Gather At The Table Transcript

This week in our sermon series, we're looking at this element of communion that we celebrate each month. John Wesley delivered a sermon called, On the Duty of Constant Communion. He told his followers that everyone should partake of communion as often as they can. His desire was whenever they gathered, they would partake of the communion meal. It was so important to him that it was imperative that the people took it seriously and desired to have it more frequently. In some ways, I think he would be a little appalled at our Methodist tradition of having it once a month. He'd be even more appalled of some churches that have it less frequently than that. And there's all kinds of reasons why people even told John Wesley why they shouldn't have it more frequently. The same reasons are given today. Well, if you have it more frequently, it'll become less special. And we don't want to do it too often because it'll lose its meaning and just become rote. But like we've talked about on each element of our worship that we do every week, sometimes that repetitiveness is what helps us to dive deep into its meaning further. So that we can fully grasp it. So that on those Sundays when we're just not feeling it, we have the next Sunday to experience it anew. And these elements, including communion, these constant reminders help us shape our daily living. We can learn from each one of them, including communion, about how to go about our daily lives in a new way, living out our worship in the other 167 hours in a week, when we are not gathered together.

As we look at this commandment of Jesus to do this, in remembrance, we're going to start looking at why. Why did John Wesley say they should do it every time they gathered? And why do we still do it today? And maybe a few additional reasons that John Wesley may not have thought of.

John Wesley started with the commandment of Jesus that if you want to obey Jesus, you do what he commands. One of the things in scripture that we just read in the gospels at this Passover meal is Jesus telling his disciples to do this. To do this in remembrance of me. So it is an act of obedience to gather around the table. It is an act of saying, Jesus, you have told me to do this, and I want to do what you command of me, so I'm going to do it. At its basis level, if for no other reason, then we gather around this table to be obedient to Christ. that's not the only reason. God doesn't command us and teach us how we should live, just so that we can be obedient. He wants to build a relationship with us. He wants us to grow more in love with God. He wants us to become closer and closer to Christ in our daily living, so that we can experience his presence in this life and the fullness of life that he offers in the here and now. That our life with Christ is not some distant future reality that we're waiting for, but it's something that we can experience, and we can do it. Here.

John Wesley, in the Methodist Church, we call these the means of grace. These things that Jesus gave us, these things that God has told us to do, that help us grow more in love with God. This idea of grace, this love from God. If you think about the means of grace, God wants this relationship with us to grow, to flourish. Think of it as a plant that you've put in a pot.

If you just leave it there, believe me, I know this, if you put a flower in a pot, a seed in a pot, and you leave it to its own devices, it may grow for a few moments, a few days, but it won't take long before it dries out, withers, and dies. I've killed plenty of plants in my lifetime to know this is true. I have a basil plant on my dining room counter that is experiencing this right now. God gave us the tools we need to help this relationship, this love, this plant flourish.

Prayer, reading scripture, gathering in worship, gathering around the table. These are the means of grace. These are the tools God gave us so we can take an active part in helping this relationship with God grow.

Gathering around this table, this thing that Christ has commanded, helps us to remember who he is and what he has done, is one of those very things that will help us. And so we gather. We dine. We break bread.

Another way it helps us is that it is that reminder. When we go through the communion liturgy that we celebrate, there are some variations throughout the year, but there are some common elements to it. There's some remembrance of what God had done in the past before us, before Jesus and freeing his people. There's a remembrance of what Jesus did the night he was betrayed before he was put to death. There's a remembrance that the very people that were with him, one of which had betrayed him, all of which abandoned them. And as we just read in that gospel lesson, nobody knew who was going to be among those people. They talked amongst themselves. Is it among us that's going to be the one to betray Jesus? And none of them had a clue that they were going to run scared over the next few days. So it's not just a reminder of what Jesus did in breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. It's a reminder of what the disciples did. They were at that meal. They ate with Jesus, and one of them still turned him over to death and the rest still abandoned him. And yet they were still invited to the table. Jesus knew who they were. Jesus knew who was going to betray him. He knew what his other disciples were going to do. And he didn't say, no, you're not coming to the meal anymore. are still welcome. In fact, it says he longed to have that meal with them while he still could he knew what was coming. So we gather around this table as an act of remembrance of what God has done, what we did to Jesus, and what Jesus did through his suffering and death on the cross. talks about how the next time he'll have that Passover meal, he'll be doing it in glory when all things are fulfilled. When we gather around this table, we get a foretaste of that banquet, a foretaste of what is to come. In the midst of our challenges, in the midst of the suffering, there is a future hope of what will be. And so when we gather around this table, we are not doing so just in this moment, but we are looking forward to that time when we feast at Christ's heavenly banquet, where we experience his real presence in the breaking of bread now, not because the elements have been changed in some significant way, but just in the act of gathering around the table and breaking these elements, we expect to experience the presence of Christ within them. This is that holy mystery that we talk about in our liturgy. We get a foretaste of what it will be like to eat at that heavenly banquet where Christ is in our midst, physically there, and we can experience this fullness of his presence. These are among some of the reasons why John Wesley wanted everybody to take communion as often as they could, but there are a couple more that I personally want to add that may not have been on John Wesley's mind when he delivered that sermon. When I was a kid, I grew up on a country road. We grew up in a trailer along the woods, and there were often times where my stepbrother and I or my sister and I would go out and exploring in the woods. We would just head out. There was a stream at the bottom of the hill that we'd play in. We'd go as far up the stream as we possibly could or as far down. I remember there was an orchard downstream. Sometimes we'd go downstream and kind of sneak into the orchard and grab some apples if it was the right time of year. There were times where we got separated or somebody went home early. remember a few times where one of us didn't make it back to dinner on time. Maybe we were trying to stretch the daylight a little further with the friends down the street. It was very apparent when someone was missing from the table. There was a hole where someone should be.

Most of the time, we waited. We didn't just dive into the food and start eating. We called out their name, usually my parents, because they were a little louder, or my dad, and his voice could reach a little bit further. we waited. Or my dad was in construction and there were many weeknights where he had to button up a roof before he could leave for the job site.

And we would all be there at the dinner table. He would not be home yet after working a long, hard day. But dinner would be ready. And so we waited.

What if we saw the communion table in that way as that family table? That family table where everyone has a place and you realize who is missing.

And you either go out and call out to those who are missing so that they may come, or you wait because you know they're on the way and they'll be there soon.

When we gather around this table, it is an opportunity for each of us to look beside ourselves, look to the left, look to the right, look forward, look backwards, and say, who is missing from this feast? Who is missing from this table? Sometimes it's people we know. Oftentimes what might come to mind are those we recognize being missing. We recognize they should be here. How do we invite them to the table to make sure they know they can come? This is an important question to ask because of that first reading that we read. The history of reading that passage where it says, do not partake of this meal in an unholy manner. Prepare yourselves. And the interpretation of this passage has led many to say, I am not worthy to come to this table. I am not worthy to be welcomed at this table. I am not worthy to be even invited to this table, and so I will be held back. But if we go back to our first hymn today, we are invited to come to Jesus. And if we wait until we are ready, we are not going to come at all. Our liturgy often says, Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, all who seek to... I'm drawing a blank. Let me grab a hymnal. Just because I want to get this right. If you're following along and you want to see this, it's often on page 12. Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. The prayer we pray today is pulled directly from the hymnal. The only condition on this table and the invitation is a desire to follow, come to Christ. A desire to know more. You don't have to be perfect. You do not need to belong to the church. You do not have to proclaim to be a Christian yet. You don't have to look like everybody else, think like everybody else, believe what everybody else believes.

You simply need to have a desire experience the presence of Christ. so many people have held themselves back from receiving the bread, receiving the cup, because they felt they were unworthy.

But at this table, all are invited to partake of the meal. By coming forward, you have shown a desire experience Christ. These are some of the reasons why we partake of communion. We expect to experience Christ in this meal and to be transformed.

But how does this shape our lives outside of these walls? How can we take what we do in communion and live it out in a new way? Some of you may have heard stories of my childhood where there was a family that took me under their wing, invited me in, became a mentor of mine, becoming a surrogate family of mine. And I don't know how many times I was out their house and my mom worked evenings when I lived with her, three to eleven. Often times I'd be alone, eating dinner.

I'd often be at this friend's house. And as dinner time came, they invited me to their table, their conversations around that meal. How was their day? How did they grow? They invited me to be a part of that conversation, to be a part of that family meal, to make me feel welcome. And so one of the things that we can do outside of these walls is who can we invite to our tables? Who can we welcome in our midst? So that they can take a foretaste of what we do here on Sunday morning, which is a foretaste of that heavenly banquet in which all people are invited.

Who's missing from our lives? Does everybody look like us? Have we made an effort to reach out to those who have different beliefs, different skin tones, different ages?

Or have we become insular? do we make our lives look like the heavenly banquet that will include people of all faiths, all traditions, all ethnicities, all genders? How do we get a foretaste of that in our daily lives?

We notice who's missing. We make the invitation, and we don't put conditions on

Our family meals, our individual meals, our meals with friends can take on a bigger role if we start thinking about them in terms of what can happen around a family meal.

Taking what we've done here, remembering, looking forward, and bridging the gap. It's not just about the juice. It's not just about the bread. We don't believe that somehow, miraculously, the bread changes or the juice changes. But in the breaking of bread, in the sharing with others of what we have and what has been given to us, we experience the presence of Christ. We are transformed in that meal. We experience the love of God and we offer it to others.

When we don't feel worthy, or if we don't feel somebody else is worthy, we remember that Jesus dined with those who would betray and abandon him. He still welcomed them with loving arms. If you go to the Gospel of John, he washed their feet and longed share that meal with them. Just as Jesus longs to spend time with each and every one of us, if we would just turn to him and set aside past hurt, past pains, set aside those things that would keep us fighting each other, keep us divided, if we would just set those things aside and join him at the table, we would be truly transformed.