“Communion
Meditation”
Matthew
5:1-12
First
Presbyterian
The
Reverend Thomas A. Sweet
January
30, 2011
Evensong/Holy
Communion Meditation
I was in my first year at seminary.
It was early in the first semester, a time in which I did not know enough
to know what I did not know. I was
in a precept for a theology class and the professor, instead of a graduate
assistant, was leading the precept that day.
I remember it as if yesterday. It
was late on a Thursday September afternoon, the smell of newly mown grass
drifting in through the open windows. The
professor, Dr. Edward Dowey, was at the time, though I did not know it then but
soon found out, the leading Calvin scholar in the world.
And there I was taking him on over the matter of what he was calling
“the real presence” of Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion.
To this day I die a thousand deaths when I think of that afternoon and
marvel at the patience that world-renowned professor had with this obstreperous
little twit of a theological student.
What I could not get through my
immature theological mind at the time, in part because I did not yet really
understand the lingo, the jargon, the terminology, was the meaning of “real presence.” I
heard “real presence” as meaning that the bread and the wine in Holy
Communion somehow are turned into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ.
And I was having nothing of it. I
do not remember exactly what I said but I was vociferously and vehemently trying
to help Dr. Dowey to see that Calvin did not believe in “real presence.”
That of which I was trying to convince
Dr. Dowey against – that the bread and wine do not become the actual body and
blood of Jesus - I later found out, incredulously, is what Roman Catholics
believe about the Mass, about the eucharist, Holy Communion.
It was one of the things about which Calvin the reformer disagreed in
regard to the Catholic Church. Calvin
taught that, in the sacrament, the bread and wine representing the body and
blood, point to but also actually deliver, communicate, and exhibit Jesus the
Christ to those who come to Communion with faith.
The bread and the wine, or grape juice as we shall use today, do not
actually become Jesus Christ, but through these signs, and by means of the
partakers’ faith, even if the size of a mustard seed, the Holy Spirit in the
sacrament unites us with Jesus the Christ. How
does it happen? It is a mystery too
high for the human mind (even his, Calvin admitted!) to grasp.
But God promises it, he says, and so we can trust it.
On the opposite pole of the spectrum
from the Roman Catholic understanding of the eucharist is the teaching of
another reformer by the name of Ulrich Zwingli.
He maintained that the sacrament is simply a memorial meal whose benefits
are realized from remembering, recalling, bringing to mind, the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus. But there is
no presence. Calvin held a kind of
middle ground that, understanding it now (God rest your sainted soul, Dr. Dowey)
satisfies me fully. Professor Dowey
was right and I was wrong. Calvin
believed in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament but the real,
spiritual presence in which partakers are mystically, mysteriously, but
surely united with the Christ, not by, as Calvin said, “Christ descending into
bread,” but through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
It is not that the communion elements actually become the body and blood
of Christ but that, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we are united with
Christ. No wonder our communion
liturgy exclaims of the Lord’s Supper that “this is the joyful feast of the
people of God.”
It is union with the Christ of God that
scripture means most often when referring to “heaven” which is why Jesus
talked about “the kingdom of heaven” coming near.
We hope in the resurrection for a fuller experience of such a heaven,
but, even if only fleetingly, we are graced to be able to experience it in this
life. One of the opportunities is in
this sacrament that we celebrate today when the real spiritual presence of the
Christ is offered to us.
When we are able to receive that
presence, and thus enter into holy
communion, we are formed in and by that holy encounter more and more into the
likeness of the Christ and thus also into our truest humanity and personhood.
What does that look like? What
do we look like when we are being our truest, fullest selves?
I think we shall look like persons inhabiting the Beatitudes of Jesus.
They stand as the headwaters of his Sermon on the Mount and what he says
after them make sense only in light of them.
They help us to navigate the changes – big and small – we face in our
lives by changing us. They give us
assurance that trouble, hardship, or
heartache in our lives will be transformed in the crucible or cradle of God’s
grace as we allow ourselves to be shaped by our meetings with the Christ.
So, as we prepare to experience the
real spiritual presence of Christ in the sacrament today, I want to invite us to
read together the paraphrased Beatitudes (by Alexander J. Shaia) printed on page
three of our bulletins to which members of the choir introduced us a few moments
ago. They portray the transforming
work that the Christ does in us in the midst of our lives as we open ourselves
to receive him. As we read, we shall
add the phrase “we shall be blessed as we” in front of each Beatitude.
We shall be blessed as we accept that we do not and will not know results in advance.
We often feel “poor in spirit.”
We shall be blessed as we make farewells to our yesterdays and embrace the grief we feel.
We shall be blessed as we be humble in our willingness to journey.
Yielding to exile will yield riches of Spirit.
We shall be blessed as we know that our true hunger and thirst are for Spirit, and only Spirit,
despite all trials and temptations.
We shall be blessed as we greet all we encounter, within and without, in mercy, and reap the
rewards of gratitude.
We shall be blessed as we be full of heart. Do not
seek to remove any thought, any feeling, or any person from our inner life.
Each is an aspect of Spirit. Welcome
them all.
We shall be blessed as we believe in “Jeru-shalom,” the place of inner peace, as a home of
welcome that accommodates a deep harmony built on respect for differing voices.
We shall be blessed as we accept inner and outer hardship as needed for the sake of living a new
life in the presence of God.
We shall be blessed as we anticipate lack of esteem. Be
prepared instead for conflict and betrayals – and meet each with respect and
kindness.
As you come to the Lord’s Table today, expect the real presence of the Christ to meet you and bless you according to your need.
Amen.