Grant, O Lord, that in the Holy Eucharist we might
behold what we are and become what we receive. Amen.
This
sermon, unlike the last four that I preached, is not a part of my doctoral
thesis project. However, the topic will still be the Eucharist. This is the
encore that you didn’t necessarily ask for, but nevertheless, is being given.
First of all, I want to thank you all for your attention to those four sermons
and for filling out the response sheets. I took last week as vacation and
worked on writing the chapter of my thesis about those sermons and your input
was incredibly insightful and helpful in doing that work. I did get everything done
that I had hoped to last week and now just have one more chapter to write. The
reason why I want to continue to consider the Eucharist though is that you all
raised some really good points and questions in the surveys that I’d like to
respond to in order to round out that sermon series.
The
questions fall into three broad categories: logistics, formation, and essence.
One person also said, “Maybe you can tell us what the Eucharist means to you.”
In a sense, I did that through the four sermons, but I didn’t do it in personal
terms, so I’ll do that as well. First though, logistics. Starting with history,
there were several who wanted to know more about the Eucharist itself – when did
it develop? The Eucharist has its roots in the Last Supper of Jesus, which, in
turn, had its roots in the Jewish Passover. In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul writes
about the practice of Communion and in Acts we read about the practice of the
disciples gathering for the “breaking of bread.” By the late first century,
there are a few Christians writing letters that mention the celebration of the
Eucharist and we have a Eucharistic liturgy that dates to around 215, which, in
part, serves as the basis for our own Eucharistic Prayer. So all that is to say
that the Eucharist has been a central feature of the Church since the very
beginning.
There
were also some very practical questions of logistics, such as “Why do we use
unleavened bread instead of regular bread?” The answer to most of these sorts
of questions is always two-fold – there is the pragmatic answer and there is
the theological. The pragmatic answer is that wafers are just easier – easier to
distribute, they don’t get crumbs everywhere, and you don’t have to worry about
them going bad as quickly. But there’s also the theological answer. Unleavened
bread reminds us of the manna that God nourished the Hebrew people with while
they were in the desert. When it comes to why we use port wine, and not grape
juice is that wine is celebratory, it is what was used at the Last Supper, and is
rooted in Jewish tradition. And practically, we use port wine because it stays
fresh longer and the higher alcohol content is better at killing germs.
In
the Episcopal Church, a good number of our members are former Roman Catholics.
Why that is would be the subject of another sermon, but that fact makes it not surprising
that several people asked about the doctrine of Transubstantiation – the Roman
belief that the bread and the wine actually are transformed into the substance
of body and blood. I’ll quote from the Thirty-Nine Articles, which is found at
the back of our Prayer Book: “Transubstantiation
is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthrows the nature
of a Sacrament, and has given occasion to many superstitions.” That
being said, the Thirty-Nine articles are descriptive of the historical Anglican
position, they are not prescriptive in that they do not tell you what you must
believe.
Where
I come down on it is this: in the Eucharist, Jesus is uniquely and reliably
present in a Sacramental way. Part of the problem is that we too often rely only
on our five-senses. Sure, our senses are really good at interpreting the world,
but they are not sufficient on their own. Why a sunset, or a child’s laugh, or
a Beethoven symphony are beautiful cannot be reduced to an analysis of pigments
or sound waves. Beauty is deeper than that. So is truth. The truth of my love
for my wife is not something that the senses can determine. And the same is
true for so many other things – the courage of a paratrooper, the compassion of
a nurse, the patience of a teacher – these things are all undeniably true, but
they cannot be described by the five senses. It’s the same for Christ’s
Presence in the Eucharist. If we limit ourselves to sight, smell, hearing,
touch, and taste, we might never find Christ in the Eucharist. But if we keep
our other senses open, our senses for what is good, and true, and beautiful,
then, indeed, we’ll perceive Christ to be truly and really present in the
Eucharist.
And
to respond to another question – “What is so special about the Eucharist, doesn’t
God show up in other ways?” It is the reliability of the Eucharist that makes
it a Sacrament of the Church. Yes, God can and does show up in hospital waiting
rooms, and in hikes in the woods, and in making love with a spouse, and
sometimes even in sermons. The difference is that Christ is uniquely and
reliably present in the Eucharist. He has told us that whenever two or three
are gathered in his name that he will be with us. He has told us to do this,
this very specific thing, in remembrance of him. He has told us that this is
his Body and this is his Blood. And so we can trust that Christ is always present
in the Eucharist.
So
as you think about how to talk about the Eucharist to others, particularly
those in churches that are not Eucharistically centered, which was a question a
few of you asked, you can put it in these terms of Christ reliably being
present with us, just as he promised to be, to give us the bread from heaven
which nourishes our souls and shapes us into what we are to become.
Those
were the questions of logistics, now to some questions around formation – which
really revolves around the question “How do I take the grace of the Eucharist
with me as I go from the church?” One is to be more attentive to how you
receive it. There are wonderful prayers to use both before and after receiving
the Eucharist in the Prayer Book on
page 834. You might use those during the Offertory, as you wait to come
forward, and after you return to your pew. Something I do is to repeat a mantra
quietly to help me prepare to receive the Eucharist – you might use “Grant me
to behold what I am that I might become what I receive,” or “Lord Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us,” or “Lamb of God, grant us your peace.” The other suggestion
is to engage in practices of faith: read Scripture, pray, give generously, do
service. Doing this these things will make you hungry for the Eucharist because
the Eucharist is the food for the faithful. The Eucharist is what fuels our
discipleship and transformation.
And this brings us to the
third of the questions around the Eucharist – the question of essence. What
exactly is the Eucharist? And, depending on how we answer that question, it
leads us to the question that some of you asked – “Why is it required that you
be Baptized to receive the Eucharist?”
For
some, I know this is a sensitive question because some view it in terms of
hospitality versus exclusion. But I would suggest that is not the best lens for
addressing the question. It’s also worth remembering that all people are welcome
at the rail to receive a blessing, some in the form of Eucharist and others in
the form of a prayer. Furthermore, to be clear, for me, grace always prevails.
If someone comes forward to the rail with their hands outstretched, they get
bread. The rail isn’t the place for theological debate or checking credentials.
The
reason why Eucharist is for the Baptized is because of its essence. The
Eucharist is not a ritual of belonging, that’s what Baptism is about. The
Eucharist does not bind us to one another, that is what Baptism does. The
Eucharist strengthens those bonds, but it does not create them. Part of the
reason for the confusion around who can receive Eucharist is that we’ve forgotten
the importance of Baptism. Everything in the Christian faith, including the
Eucharist, flows from Baptism – our immersion into the life, death, and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so we are given the Eucharist to reinforce
the union with Christ and all others who are a part of Christ’s Body.
No
analogy is perfect, but imagine if we were giving out gasoline instead of bread
and wine. Now, the assumption would be that you have a car to put that gasoline
into and that gas will power your vehicle. But if you don’t have a car and you
come up to receive the gas, there’s little it’s going to do for you, and, in
fact, might actually cause you to injure yourself. St. Paul makes this point
when he cautions “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the
Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the
Lord.”
For
these reasons, Baptism has always preceded Eucharist. This is the case in the New
Testament, in the early Church, and throughout Church history. It is why the
Baptismal font is located near the door – architecture shows that we enter the
faith through Baptism and are then nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ as
we go deeper. It’s not a question of hospitality because the most gracious
thing to do is to bring someone to Baptism where they begin their journey of
growing in Christ.
Apart from Baptism,
Eucharist makes little sense and could actually do grave damage in delaying or
undermining Baptism as the core of who we are. And this is also why, as some of
you asked, why we don’t really do First Communion classes for children in our tradition,
because all the Baptized are invited and encouraged to receive the Eucharist.
In my experience, most children understand the Eucharist more fully than adults
do because it takes a certain sense of wonder to enter into this sacramental
mystery, and children are better at wonder than most adults. We do sometimes
have Communion Classes to discuss aspects of the catechism about, but that
class is in no way a requirement.
Finally,
what does the Eucharist mean to me? A lot of it really is rooted in what Jesus
says in today’s Gospel text from John. Jesus prays to the Father saying, “The
glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we
are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that
the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have
loved me.” The Eucharist is the vehicle by which we grow the glory of
our Baptismal identity, it nourishes our union with God and all those who are
in Christ, and reminds us that God loves us.
There’s a story about St.
Thomas Aquinas who, in the 1200s, had written a lengthy piece about the
Eucharist but didn’t think it was very good. So he went to pray and heard the
voice of God say to him “Thomas, you have written well of my Body, what do you
desire as a reward?” Now, I’ll be honest, the notion of God giving out rewards
for good writing doesn’t strike me as the sort of thing God would do, but it’s
still a good story. And according to the story, there was another monk present
who witnessed it. But it’s what Aquinas says in response that I find so
captivating – he said, “Nothing but you, O Lord.”
For
me, the Eucharist is that reminder that there is nothing that I need other than
God. Using a phrase from St. Julian of Norwich, the Eucharist helps me to trust
that “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall
be well.” The Eucharist reminds me that God’s love is the purpose of Creation.
It reminds me of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. It reminds me of the power of
the Holy Spirit that moves through this world. It is a sacrament of wonder,
mystery, love, and grace.
And in the Eucharist, I
feel as close to God as it gets and I feel closer to my brothers and sisters in
Christ, both you all and those how have died. When I was just a young child, I
remember a family friend saying that after receiving the Eucharist that she
felt like she could slay a dragon, and the Eucharist gives me a sense of that
strength. And it also gives me a sense of peace, knowing that God’s got the
whole world in those divine hands of love. In the Eucharist, I participate in
my salvation and give hearty thanks for God’s abundant and amazing grace.
And it was my college
chaplain who often talked about the importance of “seeing Communion in
everything.” When I receive the Eucharist, I pray that the holiness rubs off on
me and that it trains me and enables me to live a life of love, joy, and
service. That is why the Eucharist is so important to me – it reminds me of the
blessings of God and allows me to grow in grace so that because of the
Eucharist, my prayer is always “I desire and need nothing but you, O Lord.”
