The following sermon was preached by Fr. Jack Holman, Associate Rector of The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Tomball, TX.
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:9-14
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Eating alone in silence is not the option of choice for most of us. Human loneliness is graphic in large cafeterias in our area. It just isn’t natural not having someone to talk to, someone to share with. We feel profoundly for the poor lonely men and women who must eat their meals by themselves. Somehow they seem cut off from the rest of the human race. The message of the Eucharist is that we need never eat alone. Sure, on occasion or even frequently we may have to take our meals by ourselves, but we are never really alone because Jesus is with us. Jesus, who fed the multitudes, Jesus who enjoyed the table fellowship of his apostles is the very same Jesus who is with us not merely in the Eucharist meal but wherever we are and wherever we go. No matter how alone or cut off we may feel, Jesus shares the table with us. Saying Grace emphasizes this. The Eucharist means that Jesus has come to eliminate loneliness from human life. Even though occasionally we may be alone, as long as we believe in the love which Jesus manifested when feeding the multitudes, we know there is no reason for us to be lonely.
Scripture commentators tell us that while the Last Supper was indeed the last meal that Jesus ate with his followers, before his execution, it was not the first of the “table fellowships” which Jesus shared with them. Eating a meal together had deeply religious significance for all small religious groups in the time of Jesus. Therefore, it is very likely that the fellowships which Jesus shared with his apostles before the Last Supper were religious meals in tone and symbolism. The Eucharistic Rite is described as many things: a sacrament, a memorial, a sacrifice. But above all else, it is a meal and it plays the role as a sacrament, a memorial, or a sacrifice, insofar as it is a banquet. Not just an ordinary banquet; it’s a wedding banquet, a meal that celebrates the love among those who deeply love one another, even though it doesn’t look like any kind of meal at all. Jesus has compared the kingdom of his heavenly father to a wedding banquet and the Eucharist is a union between Jesus and his followers in that kingdom
Furthermore Paul compares the love between Jesus and his church to the love between a man and a woman. The Eucharist is a celebration of the union between Jesus and his church. Saying that it is a celebration of a passionate love does not seem to be an exaggeration. We sing and celebrate the Eucharist because we are convinced that God is deeply in love with us.
Those of us, who assemble around the altar to eat the bread of the Eucharist, necessarily and inevitably, commit ourselves to do all we can to eliminate physical suffering in the world. Hunger, poverty, ignorance, sickness, misery—none of these have any place in the world in which the Eucharistic banquet is celebrated. Now we are under no illusion that they can be eliminated immediately; nonetheless, as Christians we must consider ourselves committed to do all in our power to overcome physical suffering. Just as Jesus did, we must take compassion on the multitudes, even if we realize our compassion is not going to be completely effective. The war on poverty began not in Washington but along the shore of the sea at Tiberias twenty-one centuries ago.
This is not to say that there is any specific way of “feeding the hungry” which every Christian must follow; much less to say that specific legislation is endorsed by the gospel. But it is to say that every Christian must be profoundly concerned about hunger—or any other kind of human misery—where ever it occurs, and must do all that he can to work for its elimination. Theologians tells us: Non salus sine pauperes: There is no salvation without the poor!
We don’t minimize the importance of the theological controversies raised over the Eucharist down through the ages, but there is a danger that these controversies may blind us to the basic message of the Eucharistic banquet. We need only to take Jesus at his word that this bread and this wine is his flesh and blood and that we are in communion with Jesus and his work when eating this bread and drinking this wine. We are brought into contact with a new life, a life which is the ‘springtime of the world”. It does make us an integral part of the great historical process which began on Sinai and was renewed in the Upper Room. It does give us a share in the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus and it does promise us ultimate reunion with Jesus in the new life of the Resurrection.
Neither the theological discussions going on thru the centuries, nor the exegetical considerations, should cause us to overlook the message of Marks’s gospel: Where he writes: “He who eats the bread of the Eucharist is really in communion with Jesus and is working together with him in fulfilling his covenant”. Let’s not overlook the familial nature of the Eucharist. Then and now it was a family banquet, a small intimate gathering of a group of close friends. Early Christians, whatever their understanding of the precise relationship between the Lord’s Supper and the Passover, were quite aware that the Lord’s Supper was a gathering of people who loved one another. In other words, the covenant of Jesus was a covenant rooted in a love feast of a group of intimate friends To the extent that Eucharistic banquets do not manifest this profound affection which Jesus and his apostles felt for one another, they are less than adequate symbols of what the Eucharist really means. We may not always know the person next to us and that’s unfortunate, but if we are not prepared to love that person or anyone else in church, then we simply do not understand what the Eucharist means-no matter how sophisticated our theology or our exegesis may be.
We humans hunger after meaning, hunger for purpose and faith. We can understand how the Good News of Jesus can protect us from ever being spiritually hungry again. The purpose and meaning that the Good News puts into our life, makes it impossible for us to drift into chaos and confusion. It is not merely a banquet of wisdom as stated in Proverbs. It’s a kind of unity with God and his Messenger for which there was no preparation in the OT. It is obvious that Jesus is speaking of a form of union with God that is quite new. The Eucharist represents the most intimate union that is possible between Jesus and us, between God and us through Jesus. The love of Jesus for his followers was such that he would remain, somehow or other, present with them through the Eucharist, bringing life now, not only through his teaching, but by his presence! Case closed!
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