God's Giving Gift

Then he took a loaf of bread, 

and when he had given thanks, 

he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 

“This is my body, which is given for you. 

Do this in remembrance of me.”

And he did the same with the cup after supper.

Luke 22:19-20

United Methodists practice open communion, meaning all at worship are invited to partake. The church proclaims that the table of Holy Communion is Christ’s table. The table is open to anyone who seeks to respond to Christ’s love and seeks to lead a new life of peace and love.

Communion is God's gifts to God's people given through Jesus Christ which Methodists call a "means of grace". 

My Pastoral education taught me that who does or does not receive communion is not up for discussion.  Communion begins with God’s grace and love as seen in Jesus Christ who didn't make any decisions about who received God's gift. All the disciples present, Judas included, received. He just gave. Period. End of discussion. 

That's what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 11:23: "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you." He gave. Paul was aware that the churches role is to receive from the Lord what we have been given and pass it on.

Jesus' sharing the bread and wine have been linked with Isaiah 53:12 which refers to a blood sacrifice that, as recounted in Exodus 24:8, Moses offered in order to seal a covenant with God. Jesus' actions began with God. 

God's gift of communion is a means of grace, therefore, the church doesn't decide who receives it.

One last thought. Sometimes when communion is served using a broken loaf, people will take from the center because they don't like the crust. 

    Jesus gives, we don't take. 

    One is fussy about the gift Jesus gives because it has a crust?

Oh, come on.

No Ordinary Boat Ride

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 

He woke up and rebuked the wind,

and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!”

Then the wind ceased, 

and there was a dead calm"

Mark 4:38-39

Click here to read the complete story here.

People go down to sea for many reasons. Some for recreation; making a living; escaping oppression; a ferry for transportation. 

In this familiar story, Jesus and the disciples get in a boat to cross to the sea. A storm nearly swamps the boat as Jesus sleeps. They wake him. He rebukes the sea. The storm ends.

However, this isn't a story about "the storms of life" or and facing them by trusting Jesus in your fears. 

The deeper story is Jesus silencing the storm and rebuking it. Those "silence" and "rebuke" are exorcism words Mark often uses in Jesus’ ministry. As strange as it sounds, Jesus is not offering therapy for our fears but an exorcism for a world out of whack.

The point of this story is a revelation. The stilling of the storm tells us something  about the Kingdom of God and Jesus himself. The fact that Jesus stills the storm with the word "rebuke" also tells us something about him. To the ancients "rebuke" was a word used for exorcism.

After experiencing this, the disciples are terrified. "Who is this that even wind and sea obey?" (Here's the answer in Mark 1:1)

The stories setting is significant. There has been a great cultural trauma. The destruction of the temple caused deep questions touching on life and the forces threatening to upend everyone.

The Good News is, whatever terrors and revelations are ahead of us in this apocalyptic boat ride with a world out of whack in this cultural trauma of the moment, we will notice God's saving power in Jesus Christ. We will see there is the living God among us in Jesus Christ.

Praise in the Sabbath

"It is good to praise the Lord

    and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning

    and your faithfulness at night,."

Psalm 92:1-2

(Read all the verses here)

Liturgy was a passion in my ministry. The passion included finding ancient prayers, prayers from other cultures, and contemporary ones. I would dig deep into the history of hymns, chants, and songs and their best uses in worship. For me it was and continues to be an ongoing journey. Part of that ongoing journey includes several learnings. 

• For example, what is acceptable in one church is not in another. 
• It's necessary to explain the meaning of an addition to the worship service or it will be misunderstood. 
• For some, the Sermon most important part of worship, for others its the singing of hymns.

What liturgy provides is a structure in the midst of crisis. The world may literally be falling around you, but the liturgy in Sunday's service is the same. Fear and anxiety may abound, but the liturgy is a safe structure pointing beyond now to a future in God's hands.

On the Sunday following 9/11 a Peace Candle and "Let there be Peace on Earth" was added to a worship service. This was a safe structure in a time of fear and anxiety.

Psalm 92 begins by stating that praising the Lord is a good thing. This seems obvious, but when God’s people worship because of deep gladness coming from recognizing God’s mighty works of salvation, the praise will be lively and flourishing.

The conviction of Psalm 92 is that God is faithful, that the Lord reigns on high forever and the Lord is present just as the sun is new every morning.

Trees of the Forest

California Redwood

"All the trees of the forest will know 

that I the Lord bring down the tall tree

and make the low tree grow tall.

I dry up the green tree

 and make the dry tree flourish

‘I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’”

Ezekiel 17:24

It was an amazing experience standing among the majestic California Redwoods. Their unbelievable height and the width at their base suggested strength. For me, the majesty and strength is a sense of the sacred, a feeing of a holy place, of God's presence. Just as a sunrise, a panoramic mountain view, or being by a peaceful ocean creates a sense of God's presence, so do the Redwood trees.

The most familiar visions in Ezekiel are the Wheel representing his prophetic call and the Valley of Dry Bones Representing a revitalized Israel coming home.

But there is a dark story. Nebuchadnezzar ordered King Zedekiah deported to Babylon, destroyed the city walls of Jerusalem, looted, burned, and leveled the temple. In the wake of these simultaneous destructions, an acute crisis unfolded for the people of Judah. 

They asked: What do we do now? Where is God in our trauma? Will the path forward be confusing, troubling, and entirely unsure. 

These are basic questions for people of faith be they the people of Judah, our own lives, or as we live through several ongoing crises now and in the future. 

Ezekiel's describes God as powerful enough give and take life, to build up and to tear down tall trees and to make small ones grow and flourish. In other words, God’s power can be seen in the reversals and upheavals that upend all of our expectations and our assumptions about power and prestige. 

And there, by God's grace, is a promise of salvation. "I the Lord have spoken and will do it" 

No matter the trauma; personal, cultural or political, God tears down and then builds up.