Easter 2 2013, First Communion
Father Adam Trambley
April 7, 2013, St. John’s Sharon
The Body of Christ Is Real
The
Body of Christ is Real.
It’s Sunday
night. The disciples are gathered in the
upper room where Jesus had shared his final meal with them three days
earlier. The doors are locked because,
well, the Psalm says the Lord is our Shepherd, but, you never know.
Jesus
shows up. In the midst of these scared
sheep that had been scattered, the Good Shepherd greets them: “Peace be with
you!” Then the resurrected Lord shows them his hands and his side. He wants the disciples to know that the
person standing in front of them is really him.
Nobody is playing some sort of bizarre joke. Even beyond that, Jesus is proving to the
disciples he is not a ghost. His body is
real. Shortly after this passage, he demonstrates
that point again by eating fish with them.
Jesus takes the time to point out how this resurrected body remains his real
body. Then, after his point is made,
Jesus gives the disciples the Holy Spirit and bestows upon them the power to
forgive sins.
Of
course, Thomas is not with the other disciples that night. Maybe he hadn’t found his way back from
wherever he fled to on Friday afternoon.
Maybe he was the only one brave enough to go pick up some more
hummus. Maybe he had a better place to
spend the evening than a crowded upper room.
We don’t know. But we do know
that by the time he returns, Jesus is gone.
Interestingly enough, when Thomas is told what happens, he asks for the
same proof the other disciples received.
He wants to see Jesus’ hands and side and make sure the body is
real.
So a
week later, Jesus shows up again in the same place to his disciples, and Thomas
is there with them. Again, Jesus says
“Peace be with you!” and then he invites Thomas to touch the nail holes in his
hands and the spear hole in his side.
“Look, I’m real!” he’s saying.
But Thomas doesn’t need to do anything.
The invitation and the experience are enough. Jesus is risen!
The
Body of Christ is real.
This
morning we have a group of young people about to receive their first holy
communion. They have been studying with
Mrs. Tamber. They have practiced at the
altar rail so they know how to take the bottom of the chalice with one hand and
help the Eucharistic Minister guide it to their lips and tilt it so they are
able to get a sip of the wine. In a few
minutes, they will receive the invitation and have the experience of the Body
of Christ. In their communion, they too
will come to know that the Body of Christ is real in at least two very
important ways.
First,
the Body of Christ is real in the bread and wine that become the body and blood
of Christ. On the night before he died,
in the same room where he appeared to his disciples and to Thomas, Jesus took
bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his friends, saying, “This is my
body.” After supper, he took the cup,
saying, “This is my blood.” He told us
to do this in memory of him, and we do.
We gather together and do what he did, sure that he is present to us in
the bread and wine that have become his body and blood because he told us he
would be. We don’t really know how it
happens. We don’t really know when it
happens. We only know that it does
happen. Part of how we know it happens
is because we have received the invitation from Jesus to receive his body as we
come to his table. We also know because
when we have received communion, we experience his presence in a real way. Like Thomas the Sunday after Easter, Jesus
invites us to share in his body and then gives us the experience of doing
so.
The
reality of the Body of Christ in the bread and wine means that as we eat and
drink the body and blood of Christ, we are united to Jesus Christ as the head
of the Body. As part of the Body of
Christ, we get the neural signals of what to do according to the divine will for
our lives. As part of the Body of Christ, we receive the strengthening
nutrients from the divine breath of the Spirit pumped by the most Sacred Heart
of Jesus. As part of the Body of Christ,
we are not just going about our own temporal business, but are an integrated
member of the body whose actions resonate throughout all eternity. The reality of the Body of Christ in the
bread and the wine means that every time we eat and drink the body and blood of
Christ in the Eucharist, we are letting go of our individual, isolated
existence in favor of a deeper integration into eternal life with God.
The
Body of Christ is real.
The
second important way that the Body of Christ is real for us as we gather around
this, the Lord’s table, is that the Body of Christ is real in our brothers and
sisters around the table with us. Everyone who partakes of the Eucharist is
part of the same mystical body of Christ that we are, united with our head,
Jesus Christ. We are not just joined to
those who receive communion today or at this altar. We are joined to men and women everywhere of
whatever time, in whatever church: whether they kneel down or stand; whether
they use wine or grape juice; whether they speak English or Spanish or Greek or
Latin or Chinese or Swahili or are some kind of weird mime church; whether they
believe in transubstantiation or consubstantiation or receptionism or a
remembering meal; whether they Catholic or Protestant or Evangelical or
Charismatic or Free-Church or some other brand of Jesus followers; whether they
are conservative or liberal, Bible-thumping or social justice types, into
saving souls or into feeding people or into serving tea with the proper number
of spoons – we are all part of the real Body of Christ and none can say to the
other, “we have no need of you.” Today,
my young brothers and sisters, we are bringing you into a real Body of Christ
that connects you with people that you cannot even imagine from around the
world spanning all eternity, and that Body of Christ is a very good place to
be.
Now
because the Body of Christ is real and we are members of it with others, our
lives are linked. When one part of the
body rejoices, we all rejoice. When one
part suffers, we all suffer. So we have
some obligations to one another, obligations to those we know that are members
of the Body of Christ in our own parish, obligations to those we can come to
know in the surrounding community, and obligations to those we might never meet
personally, but that we are still connected to throughout the world.
These
obligations aren’t hard to figure out, and sometimes we do a pretty decent job
living into them. If we believe the body
of Christ is real, we will treat our brothers and sisters in our parish as
important parts of our lives. We will
talk over a cup of coffee or a meal. We
will know enough about each other to celebrate the good things in our lives and
be able to encourage one another through the difficult times. Everyone who comes here will ideally have a
number of folks in this limb of the body of Christ that they can call upon for
help and use their gifts to support.
Some of this work is being structured by Deacon Randy, but most of it
just happens as we take time to be with each other.
Within
the wider community, seeing other Christians as part of the real Body of Christ
with us might mean a couple of things.
We can meet their basic needs, whatever church they are a part of. We can join in efforts with other churches
that advance the mission and ministry of the kingdom. We may at some point even be able to send “community
missionaries” to each other’s churches.
For example, if a church is starting an outreach program and we have
people with that experience, we might share those folks for the good of the
overall body. We are starting to think
about these issues as a Diocese that wants to be One Church, but I think God
wants all the churches in the Shenango Valley to be one, and our witness to the
community is much more powerful when we work together.
Being
part of a worldwide Body of Christ touches us, as well. Wealthier American churches certainly have an
obligation to share resources with those churches where our brothers and
sisters lack clean water, adequate food or other basic necessities. Praying and working for peace in war-torn
regions and stability in places awash in government corruption are vitally important. We also have a particular
responsibility to hold up in prayer and in any other way we can those churches
that face persecution and oppression. Voice of the Martyrs is one organization
dedicated to distributing information about and supporting the worldwide
persecuted church. In many ways, Christians
suffering for their faith are the most vulnerable members of the Body of
Christ, and they need our help.
The Body of Christ is real.
We are
invited by Jesus to become part of his body.
When we accept that invitation to join the real Body of Christ, we take
him as our head, and our brothers and sisters as members alongside of us. We live into the eternal life of God, loving
our brothers and sisters more deeply as they become fully part of our lives. We come to know and live our lives based on the
truth that …
…the
Body of Christ is real
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