I have a message from Jesus
for you. He wants you to know that He appreciates
your responding to His invitation to come here this morning. He understands how
busy some of you are. He understands that you could have stayed in bed, or done
some other activity.
But you came here to join in
the Lord’s Supper—the Eucharist----Holy Communion.
· Some of you have just recently responded to & accepted Jesus’
invitation to His banquet.
· Others of you, on the other hand, have accepted His
invitation week after week, & year after year.
· And still others of us may not worship weekly, but
value attending this banquet, none the less. PAUSE
We all see one another
receiving communion—but have you ever wondered what other people are feeling
and thinking as they receive the bread
and drink the wine, of what Jesus calls the New Covenant? My guess is that if we dared to speak to one
another that our appreciation of communion would deepen.
This morning, instead of my talking all the time, we are
going to offer the opportunity for you to express your appreciation
for Holy Communion, by not just receiving but by giving back to Jesus.
We will give back to Jesus by
doing one thing that brings Him the most joy:
By standing up and telling Him, and telling all of us gathered here,
“Why is communion important to you?” You
know, communion is shared experience, but if we talk about it, then we enter
into greater communion with one another.
So, here is the question that I would like to invite you to consider
answering. Pls turn to page 5 in your
bulletin—Looking under the section labeled “sermon,” you will see the question
in print,” WHY IS RECEIVING COMMUNION IMPORTANT TO ME?”
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PAUSE What does communion mean to me? It means unconditional acceptance. God knows what I know---that there are times
when I canbe hypocritical, judgmental, narcissistic, and untruthful. Much of the time I am more concerned about my
image than I am concerned about my soul.
So, when I receive Holy Communion, I know that he just accepts you and
me—as we are—and not as we pretend to be.
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Communion is truly a sacred
mystery: Through the outward and visible
signs of the consecrated bread and wine, we receive God’s grace. What is
grace? Please open your red prayer books
to page 858. First question at the top of the page?
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Q.
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What
is grace?
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A.
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Grace
is God's favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives
our sins, enlightens
our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills. |
Now, God’s Word states that
we receive such grace through Holy Communion---and sometimes we feel or experience it immediately, PAUSE
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Or maybe it just grows within
us over the course of time. But His
grace comes to us all. And Jesus wants you to accept that truth. And one way
God has chosen to demonstrate this is through a legal contract, or covenant,
which He wishes to make with us.
Over the summer, our sermons
focused upon the Old Covenant that God made with the Hebrew people. But on the night before He died, Jesus made
reference to “The New Covenant,” when he said, please repeat after me, “This is
my blood of the New Covenant which is shed for you.
The New Covenant, instituted
by Jesus on that night, is the foundation of the new relationship that Jesus is
offering between God and humanity. Let’s examine this further. Please open your
red prayer books to page 850. As before,
I will ask some questions and you, please, read the responses:
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