Sharing The Bread
Sermon
Dancing The Sacraments
Sermons And Worship Services For Baptism And Communion
Call To Worship:
Come, let us break bread together as we worship God.
Hymn: "This Is A Day Of New Beginnings"
(words: Brian Wren; music: Carlton R. Young)
Children's Time:
A long time ago a man named Jacobo and his wife, Esperanza, were sent out of Spain into northern Israel. Jacobo only knew Spanish so he never fully understood what was happening in the synagogue. One Shabbat he heard the words from Leviticus 24:5--6 in which the children of Israel are instructed to give God twelve loaves of challah (bread) before the Sabbath. Jacobo was excited and shouted to Esperanza. "God likes challah for Shabbat, and you bake the best challah in the world! Next Friday bake twelve loaves and we will bring them to the synagogue for God." The next Friday the two brought the twelve loaves and put them in the ark, the box where the Torah, the Bible, is kept. Not long after that, the janitor came to sweep and prayed before the ark, "God, my children are starving. I need a miracle." He opened the ark. Finding the loaves of bread, he thanked God. The next morning when the rabbi opened the ark during the service, Esperanza and Jacobo saw that God had eaten every loaf. They smiled at each other. And so this continued week after week, year after year. Esperanza baked; the janitor and his family ate.
Talk Together:
What did the story say to you? (Listen for the children's questions about communion. Close with a prayer.)
Prayer Of Confession:
We confess that we are hesitant to speak your word, O Lord, to uproot and tear down evil structures and injustice, to build and plant peace and equality, to feed your lambs and take care of your sheep. Have mercy on us, O God. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
God promises, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. While you were yet sinners Christ died for you." You are forgiven in the name of Christ. Amen.
Litany:
Leader: Do you know where God is?
People: God is in creation.
Leader: God is in this piece of bread.
People: Without God in creation, there would be no bread.
Leader: The bread we eat daily reminds us of God's love and presence.
People: When we eat the bread, we are eating months of sunshine and rain and snow.
Leader: Taste and see that God is good.
People: And God's providence is forever. Amen.
Psalter Reading: Psalm 72:1--9, 18--19
Old Testament: Proverbs 9:1--7
Epistle: Acts 2:42--47
New Testament: Luke 14:15--24
Sermon:
When I hear Jesus say, "Take, eat," it reminds me of his story of "The Great Banquet" to which the host invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servants to issue the invitation, but when the guests began to make excuses for not coming, new guests from the highways and byways were invited.
When I hear this story I see a large table. At one end of the table are the disadvantaged, the unfortunates, the marginal of society. Their table manners are atrocious. They aggressively tear and gnaw and loudly chew and belch their food. At the other end of the table, as far away as possible, are the rich, shocked and offended by the grossness of their fellow guests. They cannot imagine why the host invited this group, who can never repay the invitation. In the middle, between the poor and the rich, most of us sit. Some of us look enviously at the end of the table where the rich sit and inch closer in order to pretend we are one of them. Some hope that after this meal the outcasts at the other end will "try harder." Some are sorry for the poor, who hunger for physical bread, or for the rich, who lack spiritual nourishment. Finally, a small group take their provisions to one end to share their food and to the other end to share their love, knowing all people need both. In Jesus' story, however, there were no rich, nor even middle--class, for they had made their excuses not to attend.
In this story Jesus tells us what the messianic banquet is all about. The Pharisees expected that only the "righteous" would come to such a banquet. What Jesus said shocked his audience. The early church used it to say to the Jews that even outcasts, such as the Gentiles, are invited to God's feast, for holy communion is union and sharing, the joyful feast of the people of God, a ritual reminder that all of us depend on sharing resources in our global village. Whenever the spirit of sharing and sacrificing for another exists between two or twenty or 2,000, the spirit of communion exists.
The rabbi said, "There is a full--fed zaddik." His disciples asked him what he meant by this. He explained, "One man buys himself a loaf of bread and eats it, and another shares his bread with others."
The world is hungry for bread. Three--fourths of the world is without food. Hunger claws at millions of people, almost half of them children who suffer from severe malnutrition that affects their physical growth. In 1970 six percent of the world's population was consuming forty percent of the world's resources.
We take the "bread" of the Word and Sacrament in order to be fed, and having been fed, we rise up from our knees to feed. For there cannot be harmony nor health for one until there is justice for all, until we are all seated around the table together, just as Jesus gathered his disciples, and as we do today whenever we participate in communion.
God invites us to the Banquet, to "take and eat," to hear and to tell what God has done and will do, the promise of the presence of God's kingdom here and now and yet to come, the proclamation of a future in which we will all live in justice, peace, and mercy.
In the children's story, the bread was shared. Jesus' ancestors believed that when two or three ate together, God was present. They believed that when a host or hostess invites someone to eat, they are saying to that person, "You are my sister, my brother. I will take care of you." At the Great Banquet, God promises God's presence and Jesus invites us into solidarity with the hungry, hurt, and oppressed persons, to eat together in his name.
The Bible is rich with illustrations of God blessing the people with bread, for bread was a basic necessity in the lives of biblical persons. The story of Israel's escape from bondage in Egypt and their wandering in the wilderness is the story of God feeding them with physical bread. Joseph saved the people during the five--year famine with bread, Moses fed the people with God's manna, and Elijah was fed by the ravens and the widow.
The teacher, James Fowler, found to his dismay that his prayer life and living with scripture was dried up. In his class at the time was a group of Jesuits who were enthusiastic about Ignatian spirituality. They introduced Fowler to faith imagination by taking him on a three--day retreat. The first day he was to meditate on the story of the feeding of the 5,000, getting the story until the story "got" him. The second day he read himself into the story, smelling the smells of the crowd, hearing the sounds of their voices, feeling their touch, seeing them and Jesus, and tasting the food. Above all, tasting the food. On the third day he opened to his own hungers and need for feeding, and what food there was that he needed. He found his needs and a mediator, the unconscious symbols and the sacred story.
As we model and help hungry people find food for the journey into deepening trust in God, we too are fed. We are fed so we can feed, for to be human is to be hungry. We are born hungry, but we cannot live by bread alone. Jesus told Martha she was too concerned with food, and he told the people not to worry about what they would eat or drink, yet he fed the crowds. The church both feasts and fasts. Jesus told his friends to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," and encouraged them to ask, saying, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7).
After years of deep spirituality, unbounded energy, and idealism, yet practicality and unlimited commitment, a nun became afflicted with a painful and fatal disease. With intense concentration she studied her disease and cared for her body. Then, in the midst of the suffering, she lost her faith and became depressed. She felt utter hopelessness. She knew the Eastern concept of emptiness but did not know it could be so barren and dark. Yet out of this void she discovered a new faith arising, different from the kind she had nurtured all her life, inseparable from her incapacity. It was a deep trust and profound peace, a faith in which she found what she needed the only way she could - alone. Before her new faith could be resurrected, her former faith had to die.
Before his death Jesus ate with his friends. He said, "Take ..." and he says, "Take," to us today, as well. We taste the real bread of life and wine, the "red life" of resurrection, when we participate in the death. There must be death if there is to be resurrection.
It grew on a green vine, suckling the yellow sun,
Gulping the black rain, becoming the rich red blood.
"Come, drink," he said.
"Come to my banquet and feast upon the gentle grape.
Come, eat my bread and be fed."
I replied, "My need is not to eat,
But I too would suck the sun, gulp the rain,
Be the grape upon the vine,
The grain that ripens in the field,
And hear the vineyard owner say,
'You are my body and my blood.
You are my bread.' "
As post--resurrection Christians, we can sing and dance, laugh and rejoice over the victory of the Lord of the Dance, sharing our joy and our bread, even when it is difficult and unappreciated.
There was once a famine in Lithuania and the poor left the cities and swarmed over the countryside in search of food. Every day throngs of hungry people passed through the village where the rabbi's parents lived. His mother ground grain with a hand mill and every morning baked bread to distribute among the hungry. One day more people came than usual and there was not enough bread to go around, but the oven was still hot and the bowls were full of dough. She quickly took some of the dough, kneaded it and formed loaves, slipping them into the oven. Meanwhile the hungry people complained because they had to wait, and a few insolent among them even cursed her. At that, the charitable woman burst into tears. Her son tried to comfort her. "Do not cry, Mother. Let them curse. Just do your work and fulfill the commandment of God. If they praised you and showered blessings on you, it would not perhaps be fulfilled so well."
Just do your work of sharing the bread. Christianity asserts the total goodness and glory of creation, the body as well as the spirit, the senses as well as the faith imagination. Our story of creation reminds us that God said, at the close of each day, "Hmmm, that's good!" And the disciples left the last meal, singing, going out into the world to share the bread, the body of Christ, our Lord. Let us do the same. Amen.
Hymn: "Let Us Break Bread Together"
(words: African--American spiritual; music: adapt. William Farley Smith)
Sacrament Of Holy Communion
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
Almighty God, Father and Mother of us all, you know our hungers. Fill them with your word and presence and transform them into food for others in Christ's name. Bless the prayers of your people and hear the prayer we pray together now ...
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "You Satisfy The Hungry Heart"
(words: Omer Westendorf; music: Robert E. Kreutz)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God who gifts us with bread through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who enables us to share it with others. Amen.
Come, let us break bread together as we worship God.
Hymn: "This Is A Day Of New Beginnings"
(words: Brian Wren; music: Carlton R. Young)
Children's Time:
A long time ago a man named Jacobo and his wife, Esperanza, were sent out of Spain into northern Israel. Jacobo only knew Spanish so he never fully understood what was happening in the synagogue. One Shabbat he heard the words from Leviticus 24:5--6 in which the children of Israel are instructed to give God twelve loaves of challah (bread) before the Sabbath. Jacobo was excited and shouted to Esperanza. "God likes challah for Shabbat, and you bake the best challah in the world! Next Friday bake twelve loaves and we will bring them to the synagogue for God." The next Friday the two brought the twelve loaves and put them in the ark, the box where the Torah, the Bible, is kept. Not long after that, the janitor came to sweep and prayed before the ark, "God, my children are starving. I need a miracle." He opened the ark. Finding the loaves of bread, he thanked God. The next morning when the rabbi opened the ark during the service, Esperanza and Jacobo saw that God had eaten every loaf. They smiled at each other. And so this continued week after week, year after year. Esperanza baked; the janitor and his family ate.
Talk Together:
What did the story say to you? (Listen for the children's questions about communion. Close with a prayer.)
Prayer Of Confession:
We confess that we are hesitant to speak your word, O Lord, to uproot and tear down evil structures and injustice, to build and plant peace and equality, to feed your lambs and take care of your sheep. Have mercy on us, O God. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
God promises, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. While you were yet sinners Christ died for you." You are forgiven in the name of Christ. Amen.
Litany:
Leader: Do you know where God is?
People: God is in creation.
Leader: God is in this piece of bread.
People: Without God in creation, there would be no bread.
Leader: The bread we eat daily reminds us of God's love and presence.
People: When we eat the bread, we are eating months of sunshine and rain and snow.
Leader: Taste and see that God is good.
People: And God's providence is forever. Amen.
Psalter Reading: Psalm 72:1--9, 18--19
Old Testament: Proverbs 9:1--7
Epistle: Acts 2:42--47
New Testament: Luke 14:15--24
Sermon:
When I hear Jesus say, "Take, eat," it reminds me of his story of "The Great Banquet" to which the host invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servants to issue the invitation, but when the guests began to make excuses for not coming, new guests from the highways and byways were invited.
When I hear this story I see a large table. At one end of the table are the disadvantaged, the unfortunates, the marginal of society. Their table manners are atrocious. They aggressively tear and gnaw and loudly chew and belch their food. At the other end of the table, as far away as possible, are the rich, shocked and offended by the grossness of their fellow guests. They cannot imagine why the host invited this group, who can never repay the invitation. In the middle, between the poor and the rich, most of us sit. Some of us look enviously at the end of the table where the rich sit and inch closer in order to pretend we are one of them. Some hope that after this meal the outcasts at the other end will "try harder." Some are sorry for the poor, who hunger for physical bread, or for the rich, who lack spiritual nourishment. Finally, a small group take their provisions to one end to share their food and to the other end to share their love, knowing all people need both. In Jesus' story, however, there were no rich, nor even middle--class, for they had made their excuses not to attend.
In this story Jesus tells us what the messianic banquet is all about. The Pharisees expected that only the "righteous" would come to such a banquet. What Jesus said shocked his audience. The early church used it to say to the Jews that even outcasts, such as the Gentiles, are invited to God's feast, for holy communion is union and sharing, the joyful feast of the people of God, a ritual reminder that all of us depend on sharing resources in our global village. Whenever the spirit of sharing and sacrificing for another exists between two or twenty or 2,000, the spirit of communion exists.
The rabbi said, "There is a full--fed zaddik." His disciples asked him what he meant by this. He explained, "One man buys himself a loaf of bread and eats it, and another shares his bread with others."
The world is hungry for bread. Three--fourths of the world is without food. Hunger claws at millions of people, almost half of them children who suffer from severe malnutrition that affects their physical growth. In 1970 six percent of the world's population was consuming forty percent of the world's resources.
We take the "bread" of the Word and Sacrament in order to be fed, and having been fed, we rise up from our knees to feed. For there cannot be harmony nor health for one until there is justice for all, until we are all seated around the table together, just as Jesus gathered his disciples, and as we do today whenever we participate in communion.
God invites us to the Banquet, to "take and eat," to hear and to tell what God has done and will do, the promise of the presence of God's kingdom here and now and yet to come, the proclamation of a future in which we will all live in justice, peace, and mercy.
In the children's story, the bread was shared. Jesus' ancestors believed that when two or three ate together, God was present. They believed that when a host or hostess invites someone to eat, they are saying to that person, "You are my sister, my brother. I will take care of you." At the Great Banquet, God promises God's presence and Jesus invites us into solidarity with the hungry, hurt, and oppressed persons, to eat together in his name.
The Bible is rich with illustrations of God blessing the people with bread, for bread was a basic necessity in the lives of biblical persons. The story of Israel's escape from bondage in Egypt and their wandering in the wilderness is the story of God feeding them with physical bread. Joseph saved the people during the five--year famine with bread, Moses fed the people with God's manna, and Elijah was fed by the ravens and the widow.
The teacher, James Fowler, found to his dismay that his prayer life and living with scripture was dried up. In his class at the time was a group of Jesuits who were enthusiastic about Ignatian spirituality. They introduced Fowler to faith imagination by taking him on a three--day retreat. The first day he was to meditate on the story of the feeding of the 5,000, getting the story until the story "got" him. The second day he read himself into the story, smelling the smells of the crowd, hearing the sounds of their voices, feeling their touch, seeing them and Jesus, and tasting the food. Above all, tasting the food. On the third day he opened to his own hungers and need for feeding, and what food there was that he needed. He found his needs and a mediator, the unconscious symbols and the sacred story.
As we model and help hungry people find food for the journey into deepening trust in God, we too are fed. We are fed so we can feed, for to be human is to be hungry. We are born hungry, but we cannot live by bread alone. Jesus told Martha she was too concerned with food, and he told the people not to worry about what they would eat or drink, yet he fed the crowds. The church both feasts and fasts. Jesus told his friends to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," and encouraged them to ask, saying, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7).
After years of deep spirituality, unbounded energy, and idealism, yet practicality and unlimited commitment, a nun became afflicted with a painful and fatal disease. With intense concentration she studied her disease and cared for her body. Then, in the midst of the suffering, she lost her faith and became depressed. She felt utter hopelessness. She knew the Eastern concept of emptiness but did not know it could be so barren and dark. Yet out of this void she discovered a new faith arising, different from the kind she had nurtured all her life, inseparable from her incapacity. It was a deep trust and profound peace, a faith in which she found what she needed the only way she could - alone. Before her new faith could be resurrected, her former faith had to die.
Before his death Jesus ate with his friends. He said, "Take ..." and he says, "Take," to us today, as well. We taste the real bread of life and wine, the "red life" of resurrection, when we participate in the death. There must be death if there is to be resurrection.
It grew on a green vine, suckling the yellow sun,
Gulping the black rain, becoming the rich red blood.
"Come, drink," he said.
"Come to my banquet and feast upon the gentle grape.
Come, eat my bread and be fed."
I replied, "My need is not to eat,
But I too would suck the sun, gulp the rain,
Be the grape upon the vine,
The grain that ripens in the field,
And hear the vineyard owner say,
'You are my body and my blood.
You are my bread.' "
As post--resurrection Christians, we can sing and dance, laugh and rejoice over the victory of the Lord of the Dance, sharing our joy and our bread, even when it is difficult and unappreciated.
There was once a famine in Lithuania and the poor left the cities and swarmed over the countryside in search of food. Every day throngs of hungry people passed through the village where the rabbi's parents lived. His mother ground grain with a hand mill and every morning baked bread to distribute among the hungry. One day more people came than usual and there was not enough bread to go around, but the oven was still hot and the bowls were full of dough. She quickly took some of the dough, kneaded it and formed loaves, slipping them into the oven. Meanwhile the hungry people complained because they had to wait, and a few insolent among them even cursed her. At that, the charitable woman burst into tears. Her son tried to comfort her. "Do not cry, Mother. Let them curse. Just do your work and fulfill the commandment of God. If they praised you and showered blessings on you, it would not perhaps be fulfilled so well."
Just do your work of sharing the bread. Christianity asserts the total goodness and glory of creation, the body as well as the spirit, the senses as well as the faith imagination. Our story of creation reminds us that God said, at the close of each day, "Hmmm, that's good!" And the disciples left the last meal, singing, going out into the world to share the bread, the body of Christ, our Lord. Let us do the same. Amen.
Hymn: "Let Us Break Bread Together"
(words: African--American spiritual; music: adapt. William Farley Smith)
Sacrament Of Holy Communion
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
Almighty God, Father and Mother of us all, you know our hungers. Fill them with your word and presence and transform them into food for others in Christ's name. Bless the prayers of your people and hear the prayer we pray together now ...
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "You Satisfy The Hungry Heart"
(words: Omer Westendorf; music: Robert E. Kreutz)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God who gifts us with bread through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who enables us to share it with others. Amen.
