Invitation to the Banquet (World Communion Sunday)

Romans 5: 11; Luke 22: 14- 20

Today is a really awesome day in the life of the church. It is World Communion Sunday. I'm sure as you entered the church this morning you have already experienced part of the beauty of this morning. You were met with the scent of the bread and the grapes on this beautiful altar.

In 2004 of the general conference of the United Methodist Church, delegates from churches all over the globe unanimously affirmed this simple truth about their experience of Holy Communion: "We want more!" If you have noticed over the last several years that the Lord's supper is being offered more often and in more places than before, it is because the church is responding to the desire of the people. United Methodists as they seek God, have said they are learning more and experiencing a greater love for the great gift God has given in Holy Communion.

Today United Methodist are joining Christians from around the world in the celebration of Communion. Presbyterians, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Mennonites, and all Christian denominations will be responding to the invitation to this sacred meal.

I invite you to go to our website and click on the "Beliefs" tab. Then click on the word Holy Communion to hear more about what United Methodists are saying about and how they practice Holy Communion[1]. This blessed time with God means different things to different people: "it is about forgiveness and reconciliation... It is about Jesus and his sacrifice he made on my behalf... It is the one way that I can be connected in a real way to God."

I don't really have enough time today to talk all about the theology of the sacrament of Holy Communion. The readings or liturgy we use gives us ways to prepare our hearts and our minds for receiving what God has for us when we receive the bread and the juice. The liturgy is the same pretty much every time.

Years ago, way before I went into ministry and I was a United Methodist layperson, I have to admit that Holy Communion was mysterious and even a little frightening. You may have been like me and heard preachers say things like: do not partake of the Lord's supper unworthily or you will be receiving God's judgment. I didn't know what the preacher meant exactly, so I was glad in a way that it wasn't done too often.

But through the years and with a lot of guidance from wise and loving pastors, I have come to understand many things about communion. I guess the most important thing that I have learned is that this sacred meal is one time and place where I can be exactly who I am before God, and I know with confidence and assurance that I am loved, forgiven, and 100% welcome.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism believed that the Lord's supper was absolutely central to Christian life. He counted it as a means of grace, which is to say that by participating in this meal we are able to experience in a sensory way, God's saving activity in Jesus Christ. Wesley said that it was every Christian's duty to participate in the Lord's supper as often as possible.

In chapter 22 of the gospel of Luke that we read this morning we find the basis for the practice of Holy Communion within the Christian faith. In this passage we find Jesus with his disciples. They have gathered around a U-shaped table in an upper room in Jerusalem. The occasion of the meal was the Jewish Passover. The day was called "the day of unleavened bread "and it was the day in which the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. (Passover is the Jewish celebration of the night in Egypt when the blood of the lamb which had been sacrificed and placed over the doors of the Hebrew people caused the death Angel to pass over their homes, but not the homes of the Egyptians. The next day the Pharaoh set the Hebrews free.)

Had Jesus partaken of this meal on that evening it would have been his last meal before he became through his death the salvation of the world. Even though Jesus told the disciples that he had been eager to eat this meal with them before he suffered, he didn't. Rather Jesus gave the meal to his disciples instead, telling them that he would not partake of the meal again until it was fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

In our own words of liturgy we repeat many of the words that Jesus said that evening as he gave thanks for the bread and wine, broke the bread and gave them to his disciples. He called the bread his body, and he called the wine his blood. He said that his body represents the new covenant between humanity and God; the new promise of salvation that now is found in Jesus. Jesus then told his disciples to remember him every time they ate the bread and drank the wine together.

Through Jesus' command, Jesus' disciples from then until today have continued to remember Jesus' death and his suffering through the continued blessing, breaking, and giving of the Lord's supper. Therefore, all who love God and all who want to be a part of the Christian family are welcome at the Lord's table. We each have an invitation which comes from the giver of the banquet.

Invitations are important. I know you remember a few years ago at Pres. Obama's first state dinner, Tareg and Machaele Salahi slipped through security and attended the occasion without an invitation. What an uproar! What an embarrassment! What a security breach! This week I got to thinking about that invitation, so I found a copy of a "state dinner" online invitation to see what one looks like.

If you would be able to receive a presidential invitation to a state dinner you would find that it has the seal of the President of the United States, it also tells the who, want, when, where and what to wear. And as we learned from Tareg and Machaele Salahi, you better have an invitation if you want to go to a presidential state dinner.

I remember the fanciest dinner I ever went to. Ed and I were invited to the graduation ball at West Point, New York the evening before my brother graduated. It was a black-tie event. Ed wore a black tuxedo, and I dressed in an evening gown... well it was more like an evening suit. The big party was thrown by the Superintendant, the top officer at the military Academy. The dinner was in honor of the graduates and the invitation explained where to be, what time it was and what to wear. To get into the dinner, we had to have our invitation.

Invitations are important. Today you and I are invited to an even more important meal than a graduation ball or a presidential state dinner. Today, you, me and in places all over the world, people are being invited to have dinner with Jesus. This dinner is given in honor of God, and in recognition of God's forgiving love.

All God asks of any of us is to come. God asks us to accept the invitation to remember the death of his beloved son, and to celebrate want that sacrifice means to us. We aren't worthy of the invitation we have received. We cannot be good enough to make ourselves worthy. We are only worthy because of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus is why we have an invitation today.

If you have been like I have been in the past and you have thought of the Lord's supper with dubious concern, then I encourage you to open yourself to receive the full measure of what is available to you in this Great Thanksgiving. What is here, is Jesus.

Today we joined with other Christians around the world to remember that Jesus our Lord serves us as God's sacrifice. We acknowledge that he is now serving as our Advocate and high priest in heaven. Jesus is the Lamb of God who makes atonement for us...makes us worthy...to receive forgiveness for our sins. This table is given to us by the Lord Jesus. In coming and receiving the elements which represents his body and blood, we are joining with him in sacrifice to the glory of God.

As often as you do this...Jesus said...Remember me!

Amen.

[1] Internet Link: http://204.193.131.177/deborah/living800.html