Christ,
rejoicing in this sign of hope that marks the end of sin, evil and death and
looks forward to the arrival of a joyous and holy communion in the presence
of grace.
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Rev Dr Max Champion is the Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley
Victoria Australia.

Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing
Congregations within the Uniting Church in Australia