An Encounter with Jesus: Walk on Water

Hey, it's good to see you. If I haven't met you yet,

my name's Christian Limeck, a part of your grateful pastoral staff here. Welcome

to venture. We're glad to have you this morning. It's officially summer.

We've had the summer solstice. Kids are out of school. Kids said amen,

parents said, we'll make it. It's summertime, sixty two degrees.

You know it's time to get this going. So we've planned a perfect summer

series. We're actually have begun in a little bit. We're in the middle

of it's called an encounter with Jesus. So I want to welcome those who

are here, and that's want to say welcome to those online. We often

get a lot of guests who are checking us out for the first time online.

I'm gonna tell you why this summer series is perfect. We've chosen all

of these encounters with Jesus that we find in scripture, which means each one

of them is a lot of fun on its own. Each one is a

great opportunity all on its own, but connected together, you get to under

stand who this extraordinary god Man is that we follow. And so if this

is one of the first times here, if you can jump in today.

If you want to go back and catch up, all of those things are

available to you as well. I don't want to mess around with much more.

I want to jump in because this is a really good encounter with Jesus.

And I want to grant that all of them are great, but this

one was a lot of fun to study. I'm excited to talk about it

today. I want to begin, though, by asking you a question.

What are these encounters for? What is the purpose of these encounters with Jesus?

What is the purpose of an encounter with anything or anyone? The hopeful

intent of an encounter, at least the opportunity that is presented to each one

of us, is to come away knowing something more, to have experienced the

contours of something, or discovered the reality of it. And the idea of

an encounter is that if we are intentive to that encounter, we come away

changed. That's the point. Like, even if it's minor or major,

a small encounter may shape us in small ways, but a large encounter may

teach us to love something more or have reverential fear for it. If you

ever like hiked to climb, hiked a tall mountain, and then looked over

a steep cliff. Yeah, you best learn something in that moment, right,

some reverential fear. You encounter this thing in the real world or in

life, and you are shaped by that encounter. Encounters should not leave us

the same. Now, let me say that one more time, because it's

so important in these matters as we study this encounters with Jesus, these encounters

should not leave us the same. Let me give you a little kind of

warning encouragement right up front. I feel like script or often does. It

has kind of two sides. It has a warning and an encouragement built in,

and it goes something like this. These encounters with Jesus should not leave

us the same, But they can. You can meet the universe shaking,

awe inspiring, life changing person of Jesus and you can be deeply shook by

it, and then you can go back to exactly what you were doing before.

I don't know about you, but like I know this personally, like

in my gut, I can have this encounter and then shift back in there.

And I think Scripture is inviting us over. Why save this I preserve

all these stories for us, is that we get to encounter Jesus in the

way that these eye witnesses encountered him, that we might be shaved. They

have been say we might be changed. They have been preserved for us.

It changed those who encountered Jesus, and they have been preserved that it might

change us too. Let's start with a prayer. Holy Spirit. Scripture says

that you desire to real reveal Jesus to every human being, So we are

praying for your assistance help us encounter Jesus today. This encounter that we're about

to read is recorded by an eyewitness disciple of Jesus, so his word is

pretty good on it. Also, two of his friends wrote about this encounter,

and I'll put those parallel encounters in the next steps if you want to

see the small differences between each one of these disciples experiences with the encounter.

But today we're going to read out of Matthew's description of it. So if

you want to open your Bible to Matthew chapter fourteen. If you have a

physical bible, Matthew's the first book of the New Testament's about two thirds way.

If you need to look in the front to find your way in the

Bible to find out what page. That's great. If you use an app,

well, then it's whatever button you have to push to be in Matthew

chapter fourteen, we're going to be in verses twenty two through thirty two today.

Now the title of this message is walking on water, and there's more

than one person involved in this act of walking on water. There is a

specific encounter that deeply changes all the people who experience it, particularly one,

and again it is meant that it would change us as well. So let's

begin by reading this passage. If you would follow along with me, and

I just ask, no matter what, you kind of honor the reading of

God's word in your heart. We're going to pick it up in Matthew fourteen.

Beginning in verse twenty two, it says to meet ediately, Jesus made

the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other

side while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he finally

gets to go up on a mountain side by himself to pray. Later that

night, he was there alone, and the boat full of the disciples was

already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was

against it shortly before dawn, so quite a bit of time has passed.

Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When

the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a

ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately

said to them, take courage it is I. Don't be afraid Lord,

if it is you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on

the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got down out of the

boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he heard

and saw the wind, he was afraid, and he began to think,

and he cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus reached out,

caught his hand, caught him in. He said, you of little faith,

why did you doubt? So this passage has this dual ending where there's

this pretty strong rebuke from Jesus towards Peter, Oh, you of little faith,

But it also has this changing, transformative declaration when all the disciples who've

witnessed what happens say, truly, you are the son of God. So

they are profoundly changed by this encounter. When when Mark writes about it.

He suggests they're still struggling to understand who Jesus is, and so they are

changed by this encounter. And I want to say again, and they are

not unchanged. Neither should we be. Let's ask a question, what's going

on here in this encounter with Jesus anytime, and we hope that we say

this a lot of times so that this becomes normal for you to understand.

But anytime you're reading a Jesus story and you're trying to figure out what's going

on, what's Jesus doing, or you can carry these two principles with you.

One the context will always help you understand the content, So you always

want to like read a little before, read a little after, think about

what book you're in, try to understand what is the context of what happens,

so I can understand what it's all about. The second principle that you

can carry with you all the time is one that Sean said so well last

week, and it goes simply, Jesus is always teaching. Jesus only has

three years to shape these disciples of his. You only got three years of

public ministry to say, here's who I am. Here's who God is.

This is what this is all about. So you will notice the more you

look. He's never wasting a moment. He never wastes an occasion, he

never wastes a place, he never wastes a miracle, he never wastes a

challenge. If he's talking or doing something, Jesus is shaping his disciples,

which is shaping us. One of the reasons this word is preserved is that

we get to share in their education. They're getting the education of their rabbi,

and we get a share in this education. In fact, Jesus really

defined what rabbinical teaching looks like. Even as a rabbi teaches. Now,

there's a lot of let me use this occasion, let me use this discomfort,

let me use this place, let me use this question. Mark.

I took you here, or showed you this, or said this to you

so that I can teach you the rabbi and the student understand that the rabbi

is always trying to teach them to be like him. And the student understand

Rabbi means my great one. That they were trying to be shaped into the

image of their Rabbi. So Jesus, like, hey, I want you

to go where I go, and I want you to know the things that

I'm teaching, and I want you to care about the things that I care

about, and I want you to do the things that I do. I

am shaping you. This is the Christian journey to look like a reflection of

me. We too are being shaped by these stories to look like our Rabbi.

We share in this education. Jesus shaping them to look like him.

He is shaping us to look like him, the current disciples of Jesus.

Now, it's important to understand when you read this story of the Waves and

the Storm a little bit of context. Jesus is in a particularly painful season

of his ministry now, as he continues to do more public and astounding and

quite frankly confusing miracles. As that happens, opposition to his ministry is beginning

to rise. There's more conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders and the political

leaders of the time. But if we back up to the beginning of chapter

fourteen, remember we look at the context. So if we back up to

the beginning of chapter fourteen, we'll see that chapter fourteen begins with the death

of John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptist is the leader of a

renewal movement that comes before Jesus. He's traveling around. He's saying, make

your heart right, like prepare yourself. I am making the way of the

Lord. And he's baptizing and he's calling people back. This John the Baptist

is also Jesus's cousin. This is the son of Elizabeth. So this is

Jesus's cousin, and it's his called out prophet to prepare the way for him.

In Chapter fourteen begins with John the Baptist in jail. There is a

regional leader who is drunk at a party and makes a foolish pledge at a

party and at the request of a teenage girl, beheads John the Baptist,

and Jesus is heartbroken over this. This is his friend, this is his

family. Like he's heartbroken, and Scripture says, he goes away to pray

in the mountains, like who y'all know, sometimes you just need to tell

everybody to go away right and pray in the mountains. And so he's off

to pray, but of course crowds of people follow him. At this time,

he has compassion on them when they follow me, he tries to go

far away to the other side. They follow him. He has compassionate,

famously feed five thousand of them from a few loaves and fishes. And what

happens is they're like, they are wowed by miracle food, and so they

try to make Jesus their political leader of the time. And so that's the

context that we're in. Also, the disciples are like this. They are

in a time of personal turmoil. They were ready to follow a good rabbi

teacher, but this season is particularly stressing them out, Like Jesus is doing

things that really confuse them, really challenge them, really take them to places

that they are not comfortable with. And you can tell by reading around the

scripture they have a lot of internal turmoil over it. Imagine that as they

discover who Jesus is, it's really fascinating and terrifically terrifying, like who is

this? What have we gotten ourselves in the middle of? Like what are

we caught in the middle of? There? Continually being transforded. I've got

all this wave, yes, why I say wavy? Turmoil abounds Like Jesus

is trying to go away, He's in a time an intense season of his

ministry, and for the disciples, they are like, bro, I don't

know what we've got caught up in the middle of, Like this is turning

out to be Jesus turning out to be way more wonderful and way more terrifying

than we expected. And you can see them throughout scripture kind of wrestling with

what this is. So now let's pop forward back again to verse twenty two.

Remember the people are kind of trying to make Jesus their political leader.

Will pick it up in verse twenty two again says immediately, Jesus made the

disciples get into a boat and go ahead of them to the other side.

Now it's a couple of interesting word choices in here. First chote to Jesus

made them. This word made is more like demanded forced go worse to them,

Jesus said, I don't want you caught up on this political silliness.

I need some time alone to grieve my cousin John, and I need you

to get on that boat and go right now, so you not get the

sense that they had an option about leaving. Now, I've got a whole

nother sermon here. When you were in the middle of a storm. You

know what they were thinking, he sent us on this trip. Like,

next time you figure out you're in the middle of storm, maybe you were

sent there, Like Jesus made it very clear you were to go out into

the middle of this storm. He's always teaching. So they get out there.

We know that he goes up into a mount and he finally retreats to

pray, and we know from the reading that the time goes on and as

the disciples head back to the other side, they straight away started getting beat

up by the storm. And again, I bet you're thinking he sent us

here. Now, how many of you think these professions fishermen on the Sea

of Galilee are familiar with the Galilee? I mean like they've probably seen a

storm before, they know what the Galiley is. Like now, Matthew,

our author, he's a tax collector on land, so he might be soiling

his pants a little, But the rest of these dudes, they know the

Sea of Galilee. Like what's going on here? They are again they have

all this internal personal, emotional, theological turmoil, and now this is being

reflected in this storm on the sea. I do think you need to understand.

It says about the fourth watch. About the fourth watch is three o'clock

in the morning. So it's not just that they are gone, and they've

been up all day, and they've already rolled across the sea once and they

participated in an extraordinary miracle. Who knows they're adrenaline is just still up.

They're way keyed up. Did you see what he just did? Again?

Who is this guy? What are we caught in the middle of now they've

tried to run oh all night. It's pitch black in the middle of the

sea, and it is three am. I don't know about you, but

all of my spiritual and physical torment is multiplied at three o'clock in the morning.

They ever wake up at six or seven and think what was I so

stressed about? But at three o'clock in the morning, it's all like crazy

wavy turmoil. These guys are in the middle of intense turmoil. They're emotionally

frail, they're physically exhausted, and now they are stuck. They can make

no headway. Now, I don't have a ton of time to go down

this rabbit trail. Can you bring that past verse back up? It says

Jesus made them there. It is Jesus made disciples get in the boat and

go to the other side. Now you're going to see the other side a

bunch of time in this passages. And I'm gonna frankly tell you I would

agree, and many scholars agree with me. The disciples have had it a

little bit with going to the side. Just like that phrase has context for

us if we say the other side of the tracks or something like that.

For these boys, the other side has meaning the sea a galley is divided

into four socio political regions, and they're all from the northwest, relatively Jewish,

faithful side of the lake. And Jesus is constantly like, hey,

let's go to the other side. And they're like, we don't go to

the other side. And I want you to notice in scripture when they do,

invariably, stuff gets weird. Like as soon as they go to He's

always teaching. As soon as they go to the other side, stuff gets

weird. Jesus is constantly showing them, He's constantly taking these men from among

their comfort zone and he's taking them to the other side. So in their

mind, I can just hear them this is what always happens. I wanted

to go where you were going, and it always gets me in this kind

of situation. Actual, we get a clue that for them, they probably

believed this was more than just waves. If you wondered why are they so

afraid, it's because they think. Possibly, I don't want to say,

I suggest that they are thinking these are more than waves, that this is

demonic oppression, that demons are keeping them from getting back across the sea.

In fact, we get a clue in verse twenty four from the word buffeted.

It's translated buffeted elsewhere it means something more like attacked, and most times

in scripture it means intentionally attacked by demons. In other words, they're like

these waves they're not just waves. They don't just represent the internal turmoil in

stress and anxiety. These waves are a demonic attack against us. Yo,

Like, have you felt this way, Like everything's going wrong, everything's against

you, internal turma, your own mistakes, your own stupid choices, the

things that are happening outside of you. Nothing's going right. And then you

get a flat tire. Are you with me? Like it's just everything is

like a train wreck, and they're in the middle of this and they're kind

of wondering why did I do this? Like how did I get caught in

the middle of this? And this? These waves are representation for them of

hostility intentionally attacking them. Water was particularly in the ancient earies and even is

now, like when I travel in Israel, the people live there always like,

don't swim. Don't swim, it's dangerous to swim. You shouldn't swim

in there. But particularly in the ancient earies, water was always the symbol

of chaos and danger. It'll help you understand, like the Exodus or the

crossing of the Jordan River, that the yam, the sea was the place

of danger and chaos. So only planted in their Hebrew mindset is that the

water can be chaos. Now, hear me say this, but only God

can stride over the chaos of the water Psalm seventy seven, nineteen. And

I wish I could read you a bunch of these, But let me read

you these. A couple says you, Oh Lord, your path led through

the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not

seen as you walked on the water, Job nine to eight. Listen,

he alone stretches out the heavens and he alone treads on the waves of the

sea. And here comes Jesus striding over the chaos of the water, the

physical, seeable, touchable embodiment of Jehovah God, like they know only God

walks on the chaos. And it says they were terrified. Oh yeah,

ah, what's happening, Like they're constantly happening. Who is this? Only

God walks, strides on the chaos of the sea. And in the midst

of this like internal chaos, this it external oppression, in the midst of

all of this mess that's going in in their heart and their physical exhaustion.

Now see the encounter. Now see how Jesus is teaching, because it says

immediately Jesus walked to them and said, take heart, it is I.

Do not be afraid. In the midst of the chaos, like in the

midst of all the things, Jesus shows up and says, take heart,

it's me. Now here's what you can't see in English. This isn't like,

hey boys, it's me, you know me. Chill out. This

is the only use you've heard us talk about this before in John. This

is the only use in the Book of Matthew of the divine name I am.

This is the ago of me which they know. This is the divine

name of God that they would fear to write or say out loud. This

is the personal name of Jehovah God. So here comes Jesus striting on the

waves of chaos, and he says to him, says, it is I

Jehovah God. This is why, this is like why things begin to shift

in their mind, says he gets in the boat. The waves become totally

still. And it goes with them saying, truly, you are the son

of God. So they're transformed because it goes from God saying it is I

Jehovah to them saying it is you you are. And so we see that

there this is deeply a profoundly impactful moment in the life of disciples. And

I think I think that we could end there. They're smart, You could

pull out a couple key lessons. You know, jes shows up in the

middle of the chaos. You can end in. Most of the time or

the other times the story is told, it does end there, but Matthew

adds a little additional story that I think is important for us, one that

takes us we're going to begin to learn this lesson. Matthew, I think

wants us to notice. You can say with your mouth, truly you are

the son of God, but you must live with your life to enjoy the

fruit and life of Jesus. This is a lived reality. So it says

we read the story. It says when Peter sees Jesus, he's essentially stirred

to action. Now, I don't love your NIV translation that says something like,

if it's you, invite me to come out. And again, I

probably shouldn't disagree with these scholars, but lots of people would agree. It's

something more like, since it is you, enable me to do what you're

doing. He knows he's a student, and he knows Jesus is the rabbi,

and he knows he's gonna care about what he cares about. Go what

he goes. Nobody knows and does do what he does. He's like,

Hey, since it is you, since you're my rabbi, enable me to

do what you are doing. What does Jesus say, come on out with

like love and knowledge? He invites Peter out. Now, I friends,

like I I want you just to take a moment and maybe like search your

own heart on this to see if you can relate to both parts of this

story, to having some moment in your life where you realize, I actually

I actually believe who Jesus is. I believe who he says he's like erradically

turns your world upside down. To realize this is the made up story Jesus

is actually got him. That changes everything. Then I deeply desire to follow

you, and I want to go where you're going. Like I don't know

if you've had that moment, but I have had this moment. But I

have also had the next one where I get out and I say, Jesus,

I want to go where you're going, and it says to Peter says,

then the noise of the wind grew louder than the voice of the Master.

And I don't know about you, but the noise of fear, the

noise of self position, the noise of a life of play, the noise

of temptation, whatever it was, Peter tuned into the noise and not into

the voice of the Master. And it's just a natural consequence not doing that.

He begins to think, and I just I wrote in my notes,

Lord help me, for I feel your call, and I have known the

noise, and I wonder if you can relate to that. He doubted,

and he started to think, why is it? He calls out, Lord,

save me, and I love it, says Immediately Jesus reached down,

took his hand and pulled him out of the water, after which he utters

words that really make my soul shake. It says, oh, you of

little faith, why did you doubt? The word that Matthew Church chooses here

for doubt is destadso and it's a cool word that means something like trying to

walk in two directions at once? Why did you try to walk in two

directions at once? How Jesus teaches his disciples this another time when he says,

you can only serve one master. If you try to serve two,

you end up serving neither. And he's saying the same thing again, like,

you can't walk in two directions at once. The natural consequence is built

into trying to do that, you will walk in neither direction. And so

this is this profound invitation, he says, Come trust me, but do

not. This is I think Matthew trying to help us. Notice, do

not do it with a duplicitous heart. It has the consequences naturally built.

And he had this great calling, this change about who he was, but

he was not able to do it with a full heart, even when our

mouth says, truly, you are the son of God. So I just

asked, you know, what do you do as an encounter like this.

I've already said I think you could pull out some of the natural lessons from

us. I want to quickly just tell you three things. In the storms

of life, in the internal and external chaos, trusts that the Lord will

come to you. Have your eyes open and noticed when he's coming. Another

person who wrote the story said Jesus was about to walk by when they noticed

him. Have your eyes open to notice. I haven't mind the scripture from

Romans eight thirty eighth that says nothing will separate us from the love of God

that is found in Christ. Jesus know that in the midst of the storm.

Man, Do I know that one in the midst of the storm,

know that Jesus will come. I also noticed that he got there at three

o'clock in the morning. So be patient. Two. When Jesus calls you

to step out, go for it and resist turning back when Jesus invites you,

like, hey, I want you to go where I'm going. I'm

calling you into this thing, and he says, come give it a shot.

What would this story have been like if Peter hadn't doubted and done it.

Can you imagine that story? Look, he's like, I did it

all the way. We walked back to the other side and met you guys.

That would have been an incredible story of Peter's transformation. I'm kind of

glad it's recorded this way. It meets me in my own heart. But

like, uh, this is when Jesus makes this invitation. Step out,

don't turn back. I think Matthews say it simply this way, don't try

to walk in two directions at once. The consequences are built right in.

You'll think three. Then when you start to sink, when you feel like

you're in the middle of it, and I have been there too, when

you're sinking, when you start to sink, cry out, Lord save me,

Lord save me. I love that even with the rebuke, the hand

of rescue was still there. And I just want to suggest to you.

Scripture teaches us something. It will always be there every time you have the

courage to step out, and every time you start to think, the hand

of Jesus will be there. Like every picture we get is I will do

it again. We never get a sense from scripture he's gonna be like we

did that ten times, right, Like it's just over and over again.

In fact, one time Peter's trying to flex and say how many times should

I forgive somebody? Seven times? And Jesus like, how about seventy times

seven? Which is him just putting perfect numbers. How about just over and

over and over and over and over, which is a display of jesus heart

towards us, Like take the courageous step when Jesus calls you, but when

you start to think, and if you start to think, simply cry out,

Lord, save me, because I bet that you like me, like

I bet any of us have felt this tension of being courageously called out by

Jesus, Like dreams and ideas of what it means to be that kind of

parent or that kind of spouse, or that kind of employee or that kind

of Christian or that kind of missionary or evangelist or pastor or neighbor, like

Lord, I want to do and then and then running into the noise and

the chaos, or like or like maybe thinking and maybe repeatedly sinking. I

did this invitation to you as every time the hand of rescue is there,

and that invitation to walk, to be formed into the way of the Rabbi

will be extended time and time again, and we as Christians, we hold

this intention. If you felt that made this tension, like, Lord,

I want to foll you with courage, but also I know my own weakness,

scripture says I just okay, I know your weakness too, Or maybe

you're not a Jesus follow We get lots of people who join us online,

but you're starting to think, I think maybe I could do this, but

you read it past is like this, and you're like, I don't know

if I could follow him faith fully. I don't know if I could get

out of the boat. But there's an invitation here too. This invitation is

like, hey, we hold this intention. We are totally safe, redeemed,

totally forgiven by Jesus, and then we're invited into this courageous life of

obedience, this courageous life moral responsibility and walking alongside him. And these two

things are held in constant tension, and we are invited every time to choose

life. Choose life, choose the way, choose to be shaped like the

rabbi. I've got a friend of mine who, anytime you teach or say

something or have a prayer, says something like this, Hey, let's earth

this. That's a great idea. Let's earth that prayer down here. Let's

bring this big idea. Let's embody this big idea. And while he was

on earth, Jesus did this very thing. He took this tension of our

total free call with Jesus and this uncanny, courageous call to be like him.

Go where he goes. Nobody knows to care what he cares about,

to do what he does. He formed into that work, that family work,

and he holds that tension for us, and he embodied it in a

meal called communion. If you didn't get a communion emblem on the way in,

our usher is going to begin to make sure everybody has one now.

But this shared meal and billions of Christians have been taking for a mere two

thousand years since Jesus turned everything upside down, literally captures this tension. This

meal says to you, you are totally saved. And redeemed and made whole

by the life and death and resurrection, the resurrected life of Jesus, which

totally forgives every little broken thing, every little external brokenness, every little repeated

failure is totally answered in the completely sufficient life, death and Resurrection of Jesus.

But it also says you were anticipating in the life, death, and

resurrection of Jesus. This is an extraordinary calling. I urge you to live

a life worthy of the calling that you've received. This very meal holds this

tension in it. So why the apostle Paul could say, Hey, if

I were you, I wouldn't take this meal without a little self examination.

Search your own heart, Let the Holy Spirit search your heart. Remember what

it is you're participating in here. This say is before you take communion,

repent like, how do we hold this tension? Scripture tells us true confession,

trust in absolute assurance, and then faithful transformation. So Paul saying like,

hey, before you receive this, like, come to God with honesty,

forgive the offense against you, decide to make things right. This is

both total forgiveness and the tension of courageous calling. Paul said, Hey,

I think I would be safe to say, Paul, say something like,

when you come to this meal, be ready to forgive and receive forgiveness,

to extend the good news. And if you're not, maybe it's a good

time to tuck it in your pocket until you are ready. And maybe you're

not a Jesus follower. But today's the day he started thinking, I think,

I think I believe who this guy is, and I don't want to

begin to walk a life out what this person was. Then you were totally

invited to share in this meal with us today. Would you join me in

a prayer, King Jesus, thank you that you stride over the chaos of

our lives. Thank you that you understand our weakness but call us into courage.

Thank you that you open the way, and that all of our work,

all of our striving, all of our hope comes in the safety of

our total redemption. With you. Your stripes are our complete freedom, and

it's our invitation to courageous life being shaped into the way of the Rabbi.

Help us, So you take this meal again to remember your goodness and to

remember the courageous call we've prayed in your good name. Amen, If you

want to open your package. There's away from the top, and there's juice

below. I'm going to read from One Corinthians eleven twenty three. It says

the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and

when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, this

is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Receive now the bread. In the same way, after he took after

supper, he took the cup, and he said, this cup is the

new covenant in my blood. Do this, and whenever you drink it,

do it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink

this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Now receives the

cup, King Jesus, Thank you that all of your life and all of

your truth, and all of our hope and all of our reason to call

out, and all of our reason to be courageous, as embodied in the

shared meal that you've given us. We'd love you, We choose you,

We're going to follow you even when it's scary, and your good name Amen.