"Completed Beauty" (Isaiah 65:17-25)

Sunday, November 17, 2019

          “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth,” says the Lord in Isaiah 65.  A new heaven?  A new, better, cleaner, earth that’s more just?  Who wouldn’t want that?

          I’ll tell you who would want and want it right now: you, the people of our church family.  Last week, the sermon was about resurrection.  At the back door as people were leaving, one worshiper stopped to tell me there were times she felt “homesick for heaven.”  Anyone who’s read Philippians knows Paul felt the same way.  Then midweek, I was talking with another church member who said to me, “I would love it if Jesus came, the sooner, the better.”

          Life can be a real struggle.  That’s why so many of us long to be close to Jesus and relieved of the daily pressures that make it hard for us to thrive.  God’s Isaiah 65 promise to make all things new in some ways is a return to the ideal of Eden before Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  New creation is this fallen world remade, made new.

          In his book Rumors of Another World, Philip Yancey paints a picture of struggle as he observes giant leatherback turtles laying their eggs on the beach in Costa Rica. 

The turtle reached down in the soft sand, one muscular flipper at a time, to scoop out and then fling the sand behind her.  As she worked her way down, each scoop required more and more effort.  The sand got wet and heavy, and she had to fling it above the rim of the hole she was digging.  Eventually she reached a depth of three feet, her body fully submerged in the sand.  Now, each fling of sand thrust her whole body to the side, and despite her best efforts much of the sand still fell back in the trench.  She scooped it up again and flung it toward the surface. 

Finally, after an hour’s hard labor, the trench satisfied her and she began to drop shiny white eggs the size of billiard balls. 

Her task completed, the leatherback clambered slowly out of the nest and began a forty-five minute process of filling it in with sand.  … Exhausted, she lumbered off, dragging herself toward the sea.  She would never see the result of her efforts.  When the 60 or so eggs hatch, the baby turtles burrow to the surface and make a mad dash to the sea, with only a third surviving the onslaught of coyotes, raccoons, and sea gulls.[i]

          Predators.  Two steps back for every three steps forward.  Limited success.  Fruit for which we labor but never actually get to touch or taste.  Talking about turtles, we could be talking about the myriad speedbumps and roadblocks that make life hard.  Should life be this hard? 

          Life is hard because of sin – my sins, yours; the sins of other people; our ancestors’ sins.  Humanity’s collective cruelty, jealousy, selfishness, and greed shows up in your life and mine in small ways, in our little cruelties, jealousies, selfish words and thoughts, and greedy deeds.  God can see that life is tough and promises something better for us. 

          I don’t know if in the new earth God promises giant leatherback turtles will struggle so mightily just to lay eggs.  I don’t know if there will be giant leatherback turtles in the new earth.  I hope there are.  Our daily struggles and pains won’t be a part of the new earth.  Walter Brueggemann writes “this promised action of [God] [in Isaiah 65] is clearly designed to overcome all that is amiss, whether what is amiss is caused by [God’s] anger, by [our disobedience], or other untamed forces of death.”[ii]  This is how God makes things right.

          Imagine the conditions to which God is responding in this vision.  Jerusalem, having been utterly defeated by the Babylonians, was a pile of rubble.  The city walls were torn down, and the temple was burned and smashed; completely destroyed.  Picture a city like Beirut after a bombing campaign or the trash-strewn underbelly of the poorest sections of the world’s most densely populated cities.  To this wretched condition God says, “I am about to create Jerusalem – the city – as a joy, and its people as a delight. … No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress” (Is. 65:18b, 19b).

          Because of disease, poverty, lack of education, and lack of access to healthcare, many places in the world have high infant mortality rates.  This is intolerable and God is more offended and heartsick by this than we are.  So, in the new earth he says, “No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days” (v.20a).  In fact all babies in new creation grow up healthy and life spans will be long.  “One who dies at a hundred” will be considered a youth.  Recall the crazy old ages of the patriarchs mentioned in the early chapters of Genesis.  Isaiah reaches back to that era. 

          Also think of places and times when people, perhaps indentured servants or coal miners or migrant pickers and farmers, work but see little to no fruit for their labor.  In unjust systems, the wealthy grow fat off the backbreaking labor of powerless peasants.  Not in the new earth.  “They shall build homes and inhabit them.  They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit.  They shall not build and another inhabit.  They shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (v.21-22).

          The new heaven and new earth is a reversal of the pains plaguing humanity.  God hears every prayer.  Even the natural violence between predators and pray will cease.  “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. …They shall not hurt or destroy on God’s holy mountain” (v.25). 

          Philip Yancey talks about living in Colorado compared to the time he spent living in Chicago.  First he describes his wilderness home where he routinely sees all manner of animals and birds outside his window.  He has a front row seat to the pristine purity of nature.  Then he writes,

In downtown Chicago, my day proceeded very differently.  Most mornings began with a run through the park.  I saw few animals, other than squirrels and pigeons. … I saw instead winos and homeless people sleeping under newspapers and smelly blankets; prostitutes sleeping in doorways next to discarded condoms; well-dressed yuppies standing in neat lines at bus stops; foreign-born nannies pushing the carriages of those yuppies’ children; garbage collectors, janitors, street sweepers, sewer workers, and others who perform the undesirable jobs that keep a city running.[iii]

          Aesthetically, the Colorado wilderness holds more appeal than the grimy inner city streets.  But the image of God is not in the red squirrels, gray foxes, and brown bears Yancey admired from his warm home.  The image of God resides in the yuppies, nannies, prostitutes, and sewer workers.  God created nature’s most spectacular beauty to be enjoyed and admired by each of those millions of city dwellers, his image-bearers. 

          We know that out of His great, grace-filled love for us, God will eventually restore the world.  The wretched underclass will enjoy creation’s splendor.  That new creation will come at the end of history when Jesus returns and we join him in resurrection.  How does God begin now the work of ushering in His eternal kingdom?  God works through His body, the church. 

          We are the tellers of the redemption story - God in human flesh, Jesus; his tragic but necessary death on the cross, and his spring morning victory at the empty tomb; Easter!  We are God’s story-tellers.

          We are the inviters.  In Isaiah 60:3 God declares that the nations will come to Israel’s light.  The world will be drawn to the gathering of the people of God, which in our day is the church.  But for the world to know that God can be worshiped and loved and know, we need to invite. We need to tell God’s story and actively, energetically, invite people to hear our telling of it.

          We are the point of contact where a lost and dying world meets the Savior God.  Jesus’ final command to the disciples and continuing commission to us is “go and tell.”  Obeying this command, we help people see beyond the temporary world as it is to the eternal world of God’s blessing so many are currently unaware of even when they get little glimpses.  We are where the lost world meets the Savior God.

          New Testament scholar N.T. Wright thinks of it this way.  In an attic, a collector finds a faded manuscript of music written for piano.  He contacts a dealer who sees it and then contacts another expert.  They all put their heads together pondering this score, sure that what they’ve found is a previously unknown work by none other than Mozart. 

          How wonderful!  A new work by greatest composer ever.  Yet, as they study it, they realize it seems incomplete.  There are long periods of rest, and it dawns on the collectors and dealers that what they have is indeed by Mozart, but it is written for more than one instrument.  They only have the piano part.  What’s the other instrument or instruments? Cello?  Violin?  Flute?  “If those other parts could be found they would make sense of the incomplete beauty contained in the faded scribble of genius now before them.”[iv]

          When God finishes re-making the world, his earth and his heaven made new and brought together, we, his image bearers, his church, the body of Christ, will become His completed beauty.  Until that day comes, we lean toward it, pray for it, anticipate it, and invite each other and those outside the church to imagine it and find hope in it. 

          Until that day comes, we work for justice and help one another with the struggles of our day.  They are real but so too is God’s promised new creation.  It makes sense that we would long for it.  God placed that longing in us.  That longing drives us to look to God constantly and reflect his hope to the world.

          AMEN

---

[i] P. Yancey (2003).  Rumors of Another World: What on Earth are we Missing?  Zondervan (Grand Rapids), p.47-48.

[ii] W. Brueggemann ((1997).  Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy.  Fortress Press (Minneapolis), p.549.

[iii] Yancy, p.53.

[iv] N.T. Wright (2006).  Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense.  HarperOne (New York), p.39-40.

Easter Sunday

Easter Imagined (Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:12-26)[i]

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Sunday

            Luke reports that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, another woman named Mary, and several other unnamed women came to the place Jesus had been buried.  Luke’s telling of this, as it relates to the women, may be the most helpful of the four gospels.  In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the women are grouped together and come to the tomb together.  They see the angel and then the risen Lord together.  In John, Mary Magdalene has individual experiences.

            If the gospels were written, as historians suggest, at the earliest 35 years after the events surrounding the resurrection and maybe 50 years later, then it is plausible to think the gospel writers were fuzzy on details.  We know there were women and they were the first witnesses to the resurrection.  We can’t be sure of how many or exactly what they saw.

            Some Christians are comfortable with the thought that the reporting was inexact.  Others hear this and say, “Wait a minute!  If the reports in the four gospels are not precise to the finest detail, then the entire Bible is flawed and must be disregarded.”  But look again at Luke.

            In his account of the procession from Jerusalem out to the site of the crucifixion, he mentions a large group of people, many of whom were women.  As he is being led to his death, Jesus talks directly to his female disciples who showed more courage in their faith than did the men (Luke 23:27-28).  These women who were Christ followers, who provided financial support to Jesus and the 12 (Luke 8:3), continued to hang around all through the crucifixion and onto the 3^rd day.

            They came as a group to anoint his dead body, but not necessarily only one group.  Luke indicates many women, more than those he named.  Perhaps what is told in Mark and Matthew deals with one group of women who made their way to the tomb.  John’s account of Mary Magdalene’s individual experience may relate another wave of Jesus’ female followers coming to honor him one last time.  A skeptic wanting to weaken the Gospel accounts by focusing on discrepancies could disregard my idea as mere speculation.  But, the facts as we have them are that Luke mentions many women and does not give a specific number.  There is no declaration from any gospel writer that one group of women made one trip to the tomb the Sunday after the crucifixion.  The implication is that between the female and male disciples, multiple trips were made.  My suggestion is speculative, but plausible. 

            It is certain that all of Jesus’ followers, women and men, were pretty sure the Jesus story was done.  Some sectors of Jewish society believed in a resurrection.  But that belief was in an end-times resurrection of all people.  Both the evil and the righteous – all – would be raised for judgment.  Several New Testament scholars who claim that Jesus was truly dead and truly resurrected make the point.  Jews at that time, even those who believed in the concept of resurrection, did not think the Messiah was going to die and be resurrected.  They did not think a single person was going to be resurrected prior to the general resurrection at the end of history. 

They were sure that Jesus was dead.  They were sad, but not confused.  They went to the tomb the way you and I would go to a cemetery.  They went to visit a burial site and to remember the one who had died.  There expectations were clear. 

We know things did not go as expected.  But even though we know how it turned out, how tears were turned to laughter, we may have a much difficulty with expectations as did those disciples who went to anoint a dead body and instead met a resurrected savior.

Expectations are tricky.  Several years ago, I planned a hiking trip to Glacier National Park.  It was my dad, my good friend, and me.  We would backpack in the Rocky Mountains for five days and nights.  Neither my dad nor I had ever been to the Rockies.  Our friend was from Colorado.  He tried to describe it.  We looked at photos of the national park.  We recalled our numerous experiences of backpacking in the Appalachian Mountains.  But the mountains are higher out west.  The vegetation is different.  There is less humidity.  The wildlife is different.  I had great expectations for the trip.  I anticipated a lot of fun.  And thankfully, that trip greatly exceeded my expectations.  As much as I tried to imagine Rocky mountain beauty, imagination was all I had until I was there. 

That was 13 years ago.  Because the actual experience was so far better than what my expectations could imagine, I will someday go back, I hope.  Other times, I have great expectations and the anticipated event doesn’t quite end up as well as I hoped it would.  This past baseball season, I expected the Detroit Tigers to make the World Series.  They did.  I imagined the joy I would feel when they won it.  My expectations crashed to earth as their hitting dried up and they were swept by San Francisco.  Expectations can be tricky. 

We know that the women expected to find Jesus’ dead body and were utterly blown away when they instead met Jesus alive and in the flesh.  That’s the story.  When historians analyze it scientifically, the best conclusion from the available evidence is that the resurrection actually happened.  Even if other accounts from the Bible are scrutinized and even is some of the evidence is discounted for being unreliable, still, the weight of historical proofs that are as close to indisputable as can be indicates that Jesus really did live, die, and rise to life.  Whatever else we conclude about Christianity, the resurrection happened. 

Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 15.  “If Christ has not been raised … then your faith has been in vain.  … But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died” (v.14, 20).  That phrase “firstfruits” means more resurrections are to come, following his.  Paul continues, “[Christ] must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (v.25-26).  Jesus’ resurrection was with a purpose.  He died to take on himself the penalty for sin.  His death undid the consequences of the fall.  His death accomplished victory over sin and his resurrection accomplished victory over death.  When we are in him, we surely will be resurrected.  We will all die, but our deaths will be temporary.  Our lives after resurrection will be forever.

We have to deal with that.  How do we anticipate and prepare for eternity?  What expectations do we have?  We know details of the story Jesus’ disciples did not have when they went to the tomb that morning.  But, we are a little like I was preparing for the Rockies.  I could read about Glacier National Park and look at pictures.  But until I went, all I had was my imagination.  As Christ followers, we live as resurrection, Easter people, but until we move past death and past the interim period spent in a paradise-type of state, we can only imagine what that will be like.

We get glimpses in the gospels.  The risen Jesus sat with the disciples at a campfire and ate fish.  He took bread in his hands and broke.  His was a tangible body that occupied real space.  Some of the women took hold of his feet and he invited the disbelieving Thomas to touch him.  At the same time, he passed through closed, locked doors.  He suddenly appeared amidst a crowd.  To Paul on the road to Damascus and to John on the Island of Patmos, his appearance was spectacular and otherworldly. 

These 2 dimensional photos help as we picture resurrection in our minds, but photos, while they whetted my appetite for Montana, did not enable to taste the mountain air.  I had to go there.  I had stand under the big sky to be overwhelmed by it.  Prior to being resurrected, we have to live imaginatively.

Someone who lived several hundred years before Jesus can help us.  The prophet Isaiah was given by God a vision.  He was shown God’s angry judgment against sinful humanity, but then he saw how God would restore the world after judgment.  Isaiah did not know judgment would reach its fulfillment on the cross.  But his picture of the restored world after the judgment was completed adds depth and color to our imagined mosaic of the world resurrected.

Isaiah writes God’s words, words God also gave to John, the author of Revelation.  “I am about to create new Heavens and a new Earth” (Is. 65:17a).  Think in terms not of a new Heaven and Earth replacing what currently exists, but think instead of this earth made new just as you and I are made new when we are in Christ.  It is a renewal, a return to the perfect goodness that was the earth when God created it, before Adam and Eve first sinned.

Remembering how conquered nations are plundered by invaders, Isaiah says in his vision of the new Heaven and Earth, “They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat” (v.20a).  In other words, there is no need to fear invasion or war.  In God’s new world, we can concentrate on building things and growing things without fear of war.  It is a world of production and peace, growth and new life. 

“Be glad and rejoice forever in I am creating,” God says, “For I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy and its people as a delight” (v.18).  The ultimate expression of the peace and serenity comes at the end of Isaiah’s vision.  “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like an ox; but the serpent – its food shall be dust!  They shall not hurt or destroy on my holy mountain” (v.25).    If I was walking in nature and a lion came walking toward me, I would be stricken with fear and would frantically seek some place I could go to be safe from the powerful predator.  What kind of world is it where the fiercest of animals quietly grazes alongside harmless, domesticated beasts?

We can’t really see it, but we can imagine.  We can imagine complete freedom from fear.  We can hope for a world where there is no need for any envy or jealousy.  Happiness and joy never get old and never run out.  We can’t know it now, but we can imagine and imagine does not mean pretend or fantasize.  Imagining is the act of anticipating what we know will one day be reality.  Imagining gives hope.

Imagining also directs our approach to life as we anticipate resurrected, eternal life.  Because we know we will live in the world Isaiah described, we work toward that world in our everyday relationships.  We are peacemakers.  We seek the good of others.  We are driven by love and we long to love our neighbors even in the most difficult of circumstances. We forgive, we do not seek revenge, and we go the extra mile to help others in need.  All of this is an outpouring of the resurrection of Jesus and an imaginative expression of our own resurrections which are coming on the Day of the Lord.

Today is our biggest day.  Nothing matters more for Christ followers than Easter.  Douglas Groothius writes, “Without there is no Christianity.”[ii]  For the rest of the world, the 4 billion or so people who do not believe Jesus rose from the dead, today is not a big deal.  More cards are sent at Christmas and on Valentine’s Day.  A bigger deal is made of anniversaries and of New Year’s Eve.  Easter passes almost unnoticed.  Our job is not to prove that Jesus really rose.  The argument can certainly be made, but it is a fact of history whether people believe it or not.

Our job as His followers is to live the reality of resurrection every day.  In this way, we show who Jesus is – the savior, the forgiver, the Lord.  We point the way, and He draws the world to himself.  And regardless of how others feel and regardless of whatever temporary setbacks we suffer, we know resurrection is our permanent condition.  So we live imaginatively and we live in unending joy.

AMEN

---

[i] Focus is on Isaiah 65:17-18, 20, 25 and 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, 20, 25-26

[ii] Christian Apologetics (2011), p.528.

Maundy Thursday

The Last Supper Examination

1 Corinthians 11:27-29

²⁷ 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. ²⁸ Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For all who eat and drink^[h] without discerning the body,^[i] eat and drink judgment against themselves.

            I have seen in church life the words of Paul misused terribly at the Communion table.  “Examine yourselves,” says Paul.  “All who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves.”  No one wants to bring judgment down his or her own head, but what does it even mean to discern the body?  If I don’t know what it means, how can I make sure I do it in such a way that I don’t bring judgment down on myself?

            I have known people in church who are certain they know exactly what Paul is saying.  These sure-minded believers read 1^st Corinthians 11, and they feel they know who can and cannot take the bread and the cup.  Oddly, they always point out why others should not take Communion.  But they don’t check themselves.  They are quick to disqualify others, but they always participate.

            Is the Communion table the place for judgment and restriction?  The meal Jesus shared with his disciples was the last supper before he was crucified.  Why did he die?  Because we are all sinners in need of God’s grace. 

I am not suggesting we should be flippant about the Lord’s Supper.  It is very significant and serious.  I am not saying the ceremony in and of itself is enough.  Doing a religious rite like taking Communion does not save, but rather it points to our salvation.  I am not supposing that we can eat and drink at this table without regarding our behavior when we are away from it.  Repentance must accompany our participation in Communion and repentance is only real when it is seen in our relationships in daily life. 

I am simply saying that we need to be careful when thinking about putting a restrictive fence around the Communion table.  Jesus came inviting the world to come to him.  We are invited to the Lord while we are still in our sin.  The broken bread, Jesus’ broken body, and the red wine or juice, Jesus’ spilled blood, both show how sinful we are and how much we need Him.

For a deeper understanding of what Paul was saying when he wrote that we have to examine ourselves and discern the body, I think it helps to turn to the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 22:24-34

²⁴ A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.²⁵ But he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. ²⁶ But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

²⁸ “You are those who have stood by me in my trials; ²⁹ and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, ³⁰ so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

³¹ “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded^[e] to sift all of you like wheat, ³² but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” ³³ And he said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” ³⁴ Jesus^[f]said, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.”

            In the phrase, “Kings of the Gentiles,” Jesus refers to those who have not turned to him.  People who do not follow Jesus have not acknowledged their need for God and have not accepted God’s grace.  They are not in the kingdom but in the world, living by the standards of the world.  Those standards include the quest for power and the eagerness to hold power over others.  True relationships of trust and love are impossible when we are driven by power.  In the world, we are out to advance ourselves at the expense of those around us.  It is very Darwinian.  Our betterment is directly tied to the regression of our neighbors. 

            “Not so with you,” Jesus says.  “The greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves” (v.26).  In the Gentile world, the world that is not God’s Kingdom, we strive to be served by those we deem beneath us.  But, Jesus turns that hierarchical economy upside down.  In His Kingdom, greatness is seen in us serving each other.  The Lord, the one we worship and follow, Jesus, says, “I am among you as one who serves.”  One way of examining ourselves as we come to the table is to look at our lives and see those places we are serving others. 

Along with this we note those areas we are not serving.  It becomes a matter of the heart, which is what Jesus was attempting to change in each person.  Our hearts, if we are following Him, are to be set to serve others in love and humility seeing absolutely no one as being beneath us. 

Next, we hear Jesus say something unexpected.  “You are those who have stood by me in my trials.”  He knows each of them will flee and hide in cowardice during his greatest trial.  He will go to the cross alone.  And yet, he declares the faithful witness of the disciples and confers upon them the authority to judge.

How can this be?  Will we have the same declaration made of our faith and will we receive the same authority?  The disciples did in fact become martyrs, those who declare “Jesus is Lord,” even when threatened with death.  They did this after the resurrection.  We also live with the knowledge that Jesus who was crucified has defeated death.  The key for us as for the 12 is not in aspiring to sit on thrones and judge others.  The key is faithfulness. 

Living in the United States, it is unlikely we will face imprisonment or death because of our faith in Jesus.  But trials come into the lives of believers because the world is rejecting the Kingdom of God.  When we are for Jesus, the world is against us.  How that looks varies and I don’t know how it will become real in your life.  But a way of examining ourselves when we pick up the broken bread and sip from the cup that points to Jesus’ blood is for us to look at our lives and think about when we have and have not been faithful to the ways of God.  Have we compromised in speech or integrity?  Have we clearly known what God wanted and then we did the exact opposite?  Examining our faithfulness is a way of knowing exactly where we stand when we accept Jesus’ invitation to Communion.  When we know we have failed to be faithful, the appropriate action is not to run away or skip Communion.  No, we take it, but first, with our hearts broken, we confess, repent, and receive forgiveness.

One more word from Jesus on the night of his betrayal as we consider what it means to discern the body.  Peter pledges to go to prison and death with Jesus and Jesus knows Peter will indeed do exactly that, but not this night.  This night, he will deny knowing Jesus.  Later, even after he has shown himself to be faithful Peter will waffle on the issue of whether non-Jews can follow Jesus.  He will get caught between Paul and the Jerusalem church.  In short, Peter’s amazing, inspiring witness rises and recedes.  On one occasion he is the paragon of faithfulness.  On the next, he says something so frustratingly stupid it seems he has not heard a thing Jesus has said.

As we go over all that we know about Peter and we hear Jesus say to him, “When once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers,” then we know, we are him.  Each one of us is Peter.  Each one of us comes to Maundy Thursday and the Lord’s Supper table having at times served Jesus.  Maybe we are unaware of God’s great pleasure in us when we are at our best, but we have those moments where we shine. 

Likewise, we sin as badly as Peter did the night Jesus was arrested and he claimed he didn’t know him at all.  In discerning the body, we give to ourselves and to our neighbors the same measure of grace Jesus gives to us.  We strive for excellence in our discipleship, but we give grace when we fall far below that mark. 

Paul’s guidelines for coming to the Lord’s Supper table are meant to coat our community with humility not to keep people away.  We are a body of broken people who are desperately dependent upon Jesus for life and for love.  And he gives both in abundance.  That is what Paul wants us to know.  The judgment on us is that we are innocent because we are in Christ.  The very words of Jesus when he instituted the bread and cup as a memorial to him help us understand Paul’s teaching.  We come arm-in-arm, supporting each other and granting grace upon grace throughout life. 

The Communion table reveals that all – presidents and peasants alike - are in need of Christ and in His Kingdom.  And in him all are one and this unity extends to all areas of life.    

After the meal, when the forces of evil gathered in the garden to arrest Jesus and take him to his death, his followers fled in fear.  We know how the story turned out.  In retelling it, we come together in humility and love.  We are brothers and sisters, joined in Christ and inspired to share the love he has shared with us. 

AMEN