Jesus, you are the bread of life and we ask
that you would give us this bread always ☩
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
What is Church all about? Really, when it comes down to it, why do we invest so much time, energy, and money into the Church? This is a question that many people have asked, and finding insufficient answers, describe themselves as being “spiritual but not religious.” And given the past 18 months when we had to close the physical church due to the pandemic, as we’ve reopened, it’s become clear that having an answer to the question “what is the Church” is necessary.
The
facts of the matter are that many people who used to attend church haven’t been
back – and I’ve got to think it’s partly because either they’re not sure what
Church is all about or they just haven’t missed it. Without coming to church on
Sundays, they haven’t noticed a discernible change in their lives, they haven’t
been zapped by a bolt of lightning, and they’ve figured out that having one
less thing on the “to do” list can be rather nice. To be clear, the blame here
belongs with me – with church leadership over the past several generations who
focused on the social and outreach aspects of church instead of on
discipleship. I have nothing against forging friendships at church or coming
together in fellowship. Serving those in need is absolutely a part of our
mission. But if it’s just about having meaningful relationships, you can
probably find better places to do that like the brewery or country club. And if
you want to serve those in need, have some fellowship, and learn interesting
things, well, Rotary and Kiwanis do a better job at that than most churches.
The
Church has largely forgotten and abandoned its calling – which is rooted in
discipleship. Jesus’ parting words in Matthew are known as the Great
Commission, in which he says that we are to go into all the world and make
disciples through Baptism. “Disciple” is a word that means “student.” And so at
the heart of the Church is learning about and growing in God’s love. This is
something that you won’t find at any club or other association – the love of
God which is most fully seen in a beaten and crucified 1st-century
Jew. The Passion of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and as a revelation
of God’s love is the beating heart of the Church. Without that, we become a
club without a purpose, an organization without a charter, a gathering without
an identity.
Now,
prior to the surge of the Delta variant, we were planning and hoping that this
Sunday would be the start of a return to normalcy. Kids are back in school and
away at college and vacation season has ended. And so my thinking was that as
we were returning to pre-pandemic lifestyle, a sermon series on this topic of
“What is the Church” would be helpful in getting back into the holy habits of
faith. But, as this virus and the American population seem wont to do, we’re
going to have another round.
That
being said, Delta variant or not, the question is still relevant – “What is
Church?” And so for the next several weeks, I’m going to be focusing on some
foundational questions about faith and the Church – all aimed at inviting us
all to more deeply enter into the gift that God has given us in the Church.
There are also questions in the bulletin for you to consider throughout the
week – these are intended to give you ways to engage with these ideas and
continue to work of discipleship.
The
question for consideration today is the broadest: what is the Church’s purpose?
Again, why are we here this morning? Certainly, there are more entertaining
things that you could be streaming this morning. What is it that we seek to
accomplish by using a Sunday morning for church? The average pledge at St.
Luke’s comes out to about $55 a week. Of course, some give significantly more
than that and some give a good bit less, but still, what is it that we’re
hoping that money makes possible? What is the purpose of the church?
If
you’ve heard me preach before, you can probably guess what is coming next – the
Eucharist is the purpose of the Church. Now let me dive into what that exactly
means. As I said in the sermon last week, the Eucharist has been called the
“source and summit” of the Christian life. The Eucharist is the Church’s source
in that, on the night before he died, Jesus gathered with his disciples, took a
loaf of bread, said the prayer of blessing, broke it, and gave it to them
saying, “This is my Body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Likewise, after supper, he took a cup of wine, said the blessing over it, and
gave it to them saying “This is my blood for the renewing of the covenant,
drink this in remembrance of me.”
One
theologian has asked, “has ever a command been so obeyed?” For 2,000 years,
Christians have been gathering to immerse themselves in the story of the
Passion, the story of our salvation, of God’s love for us by participating in
the Eucharist. It is in this sense that we say that the Eucharist is the source
of the Church – we gather because our Lord has told us to gather and do this
thing in remembrance of him. The grace, mercy, and peace of God all flow from
the source of the Eucharist.
The
Eucharist is also our calling, our hope, and our summit. When the Church
gathers in prayer to obey this commandment to “do this in remembrance of me” we
are at the summit of our faith. Scripture routinely speaks about the
consummation of all things being a meal. Isaiah writes about a feast on the
holy mountain, Jesus speaks about the wedding feast, and Revelation gives us a
vision of the heavenly banquet. Well, the Eucharist is the foretaste, the
appetizer, if you will, of this feast. When we come together to break bread,
Jesus is with us. And we all lay aside the pretenses of self-sufficiency and
superiority, as all of us, ordained and lay, male and female, black and white,
young and old, conservative and liberal, rich and poor, executives and
unemployed, we all come and stretch out our needy hands to be fed by the riches
of God’s grace. Can you imagine what our world might look like if more of our
interactions reflected the radical grace, humility, and inclusivity of the
Eucharist? That prayer that we so often pray, that “thy kingdom come on earth
as it is in heaven” might be just a bit closer to reality.
I
hope that I’ve articulated why the Eucharist belongs at the center of the
Christian faith and life, but why is it the purpose of the Church? Certainly,
things like serving the poor, or bringing people to faith are more important
than a religious ritual, right? But to think in those terms is to put the
Eucharist in competition with other aspects of the Christian life. Instead,
these things are all rooted in the Eucharist. Turning to the passage from
Ephesians this morning, we heard that we are to “give thanks to God the Father
at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Well,
the word for “give thanks” is the Greek word eucharisto. This is why we
sometimes call the Eucharist “The Great Thanksgiving.” As Ephesians puts it,
one of our highest callings is to give thanks, and this is exactly what the
Eucharist helps us to do. Giving thanks is so important to having a healthy
sense of purpose and identity. Studies have shown that grateful people are
happier, healthier, and more pleasant people. Gratitude reminds us that, as
Martin Luther King put it, “we are all in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.” Whether it’s this pandemic or climate
change, isn’t that a truth we’ve all seen? For better and for worse, we really
are all in this together. Gratitude is the antidote to the rampant
individualism that is tearing apart our society.
As
we heard in this morning’s Psalm, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart… the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom.” As we sometimes say as the gifts are presented before the Eucharist –
all things come of thee, O Lord. The 4th-century theologian Ambrosiaster
said, “We are told to give thanks to God for all his gifts… so we submit
ourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ, who commands us to pursue
humility.” Giving thanks is about humility and wisdom in knowing that all we
have is a gift from God, and hoarding the gifts of God makes no sense. By
schooling us in thanksgiving, the Eucharist aligns us with God’s grace.
The
Eucharist also makes us into a different sort of people. Some theologians have
written about the idea that the Eucharist becomes not merely something that we
partake of, but as something we become. This is what led St. Augustine to say
that in the Eucharist we behold what we are and become what we receive. Through
this sacred meal, we become Eucharistic people.
In
Ephesians, we heard “Be careful then how you live… making the most of the
time.” The Eucharist helps us to do just this – it trains us how to live. As
you know, Jesus gave the gift of the Eucharist to the Church and the apostles
were the first stewards of this gift. And that gift of apostolic ministry has
been preserved and passed on through the priesthood. And while it is the
function of priests to preside at the Eucharistic celebration, in a very real
sense, all Christians are priests who preside over the Eucharistic living of
their lives. In all things, we are to give thanks, to emulate the love the
Christ, to feed people from the riches of God’s grace. It’s been said that the
Eucharist is about one hungry beggar telling another hungry beggar where to
find bread – and this is something that we all are given to do. God’s grace is
something that is presented to us in the Eucharist and, as a part of the
priesthood of all believers, the Eucharist strengthens us to share this grace with
others.
Ephesians
also notes that we are to know what the will of God is. Now, that might sound
like something nearly impossible for us to grasp – how are we, finite beings,
supposed to know the will of the infinite God? Well, by grace, God shows us
this in the Eucharist. God wants to feed us with the bread and the cup that
will give us eternal life. This is the will of God: that we taste and see the
goodness of the Lord. Later in John, Jesus will say that he came that we might
have abundant life. Another metaphor that I’ve often turned to is that the
Cross shows us the grain of the universe.
Yes, God has given
us the freedom to work against the grain – to live selfishly, to live without
hope, to not forgive others. But we know that when we work against the grain
we’ll have a much rougher time, we’ll run into splinters, we might even break
the blade. Going with the grain means we are working with God, seeking harmony
and alignment in communion with God.
This
is the purpose of the Church, to remind us of and form us in the grace of God
and we see this most fully in the Eucharist. No matter the mistakes you’ve
made, no matter the things that you’ve left undone, no matter who you are, no
matter your doubts – out of great love for us and for our salvation, the Son of
God took on flesh and came down from heaven to be the living bread that gives
abundant life to the world. Sin and Death are overcome by the grace of God. And
what God desires for you, for each of us, for all of us is to take and eat this
bread that will nourish in God’s love. We don’t have to be worthy of this gift,
because it is given to us freely. All we are to do is receive it and be
thankful.
In
the coming weeks, we’ll consider some other foundation questions about our
faith and the Church, but they are all grounded in the truth that God loves us,
God feeds us, and God wants us to be Eucharistic people – people who know the
story of salvation, people are nourished in grace, people who are empowered in
the Spirit to serve the world in his name. May we always behold that we are the
beloved children of God and become what we receive, the Body of Christ. Amen.
