“The
Aperitif of the Future”
John
12:20-33
First
Presbyterian
The
Reverend Thomas A. Sweet
March
29, 2009
Lent
5
Communion
Meditation
When I was growing up,
my family often spent New Year’s Eve with the family of friends of my parents.
We had three boys and the other family had two girls, so, well, it was a
gathering to which our parents looked forward much more than any of us kids.
My parents loved to get together with friends, but, these particular
friends of my parents loved to party.
I recall one year my father’s friend asked my mom and dad as soon as we
walked through the door, “Would you like an aperitif?” I
had no idea at the time what an aperitif
was, though, with drinks in his hand, I had a clue.
Not wanting to appear unsophisticated, I waited until I went home to look
it up. Having no idea of how it was
spelled, it took me the better part of an hour before I could find it in the
dictionary: an
alcoholic drink served to stimulate one’s appetite before a meal.
It comes from a Latin word, aperire,
which means “to open.”
With metaphorical
license, I would like to suggest that the church, at its best, is an aperitif by
which our appetite for the reign and realm of God is opened and stimulated.
The Book of Order which is a
part of the constitution of our Presbyterian Church says that the church is to
be “the provisional demonstration of
what God intends for all humanity.” That
whets my appetite. That sounds like
an aperitif to me.
A tall order, perhaps,
that we, that the church, should be the provisional demonstration of what God
intends for all humanity. An
inflated claim? Overreaching?
Perhaps according to our record and practice, but not according to
God’s hope for us (though Carrie Pawelski said to me as we drove home from a
presbytery meeting yesterday where a controversial topic had been discussed and
voted on that she thought “church people” were supposed to be
“different.” “They are like school people,” she said.
“No, they’re worse.”)
In Jesus the Christ, we believe that we have seen the embodiment of
God’s way in the world. And so, as
the body of Christ given to and for the world, we are, by the manner of our
speaking and our doing, to stimulate the human appetite for a world bathed in
peace and compassion, justice and generosity.
Similarly, the church
is envisioned to be the aperitif of a God-soaked world, the first fruits of a
life that is blessed and bountiful for all.
It is to awaken a growing appetite in more and more people for a realm of
regard and reconciliation, a kingdom of compassion and kindness, a world of
wonder and oneness. I love the image
of the church as a community of visionaries, exiles, pilgrims, misfits, artists,
and all kinds of folks giving their lives to serve the world as the aperitif of
the coming kingdom, of God’s kingdom come.
Or, as Jesus said it,
“Very
truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this
world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever
serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.
Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”
When I think of the
church as the aperitif of the future, stimulating the world’s appetite for
“a still more excellent way” by our manner of living and relating and being,
I am reminded of Mary Oliver writing that there is in this life really only one
question: how to love the world. There
is no verse in scripture that begins – “God
so loved the church.” No, we
read, “God so loved the world…”
Sometimes the church acts as if the church is an end-in-itself.
It is not. It is to be the
aperitif, the first fruits, the provisional demonstration of what God intends
for all of humanity, for the world.
And this sacrament we
celebrate today, this sacrament of Holy Communion, is itself an aperitif to the
aperitif we call church. It is meant
to stimulate our eagerness, enthusiasm, and passion for God and for living as
dreamers, doers, and disciples of God’s good news for the world as translated
for us by Jesus the Christ.
So, may there be
nothing timid, tepid, or tame about our living and loving in the name of God.
May the church indeed be the aperitif, the first fruits, of a day when
the peaceable kingdom bursts forth on earth in all its glory, in all God’s
glory. Let us all eat and drink to
that!
Amen.