This is the text of my sermon preached in November 2020 – our first time to celebrate communion following the Covid shutdown. A good reminder that communion is more than just a reminder, but also the living work of God in our lives.
In the tiny town of Ohio City, Ohio, on a rather non-descript corner you will find a historical marker for James Lambert, the first maker of the first successful gasoline automobile made in America. James was a successful inventor, with over 600 patents to his name, his first one starting at 16 years old. He was the very first to patent a gasoline engine in the United States and used it to build the first successful American made automobile in 1891. But this particular historical marker isn’t about his hard work and dedication or his inventive success and contribution to a major segment of manufacturing. Not, if you look closer you’ll see that this marker highlights another first attributed to him, it marks the spot of the first automobile wreck in the world.
Remembering history is a big deal to humanity. We like to build monuments and statues, paint scenes and cordon off important areas as a way or remembering our past. In the state of Texas alone there are over 16,000 official historical markers. We have these makers to remember places that had a significant impact or people whose contributions made a marked change on our lives. We have markers that commemorate tragedies and markers that celebrate victories. Even in our own families we have heirlooms that we pass down as a way of preserving the memories of our loved ones who have passed on.
But as much as we work to preserve and remember our history, the reality of life is that unless we take time to remember, we will forget. Even if the reminder is there everyday, we’ll miss it. Quick quiz – how many official Texas historical markers are there in Friendswood? Well, there are , one about Friendswood, one about the fig industry, and one about the Brown House. I know this not because I have read either one of them, but because I did a quick search as I was writing this sermon. I find it interesting because we drive by these everyday and I imagine very few of us have ever stopped to look at them. But if we were just willing to take a moment and stop and read, we’d walk away with a deeper understanding of Friendswood and of the people and activities that helped make Friendswood what it is today.
Now I don’t want to talk today about historical markers, but what I do want to do is issue a warning – if we treat communion like we treat the markers of history that pepper our landside, we will fail to walk away with the understanding and power that communion has to offer us. Communion is more than just some historical walk down memory lane to hold on to some collective story of our past. In communion, we are called to a deeper memory, a profound remembrance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And today, as we gather to celebrate communion together for the first time in over 6 months, a fitting celebration that we share with the worshipping body of Christ worldwide on this World Communion Sunday, we are here to do more than just recall who Jesus was, but to truly remember and to walk away with a reminder of our salvation.
So what do we remember in communion? We remember the history of our faith. Communion is a reminder that we are part of a grand story, and eternal story, that is God’s story – his story. Communion is a retelling of our story with God – a God who spoke and earth came into being, who breath into us the breath of life and placed us on the earth with a free will to choose to love and follow him or love and follow ourselves. And what did we do? We ate the fruit and chose ourselves over God, and we continue to do so. The story of the bible is God’s story of repeatedly reaching out to us to redeem us – from Noah to Moses to David – a continued story of God giving us chance after chance to choose Him and each time we have failed, we have, as Paul wrote in Romans, “fallen short of the glory of God.” Communion is our connection to God’s continuing story – Jesus himself placed communion into the story of Passover when he gathered with his disciples to celebrate God’s salvation of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. It is in this great meal of faith that Jesus took the bread, symbolizing the swift act of God’s salvation – so swift they didn’t have time for their bread to rise. To this he said ‘this is my body broken for you, eat this in remembrance of me.’ And he took a cup of wine that was a reminder of the sacrifice that marked the Hebrews safe from God’s wrath, and he gave it new meaning saying, “This is my blood which is shed for you, drink this in remembrance of me.” Our celebration of Communion is our entrance into this grand eternal story – a story of God’s sacrifice to finally bring the redemption and salvation of all people. We remember that God’s story includes us – that we are part of the history of faith.
We also remember the mystery of faith. Communion isn’t just some history lesson telling how we got to be the church, it is also a reminder that our faith is a mystery. In our liturgy, we proclaim this mystery – “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” What does this all mean? How did this happen? How will this happen? While we have had nearly 2,000 years to examine and discuss this mystery of faith, the truth is it is still a mystery. It is a grace that we cannot understand on this side of eternity.
I remember when I was young I asked by dad how electricity worked. He was an x-ray machine repairman and had a fairly good working knowledge of the subject, so he gave me a simple answer that the wires in the wall carried the electricity from the wires outside from the power plant. He seemed satisfied with his answer until I asked how the power plant got the electricity. He thought about it and explained how a generator used movement and magnets to make the electricity. Satisfied again, I asked him how. He struggled and started to try and explain how atoms had protons and electrons and the electrons moved from one atom to another and that was electricity. Satisfied that all answers had been given, he rested, until I asked why atoms had protons and electrons. Throwing up his hands he finally said, “ I don’t know, it’s all just a mystery!”
We can know that Jesus saves us. We can know that God is present in Communion in a mysterious way that we can’t fully explain. We can trust that our salvation is not based on works, but on grace, given to us through faith in Jesus. But how does this all work? In what way does the death and resurrection of Jesus save us? How are we redeemed? In what way are we made whole and restored into the family of God? This, my friends, is all a mystery. Communion is a reminder that our faith is a mystery, a great trust in the eternal hand of God to grant us grace that we could never earn by the miracle of Jesus.
Lastly, we remember the victory of faith. Communion is not just a reminder of our history of faith that we continue to be a part of, and it is not only a reminder of the mystery of faith that saves us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is also a celebration of the victory of faith that frees us from the power of sin and sets us again on the path to righteousness. In communion, we remember that we have been freed. As Paul tells us in Romans 6:6-7 “Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.” In Christ, we are no longer handcuffed to our sinful nature but are free to choose to follow Christ. We get a chance to make our own decision to follow Jesus and are no longer bound by sins demands. We have been released to live a new life. And communion is a reminder that we have been freed.
One of my buddies in seminary used to tell the story of a family dog he had named Rocky. Rocky came to their family as a rescue who had lived his entire life tied by a rope to a porch until he was rescued. When Rocky came to their home, he explored their backyard but quickly found his way to the porch and there he stayed. Once he got on the porch, he would pace back and forth, longing to run out in the yard and play with my friend and his siblings as they ran around the yard. He would bark and whine, but he wouldn’t step off the porch. He wasn’t tied down, but the memory of his previous life was too much – he convinced himself that he wasn’t free and that he couldn’t enjoy the life for which he was created. And my friend would go up and pick Rocky up, walk him out into the yard, and let him down. And he would run! And he would jump and chase squirrels and play with toys and wag his tail so much that he could have wagged it clean off. And he would live his life the way he was created to live.
Friends, today we remember, but not as one reads some random historical marker to learn some history lesson. No, we remember that we are part of a grand eternal story of humanity and God, from creation to redemption. We remember that God’s mystery is for us – a mystery that we cannot fully understand but on which our eternal life rests – a life given freely to us by grace through faith. And we remember the victory of faith – that we have been set free from sin to live again the life that we were made to live. We have been cut free from the cords that tied us to sin and given the freedom to live again in Christ. And though we may forget and think that sin still controls us, communion is a reminder that the God of creation that came down to walk among us, Jesus Christ, died for us and rose again that we may have life – free from sin and alive again in Christ.
So today, remember. Remember that you are part of God’s story. Remember that the mystery of salvation is for you – God has saved you by grace not by works. And remember that you are victorious – we have been set free to be the sons and daughters of God that we were created to be.
Remember this as together with the family of God today we eat this bread, and drink this cup – we do this in remembrance of Jesus.