"Searching for Sunday: Holy Communion" - Sermon for Maundy Thursday

Searching for Sunday: Holy Communion
Maundy Thursday – Narrative Lectionary 2
March 24, 2016
Grace, Mankato, MN
Mark 14.12-31

The church feeds us. The church feeds us. That’s what Rachel Held Evans wants us to know about the church. It’s is the last section in our Lenten series using Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church. Evans has used the traditional seven sacraments of the church as lens for finding the church anew in our time. We’ve been using the book as a framework for renewing our life of faith. Though we recognize two of the seven in her book as sacraments, we can claim the other five as sacramental. Even so, there’s no disagreement that Holy Communion is a sacrament for most Christians. It is also good to remember that both sacraments and sacramental things say, “Pay attention, this stuff matters, these things are holy.”

The church feeds us and what a meal it is! Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that of all the things Jesus could have said to his followers to think about while he was gone, instead gave them some concrete things to do: “Do this for the remembrance of me.” Now, this meal has evolved down through the ages and is celebrated differently in various Christian communities. However, Evans points out that regardless of the celebration at some point someone says, “Remember,” We do this to remember. Here’s the thing when someone gives up on the church, whether for a season or several seasons. When we leave the church we have to do without Communion. The fact is, it’s much easier to remember things together than to do them alone. That’s why we need church. The church feeds us.

One of the first things I noticed about Grace when I arrived five and a half years ago is that we do food often and we do it well. I don’t know whether our practice of Holy Communion every service every week was derived from our graceful food practice or whether our meal practices derived from our Holy Communion practice. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. The point is that we who are “Home of the Hot Dish” do church this way because people are looking for Jesus. We somehow know that we sit down and break bread together we glimpse Jesus in each others’ eyes. Either place, altar or fellowship hall, we know that food is the language of caring for others. The church feeds us.

Evans goes on to say that we need Holy Communion because when we come forward we are forced to open up our hands to receive God’s very grace into our lives. We need the practice of opening up and letting go. Furthermore, opening up and receiving God means being reminded that we’re not the boss of what comes into our lives. Frankly, it also reminds us that it is not up to us to keep score and put up boundaries to Gods’ love. What I love about Grace is that we openly feed everyone, here or downstairs: young and old, member and visitor, long-time church-goer or somebody searching for Jesus, black or white, gay or straight. All get fed here. The church feeds us.

Though we often take this for granted, we need to recognize what a subversive practice this is in our culture and society. Just as Christ welcomes all, including his betrayer, Judas, so do we, regardless of who they are. And we do it because we need it. For this is the sacrament of unity that overcomes the deepest estrangements and brokenness in our community.

A number of years ago I was a lay leader at Nativity Lutheran in Alexandria VA. We were finally going to build our sanctuary after too many years of worshiping in the fellowship hall. To do so meant meeting with some representatives from the churchwide office. For reasons I don’t remember, the meeting was strained and did not go well. At the end of our time together, we engaged in worship, including Holy Communion. The act of gathering around the table of the Lord did what we couldn’t do, bring peace and unity to our fractured relationships. The church feeds us.

As you come forward to receive Christ’s very body and blood, as you are fed with God’s grace, love and mercy, may you remember that this place and others like it will always feed you. Amen.