“The Blessed Mess” Text: 1 Corinthians 10:14-17
World Communion Sunday
Elpis Christian Church
October 2, 2011
Many of you may not realize it – but every year, here at Elpis, two important events occur on the same weekend – our Fall Festival and World Communion Sunday. It’s always struck me how fitting that is. To get together and, on the one hand, spend all that time chopping those onions or peeling those potatoes or cooking that meat or stirring those huge stew pots filled with Brunswick Stew – and on the other hand, spend some time gathering around the Lord’s Table in worship and thanksgiving. Both events are about fellowship. Both events demand something of us. Both events draw us close together as a church family and both events call us to reach out to the hungry community outside these four sanctuary walls. Butter Beans and Blessed Ordinance of the Church – those two just go together well, I think.
And there is something else that is kind of ironic. At both our Fall Festival and at the Lord’s Supper – things can get a little messy now and then. At the festival it’s all about mixing and chopping and stirring and pricing and selling that yard sale stuff. At the Lord’s Supper it’s about prayerfully and thankfully recognizing that the cup represents spilt blood and that the broken bread represents a broken body sacrificially given in love for all people. That symbolism is sometimes lost on us as we rush through the ceremony each week. But sometimes it becomes very clear. Take for example what happened at one worship service held years ago in a chapel gathering somewhere. Here’s the story, which also explains my sermon title today:
“The “Blessed mess” –as it was later called by eyewitnesses - happened unexpectedly during a solemn academic worship service. The Faculty and the student body filled the chapel of the Seminary. The choir performed magnificently. Preaching in his festive robe, the Dean delivered a powerful message. The occasion was heightened by the fact that it was Communion time a significant event, when everybody in the school was expected to attend.
Everything went as scheduled and without blunder though a number of professors and students participated in the Liturgy. When the part of the Lord’s Supper was reached, the youngest and recently appointed new Faculty member walked to the Communion Table ready to serve the Holy Supper.
He was a thin, diminutive person of quiet voice and gentle manner. Since this was his first ministerial function in the Seminary he was noticeably tensed, working hard to do everything in the traditional, “proper” way. He handled his part well and nobody expected trouble till he lifted up the Communion bread. While quoting the words of Christ, “This is my body broken for you”, he was supposed to break the symbol of that body into two halves.
Apparently the loaf had an unusually tough, thick crust because the young professor’s long, narrow fingers could not break through it. He tried once, twice, many times, turning the bread desperately around looking for a better grip and a weaker spot – but in vain. It resisted all assaults.
The people watched his pitiable efforts with increasing shock and dismay. Not knowing what to do, nobody moved to help him in his struggle. And struggle it was. Sweating and panting, gradually disregarding any semblance of solemnity, the professor was stubbornly determined to break that bread. With full force he violently pushed it and pulled it, forced his thumbnails into it, tried to peel off bits and pieces. As the result of this horrendous fight eventually the impeccable Holy Table was covered with crumbs and small torn parts of the non-cooperating bread. It was a real mess.
Yet, the declaration of the Lord, “This is my body broken for you”, received a deeper and lasting meaning on that day.
After the service, participants thanked the professor for such an unusual visual presentation of Christ’s suffering. One said: “This was my most memorable Communion Service because it helped me realize that salvation is the result of such a struggle against brokenness”.”
Salvation is the result of such a struggle against brokenness. Think about that for a minute. Maybe it takes a “blessed mess” at the communion table to sometimes remind us of what it really means – so that we don’t take it for granted. It may be that one of the dangers of using neatly chopped up bread or perfectly shaped unleavened pieces is that we forget the broken aspect of it all. And, in the same way, maybe getting knee deep in the messiness of our annual fall festival can remind us of something too. That we are not a perfect community by a long shot; that we are broken, imperfect people who get mixed together – like that Brunswick stew we sold yesterday – mixed together in big pots of love and poured out sacrificially for others in Christ’s name.
I know, I know – some of you are probably thinking – “Man, he’s really going out on a limb today – trying to really make something out of a simple pot of stew or a weekly communion service.” But that’s what preachers like me do. We take the common elements of our life – be they Brunswick stew or Communion Bread – and search for symbolism there that can help us to appreciate what our life of faith and service is all about. So bear with me. Think about it a little. Think about how God, in his wisdom, and in his love does this in our lives. He takes the messes we make – and the messes we are – and blesses them in His service. Doesn’t He?
And then that leads to a question. How are we doing with that? On this World Communion Sunday, and on this Fall Festival weekend, how are we doing at making ourselves available as part of God’s “blessed mess”?
One of the things that was very important to the apostle Paul was that he help others understand that God can take you and your life; turn you upside down; shake you up a bit; and make something wonderful to His glory. That’s what God did in Paul’s life. That’s what he did in the lives of those of the early church who sacrificed everything they had to be part of this thing called the “Body of Christ.” He took all they were; all they had to offer and put it into service. And, especially at the Lord’s Supper, they were constantly reminded of how Christ had given himself for them and for the entire world in just that way. Paul asks those pivotal questions in today’s text: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”
He might just as well have put it this way:
“Every time we come together around this table – and we eat this messy, broken bread and we spill a little of this wine getting it into our mouths – doesn’t that remind us all of what God did for us and how he made us one people because of it? Sacrifice is a messy thing. But it’s that sacrifice that has brought us and all of God’s people together as one. So let’s overlook each other’s faults – each other’s sins – each other’s weaknesses – let’s overlook or forgive each other’s messiness – and let’s be one people the way God want us to be one people – in His spirit and in his love.”
And then he hammers the point home: “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body.”
We live in a broken and very messy world. There are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised – which is a fancy way of saying – they feel like they just don’t fit in; that they have been pushed aside by life and forgotten. At things like our Fall Festival, and especially at times like when we gather around the Lord’s Table, we have a wonderful chance to do something. We can say to our community “we want you to be a part of who we are in Christ’s name.” We can do so much more than just sell a little stew or some old yard sale items and make some money for the church. We can open the doors of the church and the doors of our hearts and invite someone in. And – at this table – we can remind ourselves and proclaim to the entire world – that we are one people beloved by God. We are far from perfect; in some ways we have a made a mess of things. But we are the people of God living in a broken and messy world as those who know something very important. God has not forgotten about it. God has not pushed us, or any of his children, aside. God wants us all at his table and in his kingdom.
I like that the Fall Festival and World Communion Sunday fall on the same weekend every single year. Because it says loud and clear: “Welcome to our ‘blessed mess.’ Come in and join us in the spirit that makes us one in Christ!”
I want to conclude today with a simple invitation. It’s an invitation to the Lord’s Supper. But it’s an invitation to a lot more than just that. It’s a call to thanksgiving and to service as part of the worldwide body of Christ:
“Come to this table, not because you must, but because you may. Come not because you are worthy, but because you realize your unworthiness. Come not because you love God so much but because you love God a little and you want to know more about how to love God.”
Come to his table – his messy, glorious, holy and blessed table.
AMEN.
