The Lord's Supper

Just bow our heads in prayer for a moment. Father, we like to have you do things in a way that suits us, that deals with our sort of unrecognized emotional neediness and our unrecognized self-centeredness.

And Father, we like it when you act in a way that fits with us and pleases us. But Father, you're God, not us.

And so Father, you are a God who bestows grace, that gives grace to sinners and to unredeemed sinners and to redeem sinners.

And you continue to give us grace. And we are here today to be in your presence, to receive grace from your hands.

And we ask, Lord, that you grant us open and hungry hearts to receive the grace from you this morning that we desperately need and to respond in a worthy manner.

And Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to do that.

And we ask and thank all these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Hope you don't mind me insulting you that you all, you and I all have unrecognized self-centeredness and neediness.

But there, there you go.

I've never been to a mosque.

I mean, I've been outside of mosques, but I've never been to a mosque.

Never gone inside it for, for one of their prayer services.

I've been to a Buddhist wedding ceremony, but that Buddhist wedding ceremony was in a, was in a house, not a Buddhist temple.

I've been to an anthroposophical dedication service in an anthroposophical church.

And none of you have heard of anthroposophical, I'm going to get mixed up.

Anyway, most of you have probably never heard of it.

But the fact is, I haven't been to most of these places.

I sort of know, or I think I know, what Muslims do in terms of the different prayers that they say.

And they might gather for prayers.

I don't know if it's one of those things, if I talk to a very devout Muslim watching something on TV,

they'd say, no, no, that's not right, or that's not right.

Or, you know, they're doing the morning prayer in the afternoon or something like that.

I know that often television and movies get things about the Christian services not right.

It's very common.

And if anybody from Hollywood's listening, our congregation will release me to be a technical advisor periodically at good Hollywood rates,

which will go to the church, Mission Fund, not to me, to help you get those things straight.

Anyway, one of the things that if you're not that familiar with the Christian faith that you might know about Christians

is that they do something, and some people call it the Mass, and some call it Holy Communion,

and some call it the Eucharist, and some call it the Lord's Supper.

And if you're like a Muslim or just a secular Canadian tuning in, or a Buddhist, or somebody with a bespoke spirituality,

you might know those things.

And, of course, Christians know that, and we're familiar with it.

So this is actually a very different type of a sermon today, because what I read just a couple of minutes ago is where that comes from.

It's where it comes from and sort of why it is that Christians do this, this thing called the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.

And so let's look at it.

If you're just from an outsider trying to sort of figure out what we're all about, this is like a brilliant time.

One of the main things that Christians do, we get the origin story, so to speak.

And for us who are Christians, we don't talk about this enough.

I probably don't talk about it enough, about what is the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion,

and why it's significant, and what happens, and how we should do it.

And so let's look.

And if you were to take my preaching class, I would tell you never have seven points.

I have seven points.

So I'm going to flunk myself.

But they're all very simple.

And, in fact, actually, if you sort of want to hear them, here's the first thing.

That what you're actually going to be surprised is that it's simple.

It is simple.

It is very simple.

So let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter 14, verses 22 to 31.

Mark 14:22–31

There's sort of two stories there.

The part that we're interested initially with is 22 to 25.

Mark chapter 14, verses 22 to 25.

Mark 14:22–25

And what's just happened in the flow of this ancient eyewitness biography of Jesus is that just before this,

we've had a bit of the fact that we've had Jesus and his disciples as observant Jews.

They have been celebrating the Passover Supper.

And at a key point in the third part of the Passover Supper, Jesus says to Judas that one of you will,

not to all of them, one of you will betray me.

And he never outs Judas.

But he does say, woe to that man who betrays me.

It would be better if he was never born.

It was a very, very sobering moment.

And that's what happens just before this.

I talked about it last week if you're curious.

It's a very sobering moment.

And now this story happens.

And here's how it goes.

Verse 22.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said,

Take, this is my body.

And Jesus took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank of it.

And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

Now, some of you, maybe who are seekers, you go, Is that all?

Like, isn't there more?

And some of you might actually think it seems a bit lame.

And some of you might think it seems a bit gross.

This is my blood that you have to drink.

It sounds like a vampire.

And I'm going to return to that.

The outside, how some people from the outside, it sounds, well, way too simple.

It sounds a bit lame and it sounds a bit gross.

But some of you who watch, and this might be for some of you, you heard me read this and you go,

George, that's not what we say when we do a communion service.

We say something different.

Like, why did Jesus say this one thing here, but why do we say something different when we do,

like in a few, later on we're going to do a communion service.

Why is there this difference?

And some of you who, you know, listen to some of the different YouTube things and TikTok things of ex-evangelicals

and people who love the Christian faith and skeptics, they'll jump on this and go,

aha, aha, you see that?

This is why you can't trust the Bible, because it says different things.

Like, they don't get it right.

And a lot of times we don't know how to handle that when people say it.

And actually, there's going to be an announcement about that that will help you later on.

But what I'd like to say right now is something, just, it's a very important bit of a sidebar

to help you understand what's, why it's different here than the other places

and why you don't have to worry about it, but in fact should rejoice in it.

There's a book that came out, I think within the last 12 months.

I think at least two of you have read it, and it's about the founding of the denomination that we're in.

And it's early days and bringing us sort of up to about the year 2021 or 2022.

And what you might not know is that I actually got asked to write one of the chapters in the book as a memoir.

And what I did is I covered the years 1994, a particular thing at the end of June 1994,

to the end of August in 2004.

And the reason they asked me, the editors and the compilers asked me to write this,

is because our denomination was founded out of an organization called Essentials.

And I was the chair of that organization from 1999 to 2004, to 1994 to 2004,

when in 2004 it was announced that we had started this entity called the Anglican Network in Canada.

I was the chair for that, for those 10 years.

My wife, if you talk to her afterwards, she can say about all of the different scars I got from that process.

But for that 11 years, I was at every single meeting, including the planning meetings.

I was at every event.

I didn't miss anything.

And I was the chair and the organizer of many of those events.

So they asked me to write a memoir about it.

Now, and I wrote it.

I did it because, and I didn't consult a whole pile of documents.

It had been a very, very important time in my life.

If I was writing, I guess, a very academic thing, I would have done a bit of research.

But I didn't have to do research.

I was there.

I lived it all.

And if I had to do some more research, if they wanted something more academic,

I'd get on the phone.

I'd call up Klaus.

I'd get on the phone and call up Roger.

I'd get on the phone and call up Cheryl and David and a couple of the other people

who were at a lot of those things, not all of the things, but a lot of them.

And we would compare notes to make it even more accurate.

Now, I was just able to do this just out of my memory because I was actually there.

Now, imagine, though, now somebody said,

George, could you do a paper on those 10 years leading up to the start of the Anglican Church of Canada?

Well, the Anglican Church of Canada, the first general synod, took place in 1893.

I couldn't do that.

I mean, I could do it, but I'd have to do what most of you would do.

There's no obviously people left who were there.

I'd have to look at written documents.

And I'd have to try to compare the written documents.

And when I wrote my piece, afterwards, people who were scholars of Canadian history,

they might look and say, oh, George got this bit from here.

And, oh, he didn't give a footnote there like he should have.

And I'd never heard of this.

I think George just made that up.

And other scholars also looking at the other documents, they would be able to critique it.

Now, why am I saying all of this?

Because it's very, very important.

Up until the later part of the 1800s,

if you went back in a time machine and you asked an early church father

or you asked somebody in the year 1500 or 1800, all smart people,

they would just tell you that the Gospels are what is claimed,

if you read the original documents, that they were eyewitness documents.

And the eyewitnesses just report on what eyewitnesses had seen and talked about.

In other words, they would have just said that when you were reading the Gospels,

it's like reading my chapter in the book.

You're hearing an eyewitness speak.

But in the late 1800s, under the influence of a guy by the name of Hegel,

a group of German scholars believed that they understood

how religious movements developed according to Hegelian principles

and how it took all of this long time and all of these steps.

And they believed, because they were good Hegelians,

that they understood how that worked.

And, of course, if that model was going to work,

then the New Testament couldn't be written by eyewitnesses.

It had to be written 150, 200 years later,

so that their Hegelian theory could work.

Now, nobody dates the book as late as those German scholars in the late 1800s.

Like, it sort of sucks to say that John was written in the year 200,

then you find a document, a piece, a manuscript that shows

that was written at least 80 years earlier.

Like, that's sort of a defeater for the theory.

But it's carried on and it's dragged on.

And so often what happens is many scholars still basically think

that what's happening is they're comparing documents.

And so if the documents don't say the exact same thing,

they say, well, that's been invented or something like that.

But let's just take it that there's actually no evidence

that it was written so late.

And, in fact, I think there's very, very good evidence.

And increasingly over time, they've been doing these remarkable studies

about names and places and the frequency of names

and how the customs are.

Like, when they have very, very common names,

you add an extra bit to it.

Judas was a very, very common name, so they add a bit to it.

Like, and it's amazing.

The more they know about the past,

the more accurate the New Testament is

and the more accurate the Gospels are,

the more likely it is that it had to be written by eyewitnesses

and checked by eyewitnesses very close to the time.

And that's just, like, as archaeologists and scholars

learn more about the past,

that just becomes increasingly the direction of modern knowledge.

And so what we're seeing here is eyewitnesses.

Now, how does that affect it being worded differently?

Well, some of you have taken classes from Steve Griffin.

And I bet you if you've taken some classes from Steve Griffin,

he said some things the same in different lectures.

Right?

And if even in the same lecture,

he probably just doesn't say it once, like he's a robot,

but human beings often repeat things.

And in this sermon, for instance,

you might hear me say, for instance,

that it is simple,

or you might later on hear me say it's surprisingly simple,

or it's unexpectedly simple.

Those aren't contradictions.

If one of you later on was saying,

George's first point was, it is simple.

Another person wrote down, it is surprisingly simple.

Another person writes down, it is unexpectedly simple.

And then later on, somebody said, you're all contradicting.

No, you're not contradicting.

George said all three of those things.

So it's not as if it's just, you know,

Jesus, like a robot,

this is my body,

and he's programmed to only say,

this is my body.

No.

If you've received communion from me over the years,

I've said a variety of different things.

And in a talk,

I might express the same idea several different ways,

and they write it down that.

That's all you're seeing.

In fact, actually then,

rather, it's actually a sign

that it's more realistic about what actually human beings,

what human beings actually do,

and the differences are showing you

a more realistic picture of how human beings actually function.

that rather than being a defeater about the text,

it's a reason to be more confident in the text.

And there is absolutely no reason to think

that the text is written as late

as some scholars want to put it.

And so if you look at the four different original accounts,

three of them in the eyewitness biographies,

one in Matthew,

one in Mark,

one in Luke,

and then one written in an early letter,

you'll see slightly different wordings,

and that's reflected in how we do our liturgy.

But what you can trust

is that this goes right back to Jesus,

and he institutes it.

And it is surprisingly simple,

but if you take in its very basic simplicity,

it is profoundly beautiful.

And part of the beauty is this.

You know,

let's look at it again.

Verse 22,

And as they were eating,

he took bread,

and after blessing it,

broke it,

and gave it to them,

and said,

Take, this is my body.

In other places it says,

Take and eat, this is my body.

Or take and eat,

this is my body given for you.

And he took a cup,

and when he had given thanks,

he gave it to them,

and they all drank it.

And he said to them,

This is my blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many.

Truly I say to you,

I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine

until that day when I drink it new

in the kingdom of God.

You see,

part of what's so beautiful about that

is not only the words beautiful,

which we're going to look at more in a moment.

These very, very simple words

can be said by Christian believers

in Tehran or Shanghai,

meeting in a room behind closed doors

because of persecution.

If you go to visit the missionaries

you support in Angola

and go to one of their church plants,

these very simple words

can be said under a tree

in a village

that in many ways

still uses the farming techniques

of 150 years ago.

You can go to an ancient cathedral

in Paris or England

and you can hear these same words.

Or you can be in the Ottawa Little Theatre

on a Sunday morning

and hear these same words.

They are beautiful

and they are profound

and they are something

that Christians

in all sorts and conditions of life

can partake of the Lord's Supper,

the Holy Communion.

Now, it's important to remember

not just that it's simple

but that it is in a story.

These words of Jesus

are in a story

or an eyewitness biography.

Listen to the words again.

And as they were eating

he took bread

and after blessing it

broke it

and gave it to them

and said,

take, this is my body.

And he took a cup

and when he had given thanks

he gave it to them

and they all drank of it

and he said to them,

this is my blood of the covenant

which is poured out for many.

Truly I say to you

I will not drink again

of the fruit of the vine

until that day

when I drink it new

in the kingdom of God.

Now, I've talked to you

you know, before

I like watching movies

by and large.

I mean, a lot of movies

are not very good

but if I find a good movie

I really like it.

And one of the things

that characterizes bad movies

is they just stick things in randomly

to try to make the movie

more exciting

or more titillating

or create tension

and it has nothing to do

with the story.

They just throw in a

I don't know

for some random reason

the woman walking around

in her underwear

or they throw in

an explosion

or they throw in

a hostile police examination

but as the story goes on

it has nothing to do

with the story.

You know, it was just simply

put that somebody

in Hollywood said

oh, I don't want the people

to fall asleep

let's have the woman

take her top off.

Okay, oh, let's just

have the police

have a hostile investigation

which we never follow up on

and it has nothing to do

with the story.

Those are just crappy, right?

They're crappy movies

crappy stories.

That's what they are.

But in a good one

in a well done one

the different parts

of the story

help make the whole story work.

And afterwards

you know, you can ask

when I mention a movie

by the way

I'm not recommending

necessarily that you watch it

but like if you watch

the third season of Fargo

and there's this

random type of thing

at the beginning

that sets the whole thing off

but if you look at it

and you talk to other people

who watch it

they say, no, no

that's really interesting

because what they're doing

is they're prefiguring this

and prefiguring that

and you go, oh yeah

that's what they're doing.

You actually have a discussion

around it

and see how it all fits together.

So one of the things

we can say for a fact

is that people

wouldn't read these stories

continue to be reading

these stories

if they didn't have

if they weren't

well put together.

If they were just

crappy.

And so we can ask

not just

you see

and often when Christians

disagree about communion

what happens is

they get caught up

arguing about

tradition

or theology

or philosophy

and they forget

that the words

of institution

that's what it's called

are in a story

and they don't go back

to look at the story.

Like

why is it in this story?

Like

what's it doing

in this story?

And that's

what we need to do.

So you say

okay well George

what's going on?

Why is this story here?

Well let's listen

to it again

and as they were eating

and he took bread

and after blessing it

broke it

and gave it to them

and said

take this is my body

or take and eat

this is my body

and he took a cup

and when he had given thanks

he gave it to them

and they all drank of it

and he said to them

this is my blood

of the covenant

which is poured out

for many

truly I say to you

I will not drink again

of the fruit of the vine

until that day

when I drink it new

in the kingdom of God.

This

is Jesus

explaining

and Mark

recording it.

Why does Mark

record it?

Because Mark

understands afterwards

that Jesus

explains the story

that you're reading

and not only

does he explain

the story you're reading

you see the story

you're reading

Mark

explains the big story

of the Bible

and that's what Jesus

is doing here.

This

is part of those

there's several

key sayings

of Jesus

throughout the gospel

that explains the story

gives you the purpose

and the meaning

of the story

and what you see here

is Jesus

explaining the story

which explains

the big story.

How does he do that?

Well

first of all

as we went through it

and I'm not going to

reiterate it

is the Jewish people

they had a celebration

called the Passover

which celebrated

how God

had acted

to deliver them

from slavery

and bondage

in Egypt

into

freedom

where he was

to be their king

the God

and part of that

is that

the shedding

of a blood

of a lamb

and if

a Jewish family

or any family

was to shed

the blood

of a lamb

an innocent lamb

lay their hands

on it

the lamb

is killed

and the blood

is taken

and put in

on the entrance

of the house

and if they stay

inside

then as God's

judgment

was going

to pass over

the nation

of Egypt

anybody

who was in a sense

covered

by this

the blood

of the shed

lamb

and

they were

covered

by that

the judgment

of God

didn't fall

on them

it fell

on the people

committed

to slavery

and enslaving

and believed

it was their right

and that was judged

and they remembered

that

they still remember

to this day

our Jewish friends

and so the first thing

is that what's happening

is that the Jewish people

when they remembered it

they had

not just a

not just a meal

but they actually

had to have

certain types

of food

in the meal

and the meal

actually had four parts

because part of it

was retelling

the story

so that people

would remember

what God

had done for them

and part of it

as well

if you go back

and look at

the foundational

text in Exodus

and Leviticus

and Deuteronomy

they were also

not just to retell

the story

of what God

has done

but to look

forward to the day

when the Messiah

would come

the final day

and it's in that meal

at the third part

of the meal

that Jesus

interrupts the meal

to do something

and he takes

the bread

that they were

using

and they would

have already

eaten

maybe it's

towards the end

of it

and it would

have been

bread without

leaven

that's why

we use

wafers that

have no

leaven in them

when we receive it

and the cup

would have been

a cup of wine

because that's

what they would

have drunk

and so on one

hand it's very

significant that

he's connecting

me

what's about

to happen

to this very

ancient event

and this ancient

event that promises

that sometime

in the future

the Messiah

will come

and the other

thing that he's

doing is

as I tried

to explain

last week

the Jewish

people

they begin

their day

at sundown

we sort of

begin our day

technically

at midnight

or psychologically

we think our day

begins when we

wake up in the

morning

but for the

Jewish people

still to this

day

the day

begins

when the night

when sundown

happens

and the day

ends

with sundown

and so

what we're

seeing here

is we're

seeing this

unbelievably

chaotic

and packed

24 hour

period

that's all

the very

first day

of the

Passover

and the

story of

the exodus

and the

promise of

the Messiah

and the

remembering

of the

lamb

that's been

slain

and how

they're

covered

that's

fully

in their

mind

and in

that 24

hour

period

Jesus

sacrifices

a

celebrates

a Passover

supper

because he's

an observant

Jew

he institutes

the Lord's

supper

he's going

to go to

the garden

of Gethsemane

he's going

to pray

that God

would take

spare him

from this

hour

but he's

offering to

drink the

cup

and we'll

look at

that next

week

we're going

to see

Judas

betray him

and he's

going to

be captured

we're going

to see him

being taken

to the

different

Jewish

and all

of the

different

authorities

and how

they ultimately

just hand

him over

to death

and we're

going to

see him

stripped

and we're

going to

see him

whipped

and humiliated

and we're

going to

see him

drag his

cross

through the

streets

we're going

to see

all of the

apostles have

fled

and we're

going to

see him

die on

his arms

and his

feet nailed

to a cross

and we're

going to

see him

die

and we're

going to

see him

say things

from the

cross

before he

dies

and we're

going to

see that

make sure

that he's

really dead

we're going

to see a

spear piercing

his side

and blood

and water

flowing out

and we're

going to

see before

this 24

hour period

is over

some men

take him

and they

embalm him

and they

put him

in a

tomb

and that's

all going

to happen

in 24

hours

the first

day of

Passover

and the

people are

running around

and they're

afraid

and they're

going to

be hiding

for a

couple of

days

and then

there's

going to

be this

crazy

crazy

crazy

thing

where

women

good grief

women

in those

days

they say

he's

actually

that the

tomb

is empty

and that

he's

alive

and he

saw him

and they're

going to

see that

the tomb

is empty

and then

later

they're

all going

to see

it

but in

that 24

hour

period

what is

Jesus

doing

he's

giving them

a 5,000

feet in the

air view

of what's

happening

he's

saying

you see

the Passover

supper

you see

what's

going to

happen

in the

garden

you see

what's

going to

happen

with the

betrayal

you see

the trial

you see

my humiliation

you see

my being

stripped

naked

you see

the beatings

you see

my death

you're going

to be

seeing all

of these

things

and what's

really

happening

what you

need to

understand

is really

happening

is this

I'm going

to have

my body

broken

for you

I'm going

to have

my blood

shed

for you

what does

that mean

is I'm

going to

take

into

myself

that

punishment

I'm going

to stand

in your

place

I'm going

to stand

in your

place

and the

judgment

of God

that should

fall on

you

will fall

on me

and it's

not just

that I

am going

to die

in your

place

but you

know how

there was

that whole

thing about

me taking

God

taking the

people for

himself

this is a

new covenant

a brand new

start for the

human race

and it's

not going

to be

just for

Jewish

people

it's

going to

be for

people in

Singapore

and people

in Uganda

and people

in Nigeria

and people

in Venezuela

and it's

going to be

for people

in Manhattan

and people

in Ottawa

it's going

to be for

people in

Israel

and I'm

creating a

brand new

covenant

and a

covenant

is

like a

marriage

is like a

pale reflection

of a

covenant

and marriage

isn't as

good an

example

nowadays

because we

Canadians

think of

marriage as a

contract

which you

enter into

and then

you break

when the

terms of

the business

arrangement

no longer

work for

you

but this

is God

pledging

that he

will be

your God

in an

intimate

connection

of love

and affection

and protection

and blessing

and when he

has entered

into this

new covenant

with you

he will

never let

you go

and he

will deal

that's all

that's wrong

with you

and this

covenant

will begin

on this

side of

the grave

and it

will carry

you through

the grave

through death

and it

will be

for all

eternity

and it

is a

hope of

glory

and it

is a

covenant

that will

end up

with you

being able

to stand

naked

and unashamed

in the

very presence

of the

triune

God

and the

new heaven

and the

new earth

and that's

what I am

that's what

I am

accomplishing

on the

cross

and that's

what I'm

instituting

and that's

what's going

on

despite the

appearances

that's what's

going on

and unlike

the kingdoms

where the emperor

sends out the troops

to die on his

behalf

and under

unlike all of the

gods that you

know that

have you die

for them

this is the king

who dies

for his citizens

this is the god

who dies

for his

creatures

out of love

so when we

read these

words we're

reading Jesus

is 5,000

feet

meters

or feet

up in the

air

explanation

of what's

going on

now some

of you might

say it still

seems gross

and it still

seems lame

I haven't

lost you

my Muslim

friend

or my

secular

friend

or one

of you

who are

here

and wonders

about it

that leads

to the next

point

let's read

it again

and as they

were eating

he took

bread

and after

blessing

it broke

it and gave

it to them

and said

take this

take this

is my

body

and he

took a

cup

and when

he had

given

thanks

he gave

it to

them

and they

all

drank

of it

and he

said

to them

this is

my

blood

of the

covenant

which

is poured

out

for many

truly

I say

to you

I will

not

drink

again

of the

fruit

of the

vine

until

that

day

when I

drink

it

new

in the

kingdom

of God

you notice

that prediction

of the

resurrection

what we need

to understand

is it does

sound lame

and it does

sound a bit

gross

but it is

a means

of grace

from the

triune

God

for ordinary

people like

you and

me

what Jesus

is instituting

is a very

significant

means of

grace

it comes

right from

the triune

God

right from

the heart

and the

power

and the

mind

of the

triune

God

as a

means of

grace

for ordinary

people

like you

and me

well

why it

does seem

weak

but

you know

what

it's

this story

is only

remembered

because

the men

who embalmed

the people

who saw

Jesus

people in

those days

knew that

nobody

survived

crucifixion

Romans

were batting

a thousand

at killing

people

with crucifixion

a thousand

and in a sense

their record

still stands

because they

killed Jesus

they batted

a thousand

they saw

his blood

loss

they saw

his dehydration

they saw

the blood

come from

his side

they saw

him

carried

down

obviously

dead

collapsing

on the

ground

any of

you who've

watched

the 13

hours

I have to

confess

it's one

of my

favorite

movies

there's a

very very

terrible

scene

towards the

end

where

one of

the

people

who died

is thrown

down

they can't

get him

down from

the building

and they

just drop

him

and his

friend

screams

no

and anybody

who sees

the body

drop

knows

that

the

guy

is not

alive

and they

would have

seen

the Roman

guys

they're not

going to

take Jesus

down

very carefully

and reverently

no

they just

pull things

out

knock him

down

the thud

he's

embalmed

and he's

dead

the only

reason we

know this

story is

because he

rose from

the dead

and if he

rose from

the dead

that's a

game changer

no offense

my Muslim

friends

but it

means

that Islam

is not

true

no offense

my Buddhist

friends

or my

secular

friends

but it

means that

Jesus

is who

he said

he is

and his

teaching is

trustworthy

and it

comes from

a place

of great

power

because he

has defeated

death

and he has

defeated that

which causes

death

and he's

done this

in a public

way

and he's

done it

for you

and me

and that

means that

this is a

mighty act

of grace

from the

triune God

for us

and if he

offers us

a means

of grace

it might

not look

like what

we expect

power to

do

and it

might look

lame

and it

might look

gross

but it

comes from

the one

who looked

at you

and loved

you

and died

for you

and has

defeated

death

well we

look at

it and

one of the

significances

of the

symbolism

you know

they didn't

really

nobody sat

there and

thought oh I

just drank

Jesus'

blood

that's pretty

gross

they would

have found

that

gross

they would

have found

it actually

probably more

gross than

you do

because the

Jewish law

forbids it

and we have

cultures where

some of us

will eat things

which are made

of blood

but they

would have been

more gross

for them

but what

this is

symbolizing

is that we

remember what

Jesus does

for us on

the cross

we remember

what our

destiny is

in Christ

and what

we know

if we're

at all

honest

I need

the inside

of me

to change

I need

that place

where my

the choosing

to do wrong

is changed

where my

choosing to be

proud is changed

where my

lack of

generosity

where my

lack of

forgiveness

where my

desire for

revenge

where these

hard things

from within

me where

they emerge

that's where

I need

God's grace

to come in

and we're

reminded of it

when we feed

on him

it is this

powerful way

to say

no no

this isn't

just sort of

like putting

something on

your hair

and doing

like some

lipstick

to make

the externals

look

this is

something

that's

the grace

is for

all of you

the redemption

is for

all of you

and we need

to be remembered

that Jesus

comes

he lives

within us

we are now

born again

and we need

to be reminded

that we need

to think

of get

who he is

and what he's

done for us

and his words

we need to get

them inside

of us

because it's

on the inside

that he changes

us and so

he's given

us this

powerful means

of grace

that we remember

this and we

reenact it

and we think

it's lame

because we say

like I've heard

people say

you know

Ramadan

is way better

than anything

Christians do

because we have

to fast

for all this

length of time

even when it's

really hot

and you know

we look at

things like yoga

and I'm not

putting any

things down

but from our

Canadian point

of view

these things

they resonate

with us

they show

willpower

they show

losing weight

they show

mind control

they show

how to get

more flexible

and how to

get the body

in shape

and they

all speak to

us

and they all

look like

they have

power

but the fact

of the matter

is

is that you

can lose

all the weight

you want to

lose

and you get

to be the

perfect weight

and you can

get unbelievable

mind control

and you can

have unbelievable

flexibility and

strength

you can have

fantastic

physical

discipline

but the fact

of the matter

is it's all

doomed because

you will die

go to a

graveyard and

you'll see

where you end

up

it doesn't

matter how

strong you

are how

fit you

are how

fantastic

your willpower

is it all

dies

this is a

means of

grace what

does a

means of

grace mean

my time's

going but

like a

perfect way

to understand

a means of

grace is

this if

you go

back and

I should

have looked

it up I

think it's

2nd Kings

18 but I

might be wrong

about it 1st

Kings 18 I

might be wrong

about it there's

this time when

Elijah is going

to have a

contest with

the prophets

of Baal and

they agree

they're going

to have a

contest to see

which god

will send

fire and

there's like

you know

hundreds and

hundreds of

them and

they set the

altar up and

they put the

animal on it

and they

you know

they use

their willpower

and they use

their physical

power and

they use their

magical incantations

and they do

they cut

themselves and

they sacrifice

themselves and

they do everything

they possibly can

do at the end of

the day the fire

doesn't come

and then Elijah

comes and he

takes some stones

and he kills an

animal he puts

some wood and he

pours water on it

he pours water on

it pours water on

it pours water on

it and just so

you know I'm not

a camper I've said

this before but I

sort of do

understand that if you

want to start a fire

you don't pour

water on the

wood first

that's just not

how you start

fires that's not

going to work

ever and then

and then he

prays and God

sends the fire

so Elijah acts

in obedience to

do what God

tells him to do

even though it

looks weak and

even though it

looks foolish and

even though it

looks like it will

never accomplish

what it's supposed

to accomplish but

because he does

what God asks him

to do God does

what only he can

do which is send

the fire and

that's at the

heart of the

means of grace

and by the

way if you're

watching this

we Christians

often also think

it's lame

that's why we

want to try to

have something

maybe with special

music or some

special lighting or

smoke machines or

lasers to try to

create some more

powerful emotion or

why we want to

have you know get

me dressed up in

lots of robes and

parade around and

have choirs and

all of this stuff

because we sort of

worry that these

mere words aren't

going to be enough

but the fact the

matter is is that

all those things

just distract

the means of

grace aren't if

you have lots of

processions and

lots of robes it's

not if you have a

way to emotionally

manipulate people to

feel particular

emotions it's not

connected to any of

that it's the simple

obedient act of

repeating the words

of Jesus and

receiving the bread

and the wine in

obedience to him

and God brings the

fire and he's not

interested per se in

making you richer

making you slimmer

making you more

muscular having you

have better mind

control he has a

way better plan for

you and that plan is

to be in the new

heaven and the new

earth and to stand

in his presence and

only he knows how to

get there and so we

humbly receive it can

be in a great

cathedral nothing wrong

with processions nothing

more wrong with robes

but you and I today

or that church that

earlier today met

under a tree in a

field still using

farming techniques from

hundreds of years ago