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Sunday, August 02, 2009
WHAT’S THE THIS?
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Luke 22:19-20 19Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ 20And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Third year courses at Iliff have a lot of MDiv., Master of Divinity, candidates in them and a lot of people working towards their PhD. The courses are 10 weeks and, in the bible track, they focus on just one book of the bible. The idea of the class is that you write a 10-20 page paper, read it out loud and then someone else, who got your paper ahead of time, reads a 2-3 page paper ripping your paper to shreds. Then the class chimes in, taking their cracks at you. Finally, the professor comments. It’s fun for the whole family.
After the blood letting part is over, we are having a round table discussion about the passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul is talking about the last supper. We get to the part where he quotes Jesus saying, “Do this in memory of me.” As we are about to move on I decide to try to get a question answered that has been bugging me for years. I raise my hand and ask the professor, Pam Eisenbaum, “Pam, what’s the this? Pam has taught at St. Andrew many times. She looked at me like I had two heads, which I took to mean, I wasn’t making sense. The question I was asking was…When Jesus says, “do THIS in memory of me.” What is the “this” he was referring to? No one in the class had a positive answer. Not Pam, not the PhD students and not the rest of us. I have been giving this a lot of thought though because communion is near and dear to my heart. I’m going to give you my thoughts as to what Jesus was referring to.
Communion is close to my heart because, as I have mentioned in here before, I grew up Catholic. I went to a Catholic school and was an altar boy. This means I attended Mass six days a week. And we do communion at ever service. That is a LOT of communion! I can still recite the prayers the priest does for communion, as well, if not better, than the ones we say for the Methodist church and that’s only once a month.
So what is the deal with communion? What is this thing called, “The Holy Mystery?” In fact the Greek word for sacrament is mysterion. Well it means different things to different people. The Catholics believe that after the elements (the bread and wine/juice) have been consecrated, there is not bread or wine left. They have changed. This is called Transubstantiation. Lutherans believe that Christ’s body and blood are present in the bread and wine. This is called consubstantiation. Methodist’s see it a little differently. We believe that these things are symbols of the Christ body and blood. We still bless the elements but we don’t believe that they change their essence.
Having said all that, as I think I have mentioned here before, you should have seen me the first time I did communion in the chapel here at St. Andrew. One of my professors at Iliff used to talk about your embedded theology and how even when you think one thing with your head, it can sometimes be a challenge for your heart to follow. Having watched the priest do it 60,000 times it felt pretty weird doing it that first time.
So all that is to say, “So what?” What does this “thing” called communion mean for us today? And getting back to where we started, What is the “this”?
There are lots of things going on in communion: thanksgiving, fellowship, sacrifice are just a few. But what I want to focus on is this idea of remembering. I think even though Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal with his friends, he was not suggesting that every time you have Passover, once a YEAR, you remember Jesus. I also don’t think Jesus was saying, “Someday what we are doing here is going to be HUGE and well organized and they are going to worship together once a week and when they do that, I want them to remember me, except the Methodist’s who will only remember me once a month.” That doesn’t seem consistent with Jesus and what he was trying to get across to the disciples.
What I think Jesus was thinking was, “How can I get these guys to remember everything I have taught them even after I’m gone? They are going to forget stuff unless they are constantly remembering. What do they have to do to sustain life? What do they have to live? How can I connect these teachings that I have given them, these things that will lead them to eternal life, to the life they need to sustain while they are here on earth? What do they have to do to have life both now and later?
See I think the “this” is eat. Not just once a month or once a week or even once a day. I think it is every time we take food into our mouth. Jesus was connecting his work with the thing we have to do multiple times a day. I think Jesus was telling us that when you do what you have to do to sustain life in the physical, don’t forget all I have taught you about how to sustain life in the spiritual. REMEMBER ME.
Remember what I taught you about loving those no one else loves.
Remember what I taught you about how to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Remember what I taught you about how to fight for justice…
and how to pray…
and how to take up a cross.
Remember what I taught you about how to love God, and how to love each other.