LAKE JAMES
NORTH CAROLINA
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LAKE JAMES NORTH CAROLINA
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Ever since the dawn of human history, in every culture and every nation, families and groups have sought to instruct their young, and to remind the mature, of who they are and why. That is especially true for the Jewish People and for those of us in the Christian Tradition, where our emphasis on history and historic events contrasts sharply with religious groups whose emphasis is more on philosophy or abstract ideas. One of the ways that is done in the Jewish Faith is at the Passover Seder Meal celebrating the freeing of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. In last Sunday’s sermon, I mentioned the importance the Seder has, particularly in emphasizing the meaning of that long-ago emancipation not only for those who were themselves slaves, but for Jews throughout the years and centuries which followed. It is a way to help Jews understand and cherish their roots, but also their identity in the present day, and both are important in the Jewish religion’s understanding of its ongoing vocation of glorifying God. As Christians, we believe that that vocation is not limited to Jews. We of the “new Israel,” the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, look back to a Seder meal presided over by our Lord himself, and, especially on this day, Maundy Thursday, we give thanks for a gift of almost inexpressible magnitude and awe. In the epistle we heard just a few moments ago, Saint Paul describes his understanding of how the Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and distributed it to his disciples with the words “This is my Body.” And later, after the meal, he took a cup of wine, and, having recited the form for blessing, gave it to them, saying: “This is my Blood.” * What did you think as you heard those words? Many of us may well have nodded our heads in appreciation and thanks for them. We know them, we believe them, we love to hear them. They state, and reinforce our beliefs. What we may lack in this year of Our Lord 2007, is the sense of shock which those words would have caused the disciples when they first heard them! Let’s go back to the Seder our Lord was celebrating with his followers that night before his death. He had gathered his twelve trusted disciples in an upper room to share in the traditional Passover meal and ceremony. For devout Jews, (as they were,) the Passover Seder had been one of the best loved religious observances, and so, it is not hard to imagine the joy and anticipation with which the disciples prepared to participate in that ceremony with their leader. You and I know, for example, how many Christians look forward to Christmas, to the lovely carols, perhaps a tree decorated with ornaments, the Creche depicting the manger scene, and the Christmas Eve Eucharist. Think of how special all that can be particularly if shared with family or other loved ones. The disciples would have had feelings rather like those about the Passover Seder. The old and familiar usually has a special attraction in religious matters, far beyond the intrinsic merits or demerits of specific customs. Many memories and feelings are associated with such customs and endear them to us all the more. There is a comfortableness in repeating old, established, traditional rituals which, if life becomes harder or more uncertain, can assume an even more precious and important role in our lives. Imagine this if you will: the disciples, have completed all the careful preparations, making sure that the various symbolic foods and artifacts needed for the ceremonial meal are ready. They gather in the upper room with Jesus. The beloved ritual begins, the mighty acts of God are retold. As the leader, Jesus recites the familiar words. Holding up the bitter herbs, he says “these bitter herbs symbolize for us the bitter times our ancestors had as slaves in the land of Egypt.” Holding up a lamb bone, he would say “This lamb symbolizes for us the Paschal Lamb, sacrificed to God.” But then, breaking with tradition, casting aside the familiar custom of using food to symbolize things, he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and passes it around with the shocking words “Take this and eat it, for this is my Body!” And later, “Drink this, for this is my Blood!” Words so different from those of the Seder ritual! Can you imagine how the disciples must have felt? The many questions they must have had, the bewilderment, the uncertainty, even the fear – what was this all about? Instead of the familiar use of food to symbolize something, suddenly a drastically new and different meaning! Have you ever paused to reflect on the fact that that first Holy Communion was given not to well-prepared and carefully instructed people, graduates of a kind of “Jesus-led Confirmation Class” but to amazed and wondering disciples for whom the whole experience was probably mind-blowing! The awesome reality of what Jesus had said, and did, so unexpected, so immense in meaning, would have taken some time for it even to begin to fall into place in their understanding, as in fact, it does to ours even today! And I hope it always will be so for all of us, for the totality of the great Mystery of Our Lord’s Presence in the Blessed Sacrament is something that the longest lifetime would never be enough to bring about complete understanding. That bread does somehow, spiritually, supernaturally, actually, become the Body of Christ, and wine his Blood seems fantastic, incredible, but wonderful beyond words! True, from early days, there have always been skeptics who simply could not accept such an idea. That view, sadly, continues to this day in some places. But the word of the Lord, and the teaching of the Church through the centuries of the Christian era have been steady and clear, reflecting the promise made by Jesus as recorded by St. John in the Fourth Gospel, that the Holy Spirit would guide the Church into all truth. When some Christians have gone off into error, when groups of one kind or another have taught incorrect doctrines or denied the Faith, their movements have either eventually shriveled and died, or clearly emerged as being outside the mainstream of Christian teaching. So, let there be no doubt that the historic, orthodox Christian understanding of the Eucharist is that it is not merely a symbol, not just a nice custom, not just a ceremony in which, if we believe it, Jesus is somehow present. The steady and unchanging teaching of the Church, most clearly seen in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Roman Catholic and some other churches as well, is that the Lord Jesus really meant what he said, that the understanding of Christians in the first century, and the second, and the ninth, and the thirteenth, and so on down to our present day, is one and the same. So we continue to do what they did. We take bread, bless and break it. We take wine, give thanks, and, what nature, human baking and what the Fowler winery have wonderfully produced, are transformed by the power of God into our spiritual food and drink. Through the ministry of the priest as the vehicle of God the Holy Spirit consecrating those elements, we share in receiving the true and objective Sacramental Presence of Christ’s Body and Blood. To the doubter, the unbeliever: superstition, magic, or cracker worship, but to the Christian with faith in Jesus and the Church, the most awesome and glorious truth. So, this evening, as we celebrate this wonderful, holy day of Maundy Thursday, we offer our heartfelt gratitude to God for the gift of the Eucharist, for the Sacramental food and drink which conveys divine grace to us, strengthening us for the task of living Christian lives. We give thanks God for His gift to the Church of the sacred priesthood and pray that many will continue to be called to that special ministry. We thank God for those who, in our lives, nurtured us, helping to bring us to faith, and the desire to be here tonight. As we receive Holy Communion this evening, as we witness the stripping of the Altar reminding us of the stripping of Jesus and his suffering, and as we take time to watch for an hour with that same Jesus at the Altar of Repose, may our hearts be filled with gratitude and love for the Lord who loved us so much that He not only gave Himself for us, but continues to give Himself to us in this sacred banquet! Blessed be God for ever!
+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.
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This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:40 PM |
