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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Sixth Sunday after Trinity |
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July 15, 2007 Holy Communion When I received ordination as a priest in the Anglican Orthodox Church I accepted the responsibility to be “a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy sacraments.” (BCP, p. 546). Likewise, in the words of the Prayer Book, page 89, I remind you of your biblical responsibility to receive the Sacrament, saying; “And
as the Son of God did vouchsafe to yield up his soul by death upon the
cross for your salvation; so it is your duty to receive the Communion in
remembrance of the sacrifice of his death, as he himself has commanded …
.” In obedience to the will of God, we have gathered today to celebrate and remember the sacrifice of Christ in Holy Communion. As we gather around the Lord’s Table, and as we continue our study of the basics of the Christian faith in preparation for our Bishop’s visit and Confirmation, let us consider again just what we are doing here, and why we are doing it. What we are doing is really very simple. We are receiving a small piece of unleavened bread and a small taste of wine in a ritual ceremony that goes back to the very days of Christ Himself. As we partake of the bread and wine we also do two important things. First we remember the death and sacrifice of Christ. This is fundamental to the meaning of Lord’s Supper. Many new meanings have erroneously been attributed to Holy Communion in our eclectic and relativistic era. Some, for example, are calling it a symbol of the unity of the human race. It is nothing of the sort. It is the remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ for us, whose sin and rebellion against God made His sacrifice necessary. The bread represents His body broken and dying on the cross to reconcile us to God. The wine represents His blood poured out for our sins. As we partake of them we remember, we commemorate His death. We also remember why He died. Romans 6:23 summarizes this. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We are sinners. Anyone who takes an honest look at humanity, and himself, must agree with this one fact. We know what is right, yet we choose to do wrong. Doing wrong, sin, destroys our lives, our families and our cultures. It is like a horde of termites eating a house from the inside out. We see the evidence of this everywhere in our own culture. Telling ourselves wrong is really right, as is the current fashion, does not change the ultimate end. As the Bible reminds us, “There is a way that seemeth right unto men, but the
end thererof is the ways of death.” To save us from this death, Christ came into the world and gave up His life on the cross. He became the substitute for our sins, as He bore in His own flesh the penalty of our sins, and the cost of our forgiveness. When we come to the Lord’s Table we remember that it was our own sin that sent Christ to the cross. Second, we proclaim the Lord’s death. We proclaim the Gospel message. We proclaim the deliverance and forgiveness purchased for us by Christ. He died for our sins, and because of this we have been freed from all the things that kill us deep down in our souls. He has conquered them. Lust, pride, hate, strife, envy, greed, idolatry have been put to death with Christ. In their places He has planted self-discipline, humbleness, peace, love, contentment, and godliness. And the hell in which we lived and to which we were doomed for eternity has been locked up and we are locked out of it forever. It is as though the boulder that sealed the tomb of Christ has been rolled in front of the gates of hell, and the grave can’t hold us and hell can’t receive us. We are forgiven, and we are free. We proclaim this message every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper. We proclaim something else here too. When we come to this table we proclaim to the world, “I believe. I believe in this One who came form God, who is indeed, God in flesh, to teach me God’s ways and bring my soul into His peace. I believe He died for my sin. I believe He paid the price of my redemption. I believe that in Him I am forgiven, and that I have peace with God through the blood of His cross.” So, we remember Christ’s death, and we proclaim Christ’s death. This is what we do in Holy Communion. Now let’s consider why we do it. We do it first because Jesus commands it. “This do in remembrance of me,” said our Lord. We need no other reason. We need no benefit. We need no promise of grace to make us come to this Table. It is enough that our Lord, who gave Himself for our sins told us to do it. But there are benefits to us. And so, secondly we do it because we are benefited by coming. We are the beneficiaries when we receive the bread and wine. We are strengthened in our souls by feeding on Christ as our bodies are strengthened by feeding on the bread and wine. When Christ said in John six that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood He was not saying that the elements of His table are transformed into His literal flesh and blood. He referred to feeding by faith. He referred to accepting Him as Lord and Savior. He referred to living in close communion with Him. As we remember and proclaim His death, we are strengthened in our souls to follow Him more closely. And God moves mysteriously and in unfathomable ways to confirm us in Christ and in the works of faith. Just what is God doing in us as we partake of the Feast by faith? He is transforming us. He is recreating us in the image of Christ. He is putting Christ in us and us in Christ. This is why the means of grace are means of grace. They are means by which God draws us to Himself and makes us to become like Jesus. We often talk about the means of grace as though they are things we do for ourselves. In so doing, we urge one another to avail ourselves of the means of grace. That is legitimate, but, it leaves out a very important aspect of them, namely that God works in us via the means of grace. They are not, properly speaking, things we do, but things God does. And we should see them, not only as the means of power, or energy, or spiritual food which we receive by partaking of them, but also as the ways God works in us. The means of grace are, quite simply, the means by which God makes us godly. Let me close with a reference to the Catechism which will greatly help our understanding of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. There we see that the Lord’s Supper was ordained, “for the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby.” (BCP, p. 582). The “benefits which we receive thereby” refers not to the Sacrament, but to the sacrificial death of Christ. As Dr. Griffith-Thomas reminds us, the Sacrament is for, “the continual remembrance of our Lord’s Sacrifice and of the blessings that come to our souls through His precious blood then shed,” (The Catholic Faith, p. 113.) In other words, the benefits from the worthy receiving of the Sacrament, come from the remembrance of Christ’s death, not through magic in the ceremony or elements. As we remember His death, we “feed on Him in our hearts by faith” and are strengthened in our daily walk with Him. Quoting again from Dr. Griffith-Thomas; “As a consequence of this spiritual remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ we naturally have fellowship with God in the appropriation of the blessings and benefits of our Lord’s death,” (ibid, p. 113). So we have gathered here today to remember the awful sacrifice given to free us from the burden of our sin. We remember the death of Christ. We have gathered here to proclaim His death, to proclaim the Gospel of Salvation and the forgiveness of sins in His name. Finally, we have come to receive grace, as we spiritually feed on Christ in our hearts. Thanks be to God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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