Probing Mystery in Bread and Cup
1 Timothy 3:14-16
Matthew 11:25-30
Dr. William Paulsell
One of the most dominant characteristics of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is the practice of having communion every Sunday. But we don’t just leave it at that. We have it at church camp, we have it at retreats, we have it at many special occasions, and occasionally we even have it at weddings. Sometimes it may seem too routine, but if we visit a church that doe not have it that day we have a sense that something is missing.
Our daughter Diane lived in New York for a time and was an elder at Park Avenue Christian Church there. When a job change required a move to Princeton, New Jersey, she could not find a Disciple church anywhere in that vicinity. New Jersey is not a strong state for us. She finally settled on an Episcopal Church because it was the only church she could find that had communion every Sunday. She has become very active and now serves as Junior Warden which is equivalent to being vice-chair of the board in a Disciples church. But she had to have communion and have it weekly.
The Lord’s Supper should be the central practice that binds all Christians together. Sadly, it is not. It has become a very divisive element in Christianity. The World Council of Churches, the largest international ecumenical organization, has never been able to have a communion service at its assemblies because the theologies are too diverse. Not everyone would be able to participate.
From time to time I have attended churches where I was not allowed to take communion because I was not a member of that particular denomination. That is always frustrating and creates a sense of Eucharistic loneliness that is painful.
But I have seen times when the Lord’s Supper has brought people together. I was once asked to be in charge of a national committee dealing with a very controversial subject. The committee included people on all sides of the issue, most of whom had very strong opinions which they were not hesitant to voice. It was decided that we would have communion every time we met, and that was the one thing that held us together. We realized that while we may have had different opinions, when we came to that Table we were all one before Christ. That Table became an incredible blessing to us. Opinions did not change much during our proceedings, but we did develop an amazing love and respect for each other, and we thank Jesus for that.
One of the greatest things about our denominational tradition is the fact that we practice open communion. We invite everyone to the table. One of the tipping points for Alexander Campbell in leaving the Presbyterians and beginning the Disciple movement in western Pennsylvania was the requirement in his former church that you had to present a token in order to be able to take communion. The token indicated that your theology was correct and you were doctrinally qualified to receive bread and cup.
I resent exclusive churches that say I can’t take communion unless I belong to their theological club. Jesus calls all of us. “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Jesus was criticized for his openness. He had meals with tax collectors and sinners, he healed lepers, he praised a Samaritan, he forgave an adulteress. He was open to anyone who wanted him. He did not reject people, and we should not exclude anyone from this table.
The church I served in Indiana had a women’s prayer group that met early on Tuesday mornings. It included women who were not members of our church. It had two Jewish women, one of whom was motivated by the group experience to moved to Israel to study to be a rabbi. It had a Unitarian and women from other Protestant churches. It had an African American woman who also went on to seminary and became a hospital chaplain.
When she was ordained in our church she wanted the women in this group to be the deacons to serve communion. That meant that at least one of the deacons would be a Jew. One of our elders complained to me that this was improper. I told the elder that the last time I counted there were at least thirteen Jews at the Last Supper and most of them didn’t understand what was going on.
It is not for us to turn away those whom Jesus has invited. “Come to me,” he said. One of the continuing questions in our tradition is whether unbaptized children should take communion. We usually leave such matters up to the parents. All I know is that Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” (Matthew 19:14)
At the Seminary we used to have a New Testament professor who said to me, “I have only one sermon, ‘Come to Jesus.’” That is what we want for everyone. A good starting place is an invitation to the Table.
The writer of I Timothy said, “Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great.” Truer words were never spoken. Religion is full of mystery. That is why we have so many religions. All religions are efforts to probe mystery, to see the unseen and know the unknown. One reason fundamentalism has never appealed to me is that it is so cut and dried that there is no mystery there. It is mystery and uncertainty and doubt that cause us to search and probe and wrestle with hard questions, all of which produces a deeper and broader faith. When we don’t have all the answers we are less prone to reject and criticize and condemn.
Our other daughter, Stephanie, is an ordained Disciple minister. She began her ministry serving on the staff of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, an ecumenical campus ministry. The head chaplain was an Episcopalian, and he insisted that the communion service be conducted as it is laid out in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.
It was his practice to be gone during the summer, so Stephanie had to conduct the service every Sunday As she struggled to come up with a good sermon each week, she said to me one time, “Dad, it seems like Sunday comes every three days.”
The challenge for her was the communion service. She told the chaplain, “I’m not sure I can do communion this way.” “Why not,” he asked. “Well,” she said, “I’m not sure what all this liturgy means.” He said, “We don’t do it because we know what it means. We do it to find out what it means.” There is mystery there for us to probe.
I have served several terms as an elder at Central Christian Church in Lexington. The last time I was asked, I declined. I was retired now and I did not feel a great need to go to lots of meetings, and our elders meet pretty regularly. I told our minister that I would be glad to serve as a deacon. I thought I had the competence to pass communion trays and offering plates without getting into too much trouble.
So, I began my term. What I noticed, as I passed those plates, was how seriously people took communion time. I saw people praying or just sitting thoughtfully and meditatively. No one seemed bored or anxious to get on with things. People seemed to like those quite moments while they served each other bread and cup. In a time where there is much experimenting with worship styles, it is important that we have in our church services quiet moments for reflection and personal prayer. After all, we do not come to church to be entertained, but we come to find the presence of God.
We Disciples have never developed a clear cut theology of the Lord’s Supper. We began doing it every Sunday because that is what the early church did. But we have moved on to deeper reasons. It brings an element of mystery into our lives that can be exciting and enriching, as we struggle to grow in our faith.
S. W. Hutton taught at Brite Divinity School at TCU for many years. He put together a Service Manual for Ministers, in which he said, “In the observance of the Lord’s Supper we have the perfect blending of physical things and the vision of God. The bread a nd wine are physical. But whenever and wherever people of spiritual discernment gather at the Table of His Presence and observe this Christian ordinance, something more than bread, something more than wine is there.” There is always that mystery.
So we come to the table and we hear those ancient words, “This is my body; this is my blood,” and we ponder their meaning. Those words have meant many things to many people over the centuries. There are many theologies about Christ’s death. Why did it happen?
I’ll give you my own answer. Jesus spent his ministry talking about doing the will of God, treating people with justice and even going beyond justice. He taught sacrificial living, he taught maintaining integrity, he taught being truthful, he taught turning the other cheek. He was a example of sacrificial living, giving himself to the needs of others, showing us how to love. He seemed to know what lay ahead for him. He could have avoided his death. He could have stayed out of Jerusalem, he could have compromised with the authorities, he could have softened his teachings, he could have told people what they wanted to hear instead of what he thought they needed to hear. But he didn’t.
He died because he was faithful, faithful to God, faithful to his own teachings, faithful to what he thought was right. So we think about “this is my body” and “this is my blood,” and we are confronted with a life and death of faithfulness and ponder our own level of faithfulness.
Jesus invites us into the mysteries of faith. We probe these mysteries together in this church, leaning on those whom we have reason to believe have a deeper faith than we have, learning from the experience of others who have wrestled with mystery, and trying to understand twenty centuries of the Christian tradition.
The essence of religion is living in communion with God, an experience which motivates us to be more loving and compassionate and caring. Knowing the presence of God in our lives gives us confidence and drives out fear.
It is sad to me that some people never know the joy of living in communion with God, in a deep relationship with God. We live each day in the grace of God, a grace which we sometimes ignore or neglect or just don’t see, but which is always there anyway. If we see it anywhere, we see it at the Table where a life of uncompromising faithfulness is thrust into our memories by a few word, “this is my body” and “this is my blood.”
Your minister asked me to close this sermon with a few words about how to take the Lord’s Supper into our daily lives. So let me mention three things.
Practice openness. Just as the Table is open to all, be open yourselves to others. Take the openness of the table into your relationships with other people. Listen to others, show them your attention, communicate compassion and caring. Above all, be faithful to what you know is right. “This is my body; this is my blood.”
Second, appreciate the element of mystery in our faith. There is far more that we don’t know about God than we do know. There are so many questions that have no clear answers. We live in the midst of mystery. That means we should be less dogmatic and more open to questions. It means that there is no point at which we can say we know all there is to know and understand all there is to understanding about faith. We are always on pilgrimage. There is always more to discover, more to learn, more to experience. Being a religious person is a matter of always probing, always growing, always going deeper. “Now we in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face.”
Finally, live in communion with God. That is the most important thing Jesus taught us. Living in the presence of God will transform us and help us reach our full potential as human beings. Be aware that God is always present no matter what we do.
One of the neglected books in the Bible is the book of Proverbs. I must admit that I have neglected it over the years. Recently, however, I have been reading it. Beginning in Chapter 8 the writer probes the mystery of wisdom. Wisdom is personified and speaks in the book. In Chapter 9 Wisdom says,
You that are simple, turn in here.
Come and eat my bread
and drink the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live,
And walk in the way of insight.
Come to the table. There is wisdom here.
Probe the mystery, and become new people in Christ.
