Holy Eye-Opening Communion

We have been on the walk to Emmaus, something that took one afternoon. We’re taking like six weeks on or so. Takes us a little longer to get there than it did Cleopas and his friend.

Remember, these two had experienced the most horrific weekend you can imagine. I mean, we’ve all had tough weekends. We’ve all lost people close to us.

But could you imagine losing the one that you had believed was the Messiah, the one who was going to redeem the world. And they lost him, and they went through all that agony and grief, and then just to mess with it a little bit, the women came and told them that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb. They met angels, and they said they were risen.

And so they were confused, and they were hurt, and they were doubting, and they were on this walk and all of a sudden this, who they thought was a stranger, showed up. Now, not really much use into getting into why they couldn’t recognize him, because Luke doesn’t tell us in any way, shape, or form. I mean, he could have had his head covered a little more.

He could have been wearing sunglasses and a mustache, so you couldn’t recognize him. There could have been so much, and it could just be a spiritual thing with the resurrected body that he was not exactly looking the same way, or that he could disguise how he looked if he wanted to. You know, like get the truth out of someone if they don’t know who they’re talking to.

But he came up, and he was walking with them, and he started off. He could see their heads were down. They were sad.

They were despondent. They were nice to him, but they really just wanted to stick with their misery. And Jesus said, asked him, he said, what’s wrong? He kept asking him open-ended questions, active listening, wanting to know what, for them to express what was on their hearts.

And they told him that they thought the one who was going to be the Redeemer of Israel had died, and they couldn’t believe that this guy was coming from Jerusalem, but yet he didn’t know what had happened in Jerusalem, because it was the biggest thing happening in the whole world. And finally, after they complained that they thought he was going to be the one to fulfill the scriptures, they thought he was going to be the Messiah, they thought he, they knew he was powerful, that he was a great teacher, and all of a sudden Jesus said, you’re foolish, and you’re slow to believe, and the stranger opened up the scriptures to them. They walked, and he shared with them, in the Old Testament, everything that pointed to him, and explained why it pointed to him, and explained how the one they were worried about, the one they were sad about, was true Messiah, and how the Messiah came, not just to redeem us, to make Israel the king of the world, but so Jesus could be the king of the world, and in order for us to do that, we didn’t have to be freed from Rome, or from slavery by a legal system.

We needed to be free from our, nobody wants to say it out loud, sins. We needed to be free from our sins, Jesus said, earlier on, if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. Anyone who sins is a slave to sin, but I offer true freedom.

So, they come to this point in the road, where there’s a literal and figurative fork in the road, and we’ll pick up here in Luke 24, 28, where you stand as you are able. So, they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he was going further, but they argued with him strongly, saying, stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.

So, he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight, and they said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and those who were gathered together, saying, the Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon.

And they told what had happened on the road, and when he, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. The Word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Amen. You may be seated. Now, it took an interesting turn.

Last week, we talked about the part where they said our hearts were burning while he opened the scripture to us. And in this one, he said, as soon as he broke the bread, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. That tells me that it wasn’t all about Jesus trying to guard his own identity.

That was about them not seeing Jesus right before them. Not understanding the one they were walking with, the one who was teaching them, was the same one they had known before. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.

I don’t know if I can understate that. They recognized him with the breaking of the bread. Now, there’s a lot of things today that we call communion, and some of those vary between different denominations and how those denominations look at communion.

But when I grew up, I remember it being called the Lord’s Supper. Over and over. That was the main thing.

It was called the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper, we had it on our altar that sat here in the front on my home church. There was a picture of the Last Supper, and the words were etched into the altar, Do this in remembrance of me.

And so it commemorated the Lord’s Supper. And the fact that when we partake in Holy Communion, we are partaking in the Lord’s Supper together. We are one of Jesus’ disciples to when he breaks the bread, there’s something real that happens in communion.

In seminary, which I had never heard this called this by any other pastor before, but I learned this cool word called the Eucharist. If you want to sound like you’re intelligent when you’re talking about communion, call it the Eucharist. The Eucharist, does anybody know what that means? It’s pretty easy.

Great thanks, worth giving thanks. The Eucharist is giving thanks. Now the Eucharist is the whole process.

In Catholicism, and I believe it’s the same in Orthodoxy, the Eucharist, and the Episcopal and Anglican churches, Eucharist is what they call it because it’s the full thing. It’s the whole preparation of the table. The table is prepared, the wine is put on the table in a certain way, the bread is on the table in a certain way.

I remember the first time I went to an Episcopal funeral for when my dad’s partner died, and they were Episcopalian. And afterwards, I watched the priest do this chemistry trick with water and wine, and he kept mixing them, and he kept drinking until everything was gone, and I go, did he just have a party in front of us? But the whole process is a part of the Eucharist. When we think of the Lord’s Supper, we’re thinking of the part where we’re gathered at the table, where we receive the bread and the rind.

The Eucharist is the whole preparation, and the mystery that we have here with the elements covered, and then we reveal the elements after they’ve been blessed, and we understand them, and we talk about them. Now what you hear me talk about the most is Holy Communion. Holy Communion, it’s like saying, you can just call it communion, but it’s like saying, do you say Bible, or do you say Holy Bible? I mean, the Bible is holy, communion is holy, but we can commune in many different ways.

If you want to make it holy, then it’s set apart, too. So Holy Communion is something different, too, and then some people simply call Holy Communion the breaking of the bread. They told the other disciples, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

There is something that happens in communion, in the breaking of the bread, in Holy Communion, in the Eucharist feast, in the Lord’s Supper, that is set apart. There are two ways that churches look at communion. One is as a sacrament, the other is as an ordinance.

Now, if you read much Methodist history, they’re always saying, attend to the ordinances of God, which means there were a lot of ordinances. If you’re thinking about ordinances in the Methodist tradition, what else is an ordinance? Baptism, the sacraments are included in ordinances. What else is an ordinance? How many sacraments are there in the Catholic tradition? Seven.

Do you know them? I don’t have them right on the top of my head. But they might surprise you, some of them that are in there, they’re called sacraments. And sacrament means it’s sacred, it’s set apart.

A sacrament isolates it so only the priest is able to do it. Now, in a lot of denominations, you don’t have to be ordained or a clergy person to baptize others or to distribute communion. Now, that would mean it’s more of not thinking of it as a sacrament, it’s thinking of it maybe more of an ordinance.

They call it a sacrament, but everybody’s different. Everybody looks at it a little differently. Now, if it is a sacrament, there are two ways we can look at the communal sacrament, the Eucharist sacrament.

One is open, and the other is closed. In the Methodist tradition, what do we call our communion, open or closed? Open. Open means that you do not have to be a member of this church.

Open, actually, if you get down to the bare bones of it, it’s a theology that says Jesus can meet you at the table. As in, even if you don’t know Jesus, and our bishop said something about this at our communion service at annual conference, something like, if you give all of you that you can to receive all of Jesus you understand, then you’re welcome to come to the table. I mean, we all have various level understandings of who Jesus is and what the point of that is.

But in closed communion, it’s considered more of a… The sacrament is considered a time where you have already received Jesus, you’ve already become a member, which in some churches, being a member is the same thing as signing the Book of Life. And it’s just a part of your faith. It’s an ordinance of your faith.

We’ll talk about another way to talk about that later. That helps you grow in your faith. But to be open means it’s invitational too.

That someone can grow in Christ, that someone can know Christ better through communion. And someone may even receive Christ during communion. Does that make sense? When I was younger, was anybody else rebellious when they were young in a certain way? I was so rebellious that I would not tell anyone that I would take communion at churches that had closed communion.

And I would say, I’m a Christian too. Now I respect the traditions a little more and I don’t do that, but yeah, I’ve taken communion in a Catholic church without permission. That’s all in the past.

But, open and closed are two different ways to look at communion. And we have, does everybody know how many sacraments do we have? We have two sacraments. Holy communion and, or holy baptism.

Now baptism can mean anything. The furthest back Greek reference they have of the word baptizo in Greek, it is about a cucumber that is being transformed into a pickle. So, you’re either getting pickled or you’re transforming into the image of Christ.

You know one of the two. So, holy communion and baptism. The one that we think, or the two that we think, are sacraments that aren’t sacraments, and maybe there’s others you’ve thought of, are marriage.

You do have to have a license in Kansas to marry someone. And, uh, funerals. You don’t, those are not sacraments.

But they are sacred events that we have and they are meaningful and powerful. And they are necessary parts for the life of the church. Another way that people look at communion is just simply saying, is it personal or is it communal? Now during COVID a big thing that came up was, can we have communion that is blessed or consecrated online? And then everybody takes it at home.

You know, so if you’re eating pancakes and juice or whatever you can just use that for communion. And, uh, I, I don’t know. That was a, that’s a tough one.

Some people look at that as being a more personal thing that a true form of communion, how it is designed, is for the body gathered together. I mean, commune together. I mean, how many of you have loved that we normally do Zoom meetings online? How many of you, oh, you’ve loved that.

How many of you will be excited where, I didn’t tell you this part when we were clapping about it, when we have our own space where we can have our own. There is something about communion that is, first of all, it is personal. It is one-on-one with Jesus Christ.

But it is in a community setting. It is taking it together. I mean, I don’t, I don’t think anyone is being sacrilegious when they have online communion.

I’m not saying that. But I think in its well-intentioned design, it’s here. In the gathering of the body, with us personally.

Because it was designed that way. When Jesus broke the bread, He was there with them. He was in their presence.

I mean, would He have Zoomed that? I don’t know if they would have had Zoom. I don’t think He would have. But it doesn’t mean we can’t do stuff like that sometimes.

But, there are two very distinct ways of looking at communion. Whether it’s personal, whether it’s all about being one-on-one with Jesus, or that it’s got the communal aspect. The presence of Christ.

Now, this has been very contentious in Christianity throughout all of history. Christ’s presence is either actual, figurative, and I call it symbolic, or a sign, or spiritual. Where you see the slashes, this is where I added to what I looked up to try to understand it in a different way.

Actual. In Catholicism, and I believe it’s still that way in Orthodoxy, transubstantiation is how they call communion. Trans means for transform.

That the bread, and the wine, the elements, are transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus. I mean, from an outside perspective, if you weren’t used to that, it sounds like they’re making a magic trick. Boom, it’s Jesus.

You know, it’s hard to have an appetite for that if you’re not used to it. But, it also, from their perspective, it’s a miracle. Communion is a miracle.

Just the fact that we can celebrate is a miracle. Now, the other one I learned about in seminary is called consubstantiation. Con means not that you’re trying to trick someone, but it means with.

As in, the very presence of Jesus is right there with the bread. It’s kind of in between people. Right there with the bread and the cup as we take it in.

Jesus is with that as we take it in. Some look at it as figurative or symbolic, like it’s symbolic of the crucifixion. We do this in remembrance of me.

We’re doing it because it’s a symbol or a figurative thing. That it’s not like we’re thinking the bread’s transformed in any way. And then the last one is that it is a sign or it’s spiritually.

Like Jesus is present in the spirit when we take communion together. Or it’s a sign that we can say when we take communion it’s a sign knowing that when it is holy that God’s presence is there. You can think about those.

I usually think of it as a sign or spiritual. I think is the more Methodist background that it is the spiritual presence of Christ is with us, not necessarily the physical presence in this. But when we take in the communion we’re taking in Christ.

So it’s confusing. It’s probably confusing when I use all these terms as we don’t talk about this very often. Oh, here’s another one that everybody agrees on all the time.

How often should we take communion? As often as possible? Who always said you should take communion as often as possible? I knew you were going to say that. Next time I’ll just say Dana. As often as possible.

Especially when they did the Holy Club they took communion a couple times a week during the day together and at least a couple of times and then on Sunday. Others take it weekly. Do you guys know traditions who do it weekly? The Christian Church does.

I believe all three different branches of the Christian Church do it weekly. Catholics Orthodox Lutheran Episcopal Anglican What? Nazarene Parish. There’s no There’s no I don’t know.

They’re just more autonomous in their churches so some might. I hadn’t heard of that. Thank you for the research project.

And when I grew up, guess how often we took communion? Quarterly. Quarterly. And then if we took it at Christmas Eve that counted for the quarter.

Guess what my tradition was growing up? It was Methodist. And then some just take it on high holidays. So there’s quite a variety there.

Why do we do monthly? Because it’s kind of a via center between the two. I mean, we could do it every week but it takes up when you have a liturgical communion, it takes up a good chunk of the service. So doing that every week changes how it is.

A lot of the Protestants that you go and they take it every week their communion, they got down to a science. They go pass the bread, pass the meat, lordy, lordy, let us eat pass it around it’s done! Which Oh, they don’t say that exactly. But they get the whole thing they can have 300, 500 people in there and not communion out in 5 minutes.

So, and that’s with everybody getting something like a wafer or something. The last one that I think is so key to communion is that it is a means of grace. Thinking of what’s that guy you mentioned? Oh, John Wesley he called it a means of grace.

Now some traditions call all if it’s a sacrament it’s a means of grace. Meaning it is a mean or an operation of which through that we can receive the grace of God. But Wesley talked about means of grace so what all do you do in your life that’s a means of grace? Pray! That’s a means of grace.

Bible study? Good. Yeah, all those practices worship all those are means of grace operations we do in our lives that bring us into the presence of Jesus and offer us God’s grace. Um Why is communion important? Um I mean there’s all these arguments we can get into but why I think it’s important and there’s plenty of other reasons too but to get directly to the chase the first time I not the first time God ever worked in my life but the first time I ever experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and the reception of the Holy Spirit and the the actual experience of knowing God was there and knowing everything whether it was physical mental or spiritual was changed in my life was sitting in communion during Christmas Eve service when I was a teenager and from that point forward I knew Jesus was present.

I knew that when we took in the body and blood or took and taking in Jesus and I knew that even in a church that I had never experienced the power of the Holy Spirit before that God was there in communion and it’s one of those moments that if God wouldn’t have done that would I be here today God works in a lot of different ways but that’s one of the ways He worked with me that there is something real in communion. Let’s pray Almighty God thank you for this day thank you for the road to Emmaus where the disciples eyes were opened help us to understand and experience that too that in the breaking of bread our eyes can be opened that we can see you that we can see the kind of Messiah you are that we see a Messiah who was broken who gave his life for us a Messiah that frees us from our sin a Messiah who when we remember what happened at that last supper is present with us it’s a holy moment and whenever we take communion we are on holy ground with you we love you God in Jesus name, Amen