Good morning, Friends! I hope you’ve all being doing well this week. A lot has been going on in different parts of the world. We’ve been waiting and watching the news, and hoping that more things won’t go wrong.
It’s good to remember that a lot of things are still going right. People still care for each other. Dedicated people are still doing their jobs – raising food, raising families, caring for the sick, keeping communities safe and running. It isn’t always as bad as some people want you to think.
This morning I want to read one of the most important stories of the gospel. All four gospels, in fact, because we read this story in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Today, we’re reading the version in Matthew.
On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
Jesus replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?”
Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?”
Jesus answered, “You have said so.”While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Matthew 26:17-30
This is one of the stories which should unite all Christians everywhere. It’s the last meal, the Lord’s Supper, the climax of Jesus’ teaching on earth. If there’s one thing which should bring us all together, it’s this meal and this story.
Every week, in the early church, Christians would gather in the home of someone whoever had the largest house. They would pray, and sing, and read the promises of God, and talk about Jesus.
And they’d have a meal. Everybody would bring something. People who had more would bring a lot. People who had less would bring whatever they could. People who couldn’t bring anything were invited to share.
It was a real meal. People ate well. If there was food left over, it would be taken to people who were sick and had to stay at home. Extra food would be given out, during the week, to take care of widows and orphans. It was Christianity in its earliest and simplest form.
As time went on, things changed. The singing and the prayers and readings got more elaborate and more formal. They started controlling who could say the prayers, and who could say the blessing, and who could pass the food around. There weren’t any priests in the early church at first. But eventually, priests got to be the only ones who could say the prayers and distribute the meal.
It stopped being a full meal. It was kind of a re-enactment of the Last Supper, but the bread became just a token amount. And eventually, only the priest drank the wine.
From the very beginning, even while Jesus was here with us on earth, people wanted to get close to Jesus. They crowded around to hear Jesus teach and pray.
Then, after the Resurrection, it seemed like Jesus was gone, back up to heaven. People couldn’t see him. But they still wanted to be close, as close as they could. The meal became the center of worship and faith. Not Jesus’ teaching. Not people changing their lives. But the meal, the holy meal became the center of worship.
Christians have argued more over the Lord’s Supper than almost anything else. I’m sure that would have grieved Jesus. The meal which was one of his greatest gifts, became the center of deep division. How sad Jesus must feel!
People in the early church had a lot of things in common. They all believed in Jesus. They agreed that Jesus was Lord. They believed in the Holy Spirit. They had an amazing willingness to share. They were willing to suffer for their faith. They loved to hear stories about Jesus. They had so much in common.
But the Lord’s Supper has always been controversial, even though it’s in all four gospels. Most churches practice it, but they’re not all the same. So, let’s go back and look again.
First thing to notice is, this is a Passover meal. Passover is a Jewish holiday. It celebrates the time when God had sent a whole bunch of plagues over the land of Egypt.
The rivers turned to blood. There were plagues of frogs, fleas, mosquitoes. All the cattle got sick. People got boils all over. Hail came and flattened all the crops. Locusts came and ate up the rest. There was a total eclipse of the sun. You’d think the Egyptians would have figured out that something was really wrong.
Finally, God sent an angel of death that would kill every first-born in the country, from the poorest home right up to the house of Pharaoh.
The Jews escaped the death plague – they were passed over – because each Jewish home sacrificed a lamb, and painted the doors of the house with the blood. Kind of gory, but that was a different time.
Anyway, the Last Supper was a Passover meal. And as Jesus said, Christians believed that the Lord’s Supper marked a change, from the old way to the new. God was making a new promise, a new covenant.
Like the Jews of ancient times, Christians would be spared and delivered from death, because of this new promise that God was making through Jesus.
Three of the gospels agree that Jesus said, “This bread is my body; this wine is my blood.” And he passed them around to everyone.
What’s interesting is that Jesus didn’t say, “Now, you all do it just like this, each and every time you get together!” Only one gospel, Luke, says, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
That brings up the question, was the Last Supper just a one-time thing? Most Christian churches feel that we’re supposed to re-enact it over and over. Some churches celebrate the Lord’s supper at every service. Others serve communion once a week, or once a month, or quarterly, or twice a year.
The Catholic church, and the Orthodox church, believe that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ. The bread and wine may look the same, but they believe that a miracle happens, and that the bread and wine are transformed into Jesus’ body and blood.
Most Protestant churches believe that the meal is “in memory” of Jesus. The bread and wine stay just the same, but Jesus is present in the hearts and minds of believers.
Many churches say that you can only take communion if you’ve been baptized, and they insist that you need to be an adult, or at least old enough to understand. Only a few churches welcome anyone and everyone to share in the meal.
Who could officiate at communion became really divisive. Even though there were no priests in the early church, even though Jesus never authorized any kind of a priesthood, and even though Jesus never said priests could only be men, eventually only male priests were allowed to lead the prayers and distribute the bread and wine.
People came to believe that priests had special holy power, given to them by a bishop, who got his power from the pope. Only people with that special holy power were allowed to handle the bread and wine, or say the words that made the miracle happen.
It’s kind of interesting that in the fourth gospel, the gospel of John, Jesus never talks about the bread and wine being his body and blood. Instead, in John’s gospel, Jesus gets up from the table, strips off his outer robe, wraps himself in the breech cloth of a slave, and washes his disciples’ feet.
Then, Jesus said, “Do you know what I’ve just done? I’m your Teacher and Lord, and I just washed your feet. I set you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:12-15)
In a small minority of churches, washing each others’ feet is an essential part of the Lord’s Supper. Everyone participates. They never have communion without doing it.
To me, foot washing makes sense. It’s not magic. It’s not even a mystery. It’s a reminder that service is a sacrament. Humility has holiness. As Jesus himself said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.” (Matthew 20:26-27)
But, oh my word, churches get all tangled up and divided over this stuff. Churches disagree about what kind of bread it has to be. Can it be ordinary bread? Does it have to be bread without any yeast, because that’s what the Passover meal was?
I remember when I was little, communion bread was always little round, thin, flat disks, about the size of a nickel. It had no taste at all. It was baked by nuns, which I think was supposed to make sure that it was holy and uncontaminated.
I remember how shocked I was, when the church changed over, and started serving ordinary bread. There was some serious question about whether it could be white bread, or whole wheat bread or who could bake it. You wouldn’t believe the complications people got caught up in.
And wine – when I was little, only the priest got to drink the wine. Then, they allowed adults to drink it, on super-special occasions, with special permission from the bishop. Now, in Catholic churches, both bread and wine are available.
But in some Protestant churches, all they serve is grape juice. That’s because they got caught up in the temperance movement, and they didn’t want to serve anything with alcohol, or they don’t want to put temptation in front of anyone who’s an alcoholic.
I mean, I get it. But I don’t get why churches get so hung up on doing it their way, that they exclude anyone who does it differently. Being perfect, in their eyes, is more important than being welcoming.
To this day – and this really bothers me – many churches refuse to serve communion to anyone who isn’t a member of their church. I don’t think that’s anything that Jesus would have done.
I guess I’m too broad-minded. I ask too many questions. And that was the other thing. When I was growing up, questions weren’t allowed. Teachers and leaders said you just had to take it on faith. If you kept on asking questions, you weren’t a Christian any more.
I left the church I grew up in, because I asked too many questions. When I was little, the church said you had to be pure and holy when you went to communion. One of the rules was, you had to fast for a minimum of 8 hours before you went.
I’m not sure if they meant that there was something evil in my stomach that had to get out of the way of the communion bread. Or maybe, fasting would help me focus my attention on the holiness of the moment.
All I knew was, early morning Mass was really popular, because then you could go and eat breakfast! But everybody knew that eating too soon before communion was a serious sin.
And then, one day, it wasn’t. The leaders announced that you could eat whenever you wanted to, and head straight over and take communion.
And before, the bread was too holy for you even to touch it. The priest popped it into your mouth. You weren’t even supposed to chew, just let it dissolve in your mouth, and swallow. It was a serious sin, to try to take it in your hand.
And then, one day, that was OK, they said. The priest started handing you the bread, and you put it in your mouth and chewed it, just like food.
My point is, these were rules and ideas that people made. None of this stuff is in the Bible. But you couldn’t ask questions, or try it another way. If you disagreed, you weren’t a Christian.
People and churches got really defensive, and really angry, about this stuff. Years ago, wars – real, live, honest-to-goodness wars – got started because Christians disagreed about these things. The meal which have brought people together, pushed people apart.
If you were here last Sunday, you may remember that last week we were talking about baptism. I said that the traditional definition of baptism is that it’s “an outward, physical symbol of an inward, spiritual reality.”
Communion is the same thing. For churches which celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it’s a physical thing – a symbol you can see. But the reality is inward and spiritual.
Quakers have always said that communion is being united with Christ. And it’s also being united with each other. We don’t need bread, or wine. The reality is something in your heart.
Being united in spirit with Jesus is something which can happen anywhere, at any time. In fact, it’s our responsibility to seek out those times of communion every place we go.
Many of you have told me that you feel closer to God when you’re at the beach or in the mountains, than at church. And believe me, I understand that.
I’m a little more skeptical about people who tell me that they only feel close to God, at 11:00 on Sunday morning out on the golf course. But I understand, and I truly believe, that we can be close to God anywhere.
A lot of people joke about how a fellowship meal is Quaker communion. But there’s a lot of truth to that. Holy times aren’t just on Sunday morning at church.
At the cookout last week, I visited one of the tables where there were some guests and visitors who were invited. They were asking some questions about Quakers, and before I could even speak, one of our members said, “Quakers are minimalists. We only believe in a few things, and we don’t hate anybody.”
I was so proud of that person. I won’t tell you who it was, they’d be embarrassed. But I was proud of them for that answer.
I was proud that somewhere along the way, as an adult or as a child, Springfield had managed to share that with them, and that they felt comfortable and happy being here. It was one of those moments that made me feel that Springfield is strong, and that we will survive.
All the people at that table who were listening were interested. Nobody seemed to feel threatened. A couple of people said that maybe they could be Quakers, too.
It takes a lot of effort for most people to ask questions, or to share what they believe. People have to feel pretty safe to do that.
I enjoyed the food and the fellowship, a lot! I had two hot dogs, and seconds on the salads. I’m grateful to Family Life for setting up meals like this, and I’m grateful to all the people who brought food from home and shared it, and for all the people who came early to set it up, and for all the people who stayed after to help with the cleanup.
But it isn’t just the food. It’s the fellowship. We could still have the fellowship, if all we brought was cheese and crackers. We could still have the fellowship, if all we had to share was a glass of ice water on a hot evening, or a cup of coffee on a cold winter day.
Quakers believe that every time we get together is an opportunity for fellowship. Every time we gather, can be a moment of communion and grace.
It’s not a guarantee – people can be together in the same church, even sit down at the same table, and be miles apart from each other. But it’s a possibility, it’s an opportunity. We believe that when we get together, just about anywhere, that Jesus can be here with us, just like he said.