First Presbyterian Church – Willmar
Sermon
September 2, 2012
“Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given”
Today’s message is not so much a sermon as perhaps a communion meditation. It’s certainly not rooted in a precise exposition of today’s scripture lessons, although I will be referring to them. What I want to do this morning is reflect on the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice and this holy table, and who we are as Christians, and what it is that we are called to do.
It’s from Paul’s revelation of the Last Supper as translated by the Kings James bible that we get the words: “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you. [1 Corinthians 11.24]”
He took the bread. He blessed it. He broke it. He gave it to them. That’s the essence of the life and sacrifice of Jesus; that’s the essence of this Eucharistic meal that we share today.
Is it also meant to be the essence of the Christian life?
The book of James is an interesting book. Some, like a speaker at the Republican Convention on Thursday evening, quote it as the best descriptor of a Christian life. Luther, on the other hand, railed against the book of James and would have liked to remove it from scriptural canon. He thought that it was a reversion to a works oriented view of life that left faith and grace too far behind.
Let me walk the middle ground and simply endorse one line from this morning’s epistle lesson: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. [James 1:22]” There’s simply no question in my mind that we are called to respond faithfully, gratefully to the Gospel and the grace which we have received.
Some days ago I was part of a discussion with some other folks who are interested in the adult Christian Ed offerings here at First Church. I mentioned that two topics that I think that we all need to be continuously learning about are life as a Christian and the role of prayer in our lives.
On that first subject, one of the most challenging and convicting books I have ever come across is Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. He spent most of his adult life trying to understand what it meant to be a Christian, and we are fortunate that he wrote down much of what he continued to learn as his life went on.
Back in 1992 he wrote that book with the very ambitious goal of trying to make non-Christians understand what they were missing by not accepting the Christian faith. In terms of its stated goal, the book was a failure, but like everything in life it had some amazing unintended consequences. Christians read it and were amazed at what for many was a whole new view of the Christian life. It provided an insight into our faith and our faithful response to God that changed the lives of many people.
Nouwen’s reflection is focused on the word “beloved.” It’s a word that is used frequently in scripture. It appears 115 times in the Revised Standard translation. It’s used several times in our lessons for today.
You are God’s beloved.
You are God’s beloved.
In a world filled with voices telling us that we are ugly or useless or worthless until we prove otherwise, God calls to each of us and says, “You are my beloved.” We go through life searching for some person or place or thing or event that will give us some sense of inner well-being and in the end we find only spiritual death.
Nouwen says: “We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us. [p. 30]” But the world does everything in its power to drown out the voice of God in our hearts saying, “You are my Beloved.”
The larger part of the role of the Christian community is helping one another claim that love for our own. But love – especially the love of God – isn’t truly claimed by us until we have responded to it. Until we have become the lover as well as the beloved. And when we become the lover as well as the beloved then the impact of that shared love becomes visible in every aspect of our lives. We must put flesh on that love just as God’s love was given flesh in the life of Jesus.
We are reminded of God’s love enfleshed in Jesus as we gather around His table taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it and giving it to one another as a reminder of how Christ’s sacrifice showed His obedience to God and His love for us. Nouwen says: “These words also summarize my life as a Christian because, as a Christian, I am called to become bread for the world: bread that is taken, blessed, broken and given. [p. 42]”
Perhaps it’s easier to understand “taken” as it applies to our lives by using the word “chosen.” We have been chosen by God. We are not chosen to the competitive exclusion of others. That’s the world’s point of view. We have been chosen by God’s to enjoy and spread the word of God’s all-inclusive love. But make no mistake. Don’t underestimate your value in the eyes of God: you have been chosen.
It is this first piece that we have the most difficulty with. We are beloved. We are chosen. Against all the noise and the temptations of the world, we need to constantly reaffirm our chosenness. We need to surround ourselves by others who have accepted God’s grace and who can keep calling us back to His love.
We are called to celebrate our chosenness continually. We celebrate it by saying “thank you” to God. When someone is kind to us we try to find ways to express our gratitude.
It is here that Satan, the Temptor, will always interfere. As we think about what has been given to us we begin to question the motives of the giver; we start to think that whatever we have received could have been bigger or better or more shiny; we let the past overshadow the gifts of the present and the promise of the future.
Nouwen observes: “Where there is reason for gratitude, there can always be found a reason for bitterness. It is here that we are faced with the freedom to make a decision. We can decide to be grateful or to be bitter. We can decide to recognize our chosenness in the moment or we can decide to focus on the shadow side. When we persist in looking at the shadow side, we will eventually end up in the dark. [p. 51]”
We can choose the dark side, or we can claim the light. The interesting thing is that whichever side we choose seems to become self-fulfilling. If we choose the light; if we choose to claim our chosenness as a gift worthy of grateful response, we will find more and more things to be grateful for. When we find that gratitude multiplying in our hearts, we also recognize that others are chosen as well; others are coming to dwell with us in the house of God.
Here’s the thing that is unique about God’s love. We cannot compete for God’s love. We cannot earn it. We cannot win it. We cannot diminish the love that He has for others. We can recognize that He has chosen us. We can claim it. Respond to it. Be grateful for it. Share it with others in the knowledge that there is no limit to it.
You may have heard me say chosen, blessed, broken and given and assumed that the broken and given part would be the hardest parts of our Christian lives. They are not. Everything follows when we have claimed our chosenness. Everything follows when we have embraced the fact that God has chosen you, loves you, blesses you and empowers you to become part of His gift to us all.
The world knows that the hardest thing about the Christian life is that first step. Satan knows that if you can be tempted away from claiming, from accepting the fact that you are the beloved, the chosen one of God, then the world will be robbed of one more messenger of God’s grace-filled love.
This table not only reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice. It reminds us of who we are. We are the chosen ones of God. We are the beloved. We are the blessed. This table is open to all because God’s love is open to all.
This is the first step. Claim for yourself the gracious gift of God’s love. You are God’s chosen. Know and embrace that you are God’s beloved.
Amen.
Next week we shall try to understand what it means that we are “blessed,” and why we need prayer to help us claim that blessedness.
Comments
Post a Comment