John 13:1-17, 31b-35
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“Come to the Table of Love”
Preached Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024
While I was in college, I studied abroad for a semester at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Kyoto, Japan. My first week there was Holy Week. I was lonely, homesick, and jet-lagged. I felt like I was missing out on the Holy Week services that were and are so integral to my faith and life as a Christian. And so, on Good Friday, I approached a Buddhist classmate who was much more fluent in Japanese than I was and asked him to help me find a local church with an English speaking congregation. And that’s how, on Easter morning, I found myself at St. Agnes Anglican Church in Kyoto, Japan. The small English speaking community there became a lifeline. Every Sunday brought me life, hope, and belonging. Every Sunday, I broke bread and participated in communion. It was through participating in the Eucharist with that congregation that I found strength I did not know I had. It was there that I discovered my complete and total dependence on God and it was through God’s holy sacrament that God nourished and sustained me. When I took the bread and the cup, I knew that I could face whatever that next week held, until I could gather once more into a community of believers and receive communion again.
There have been other times in my life where I’ve come to appreciate more deeply the regularity of coming to this table.
When I worked at Camp Asbury, we would share in Communion every week on Thursday evenings. We’d gather on Communion Hill, all the campers and staff - feeling the summer breeze on our face - or some weeks, wishing there was a breeze as the sun beat down on us. And we’d share Communion in a place where I felt deeply connected with and to God. And to the community who shared in this meal together.
It was on that same hill that I married Zach. And on our wedding day we chose to share Communion with our families. In retrospect, this experience was more than just my wedding to me, as I gave Communion to my grandmothers - now both deceased - and it was the only time in my life I got to extend the bread and the cup to them. It is a beautiful reminder that one day, beyond this life, I will feast with them at the Lord’s Table again.
And my absolute favorite thing about being an ordained minister is the privilege of presiding over this table. But more than that, it’s giving Communion to young kids. There is nothing I love more than getting down on their level, ripping off a big chunk of bread - and I give them BIG chunks of bread because God is not stingy with God’s self, especially with children. Holy Communion should feel like a FEAST and if I can bring children (and sometimes adults) the amazement of thinking “Wow! That’s a lot!” That's how it is with God giving God’s self to us. So I take a big chunk of bread and I tell them “God loves you very much.”
There are some traditions that have limitations on children taking Communion. Many may have to reach a certain age, be baptized, and/or complete some formal education before taking their First Communion. And many do find this meaningful so this isn’t meant as a put down to those traditions - and, at the same time, I love that I have no memory of the first time I took Communion. Because we as United Methodists have an Open Table - and that means anyone, absolutely anyone, is invited to come to this Table. This is not our table as the people of Boardman UMC, this is not our table as United Methodists, this is not our table even as Christians - it’s the Lord’s table. And so we are not in charge of the guest list - thank God for that! And that means that anyone, anyone, who feels called to come forward and experience God’s love through Jesus, anyone who has that desire - 9 months or 99 years old, is invited to come and receive.
And so because I grew up in this tradition of the Open Table, as long back as I can remember, this meal has been there in my life. As far as I know, God’s love was always being extended to me, an open invitation to run down the aisle, get a piece of bread and juice and hear “God loves you very much.”
Now I’ve talked a lot about some of my experiences of Communion - I hope that as I shared some of the meaningful experiences of this meal in my life, that you were reminded of the times you have come to this table. Of the times in your life when you have shared in this meal - there may be specific instances that come to your mind. And it may also just be the many, many times that you have shared in this meal. And if they blend and blur together - that’s beautiful too.
Because the very act of participating in this meal, time and time again, shapes us by and for Love. Now, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, in his sermon, “The Duty of Constant Communion” says this about the benefits of this meal: “whatever God commands us to do, we are to do because he commands, whether we feel any benefit thereby or no. Now, God commands, ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’ This, therefore, we are to do because he commands, whether we find present benefit thereby or not. But undoubtedly we shall find benefit sooner or later, though perhaps insensibly. We shall be insensibly strengthened, made more fit for the service of God, and more constant in it. ...though we do not presently feel the happy effects of it, as some have done, and we ourselves may when God sees best.”
In that sermon he says we may not feel “the happy effects” of this meal every single time we come to the table - and yet the very act of coming to the table changes us, whether we realize it in that singular moment or not. We call this ritual or embodied theology. Let me explain.
The basic idea is that we carry our theology, that is, what we believe to be true about God, not just in our minds and our hearts, what we think and feel, the ways we primarily think about it, but we carry our theology in our bodies too. For example, I can read a great book or article on how time spent daily with God in meditation is important. And I can believe this. But if I don’t actually PRACTICE this, if I don’t spend time in prayer and meditation with God every day, then it is not my lived or embodied theology. We can think that Holy Communion is the most important ritual that we do as a worshiping body, but if we don’t actually participate in it every chance we get, if we don’t long for it every week, then my body doesn’t believe that it’s important.
On the flip side of this, I may not believe in my mind or heart that participating in Holy Communion is very important to my faith. But if I regularly participate in the ritual, my heart may change. As my body learns the importance of this ritual, my heart will follow. As I come to the Table, time and time again, with outstretched hands to receive a gift of God’s self for myself, when I hear the words “the body of Christ FOR YOU,” when I hear the meaning underneath “God loves you very much.” When I am told over and over again - this invitation is for you. This love is for you. You are welcome here. You are accepted here. You are loved here. When I go through the motions again and again and again…I may just come to believe it. In my mind, in my heart, in my body.
When I think of embodied theology, I always think of the beauty of this one particular story. There was a man in a nursing home who could not tell you his name. He couldn’t recognize his wife or his children. But every week a priest would come to the nursing home and do the Mass. The man, a long practicing Catholic, would light up and you could see it in his face that he was a different man. He knelt at all the right places, said all the right words, and could remember exactly when to cross himself. This ritual was so important to this man, he remembered it in his body. Even when his mind had let go of almost everything else - his body knew his theology, his body knew he was loved by God.
…I feel like so far this sermon has been my love letter to Holy Communion. And there is so much that happens in this meal. There is so much to love about it. The deep beauty and love ingrained in the very essence and core of what this meal is… And yet I am going to leave it at this to come back to the day, to the reason we are gathered together on a Thursday evening for worship.
Today is what we Christians call Maundy Thursday - some have taken to calling it Holy Thursday because what the what does “Maundy” even mean. But Maundy comes from the Latin word for “commandment.” Now, in the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we get Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist, on this night. Breaking bread with his disciples and sharing the cup. It’s referenced elsewhere in Scripture as well - such as our reading from 1 Corinthians this evening. The Gospel of John, however, is different. John glosses over what happens during Supper and goes to Jesus washing his disciple’s feet - an act of service and an act of Love. In the final verses of this evening’s Scripture we hear Jesus say this: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The Maundy or the commandment of Maundy Thursday is this: Love one another as I have loved you.
I also believe we can think of Jesus’s other commandment to us, the meal that was instituted on this day: “Do this in remembrance of me.”
For this Holy meal and the command to love are inextricably tied up together. At its very essence, everything that happens in this meal, is about Love:
The Love that God has for each of us.
The Love that is available to any and all of us.
The Love that is an open invitation.
The Love that shapes us in our hearts, minds, and bodies.
The Love that draws us into God’s self, the God of Love.
The Love that binds us not only to God in this meal but to each other, as the worshiping community that shares in this meal together.
The Love that then pushes us out toward the world, to be the Body of Christ to all we meet, redeemed and reconciling and full of Love…
To be Love to one another - for we have encountered Love here at this table.
As we come and experience this deep, open, and transformative Love together - tonight at this table and time and time again - we are claimed and shaped by Love - so just as God loves us, we may love one another.
An open, generous, embodied love.
So tonight hear God’s command to us - come, come to the table of Love.
Amen.
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