Joy-Avalon.wmv

Expect a Challenge

Part 2: “Expect a Challenge”

(Series: What Do You Expect this Christmas?)

Sunday, December 5, 2010 – Second Sunday of Advent

Matthew 3:1-12 (Isaiah 11:1-10)

This week we continue to ask: “What do you expect this Christmas?”

It’s part of our Advent journey…Preparing to meet Christ again, what do we expect?

One thing we might not expect is to encounter the adult John the Baptist…

30 years after Christ’s birth…Talking to us right before Christmas…

What is he doing here?

As we look deeper into this familiar story, we begin to see the challenge of the season…

What difference does Jesus make to the world today?

Let us pray:
O come, Emmanuel, God with us, the Expected Savior of all nations,
O come, Wisdom from the mouth of the Most High God,
come and teach us how to face the challenges of this world as we prepare to meet you.
In Jesus’ Name…Amen

Today we circle back in Matthew’s gospel…

Last week we were at the end of Jesus’ ministry; today we return to the beginning…

These texts are unusual for the Christmas season,
but they demonstrate the same kind of expectation…

The expectation that God will or has already begun a new way of relating to the world
and this “new way” is a call for our relationships to change

So, what do we expect?

For me, this text calls me to expect a challenge…

There has long been a debate over how to translate this text with the proper punctuation…

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’”

Is different from:

“The voice of one crying out: ‘In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.’”

I think the latter translation makes more sense for us…

It is in the wilderness where the highway for God needs to be paved;

It is in the wilderness of our culture where the real work needs to be done.

Our challenge comes in John’s call to repentance.

One of the big mistakes we make is to hear John’s words as only being directed at this
“brood of vipers” standing by the river – The Pharisees and Sadducees.

It is more important for us to realize who these vipers represent…

John is really talking to people who already believe in the God of the Bible and God’s Word of promise…the Jews…John is not preaching to non-believers here…

For us, then, it is vital that we hear John’s call to repentance, not as a call to conversion, but as a call to radical change…

He is speaking to us – as believers – and telling us that repentance, the Greek metanoia, is more than simply being sorry for past sins or asking for forgiveness;

This metanoia is a radical change in behavior; a turning away from our past way of life and beginning a whole new thing in Christ Jesus…

It’s about new expectations for our relationship with God.

John is challenging us to see ourselves in the faces of the Pharisees and the Sadducees…

It’s not enough to proclaim that we believe; that we accept the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that we believe in the Messiah…

It’s about the fruit that we bear…The ax is waiting to cut down any tree that does not bear good fruit…The Jews don’t want to hear it and neither do we!

John the Baptizer cries out with a sense of real urgency…His message is just as real for us as it was for those standing by the side of the Jordan…

You can’t keep doing things the way you’ve always done them…

You have a limited amount of time before you reach God’s Kingdom…

We must stop living for this world and start living for God’s world…

When we choose to live for God’s world
we will become part of God’s transformation of this world

The challenge in this message is that we have a choice…

We can choose to rock along as if Jesus’ presence in the world makes no difference…

Or we can choose to be part of the transformation…

We can choose to believe that only men can solve the problems that plague our world…

Or we can choose to realize that peace is the miraculous gift of God that we are invited to live into and sustain.

The choice is ours and our choices will be manifest in the fruit we display.

If you ask someone who has overcome an addiction or some other destructive way of life, you will find someone who knows what true repentance is about…

Their former behavior was not sustainable…

Only God’s dramatic action to bring about a radical new thing, along with their willingness to surrender to God’s work, enabled them to move forward –
away from their certain destruction.

The good news was that God handed them exactly what they needed when they needed it AND they made the choice to respond faithfully.

This is true repentance…This is the challenge of expectation…

Surrendering our will to God’s will and choosing to change.

If we expect to meet Christ anew this Christmas, then we must accept the challenge of becoming the person Christ wants to greet…

Not a perfect person, but a repentant person…

Someone who recognizes that it’s not enough to claim to believe;
we must also behave as believers…

You can choose to stand firm as a tree of transformation, sending out branches weighed down with the fruit of a life lived for God…

Or you can slither with the snakes on the river bank, bending to the will of the culture and ultimately writhing on the garbage dump of history…

It’s your choice and your challenge…

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen!

Expect the Unexpected

Part 1: “Expect the Unexpected”

(Series: What Do You Expect this Christmas?)
Sunday, November 28, 2010 – First Sunday of Advent
Matthew 24:36-44 (Isaiah 2:1-5)

Vs. 44: “Therefore you also must be ready,
for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

This Advent season I want us to seriously think about what we expect this Christmas.

I’m not talking about your letters to Santa or what you hope to find under the tree on Christmas morning…

I’m talking about what you expect from your relationship with God.

Let us pray:
Lord, I ask that you guide us in our meditation on your Word this morning.
Lead us into Scripture to discover the truth you have for us today.
In Jesus’ Name…Amen

Advent: The arrival of something long-awaited; in church language – the time before the arrival/birth of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah.

We talk about it in terms of being a time to prepare ourselves to greet Jesus;

We talk about it being a time of anticipation, of hope, and of introspection;

This year I want us to focus on the word “expectation”

Matthew’s gospel makes it clear that not even Jesus knows the timing for his return…

He tells us to be ready for the unexpected…

What this really means is that the timing of it isn’t important;
what’s important is the certainty of it

Isn’t that what expectation is? Certainty of what will happen?

If we truly expect something to happen, we must have some degree of certainty.

So, this Advent I want us to really think about what we expect…

Do we expect God to do unexpected things?

Do we expect to be challenged in our walk of faith?

Do we expect miracles to happen?

Do we expect God to be present with us?

Do our expectations lead us to certainty about our relationship with God?

This morning’s reading from Isaiah talks about a time when God’s perfect will is realized…

Swords are beaten into plowshares; spears turned into pruning hooks…
in other words, our weapons are re-purposed for something good

Nation shall not fight against nation and we won’t learn about war anymore

The prophet was certain that this time would one day come…he expected it and
he wanted the people to expect it also.

Our gospel is certain of what Christ will do, even though the timing is uncertain…

Matthew tells us to be ready and expect the unexpected…

He tells us to live faithfully and appropriately, with certainty of our salvation

Isaiah was writing nearly three thousand years ago; Matthew wrote two thousand years ago…

For all their certainty, their expectations have yet to be fulfilled…

We still hold on to our weapons; we still have war all over the world; and
Christ still hasn’t come back.

What’s a good Christian to do?

Give up? Be less certain? Change our expectations? Stop watching and waiting?
Stop living faithfully and appropriately?

That’s exactly what I want us to think about this Advent…
What do we really expect?

If we listen to Isaiah, I wonder if we really expect that the day will ever come when his prophecy will come true…

Can we even visualize a world where there are no weapons and no war?

If we can’t even dream of such a place, how can we expect it to evolve?

What if we visualize Isaiah’s “weapons” as a metaphor for the things that we use/abuse…?

What weapons in your life might be re-purposed into something good for God’s glory?

Words are often used as weapons that might better be turned into tools for healing.

Turning away from someone might be a weapon that could be changed into
an offer of hope.

Maybe Isaiah was expecting humanity to change so that
God’s perfect plan might be realized.

Something to think about…

Maybe Matthew is telling us that we need to be ready for the unexpected because God isn’t going to bother sending Jesus again until we’re living the life we’re expected to live.

Maybe the “unexpected time” is when God’s people can stop bickering long enough to really live the way Jesus called us to live…wouldn’t that be “UNEXPECTED”!

Maybe the gospel is warning us that we need to be doing some unexpected things to prepare for Jesus’ unexpected return.

So I wonder…What do we really expect this Christmas?

Do we expect God to do all the work?

Jesus showed us an unexpected way of living…

He turned conventional wisdom upside down…

He did things that his own people never expected the Messiah to do.

I wonder if we can follow his example.

I also wonder if we can accept the possibility that God can still act in unexpected ways…

Or, have we become too cynical to think that God can still transform lives…

Is it outside the realm of possibility for people to get along with one another…?

Is it too much to expect for nations to stop bombing other nations…

Is there simply no way for people to solve their differences
short of blowing something up?

As faithful Christians, I believe that we must be willing to expect the unexpected…

That means expecting great things from God…

It means giving God the chance to act in amazing ways by being open to him…

It means believing God’s promises in spite of the world’s realities.

I believe it is a great comfort to expect God to do what God says he will do…

That expectation gives me the certainty to trust God for everything.

It takes the pressure off and helps me to be the person God wants me to be.

I expect people to treat each other well. I expect the economy to improve.

I expect terrorists to see the light and change.

I choose to expect the unexpected.

Amen!

Long Live the King!

“The King is Dead, Long Live the King!”
Christ the King Sunday – November 21, 2010
Luke 23:33-43

“The King is dead; long live the King!”

In 1272, King Henry III died while his son, Edward I, was off fighting in the Crusades.

To avoid any chance of civil war, the Royal Council proclaimed: “The throne shall never be empty; the country shall never be without a monarch.”

Edward I was declared King of England and the practice of immediate succession was born. “King Henry is dead; long live King Edward!”

Edward I reigned in absentia until the news reached him and he returned to England – two years later.

This morning’s Gospel reading is one we seldom hear except during Holy Week…

The story of Jesus’ death isn’t one we tend to dwell on out of context.

First of all, we prefer more pleasant stories about Jesus;

Secondly, when we think of Christ the King we’d rather visualize him sitting on his throne in heaven rather than hanging on his cross.

What we hear in this story, however, is a powerful acclamation of how God’s Kingdom works…

The chief priests miss the point of God’s reign and resist God’s Messiah King;

The Romans mock Jesus by placing the sign on the cross: “King of the Jews” as they watch this pretender king die – “Your ‘king’ is dead”…

The faithful, however, recognize the truth and proclaim: “Long live the King!”

Let us pray…

Almighty and merciful God,
you break the power of evil and make all things new
in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.
May all in heaven and on earth proclaim your glory and never cease to praise you.

Guide us today as we seek to more fully understand the Kingship of Christ;
help us to overcome the self-centered ideas that keep us from submitting to you.

We ask that you lead us into the Scriptures in Jesus Name. Amen.

Christ the King Sunday is a joyous celebration…

White paraments; white flowers; colorful banners; happy music;

The end of the church year; the beginning of Advent – leading us up to Christmas

Our culture: less government, less authority, self-reliance, rugged individualism,
we can take care of ourselves!

“KING” – an idea we shunned in 1776; kings are oppressive;

We are the authority; “We the People” – That’s democracy!

It’s true…Some monarchies are oppressive; democracy is better; and so forth…

There is a problem when we allow our culture to define our faith…

Some churches, disliking the whole “kingdom” thing, have changed their church language from the Kingdom of God to the Realm of God.

They are letting culture transform Christianity instead of allowing Christianity to transform culture.

Let me be clear…we may be used to democracy where we all have a voice…BUT, that is not Christianity and it is certainly not God.

·         Our faith is not a democracy

·         We did not elect God president and we can’t vote Him out in four years

·         It’s God’s way or no way!

We also need to realize that God is a different kind of king than we’re used to…

All-powerful AND all-loving, all-merciful, and
in a love relationship with his subjects through the Church

This king is about mercy, peace, and forgiveness – not oppression

Today’s Gospel takes us into the palace of Christ the King where Jesus is high and exalted
on his throne…

His palace is a place called The Skull – Golgotha

His throne is a cross where he hangs and calls out to his God: Dad, forgive these who don’t realize…He doesn’t resist his agony; he doesn’t return evil for evil

His “subjects” hang around the palace courtyard…

Some gamble for his clothing

Those who condemned him make fun of him: “If you’re really the king, save yourself!”

The Roman soldiers mock him: “Some king! What a joke! Here, king, have some wine!”

Even one of the criminals about to die next to him gathers enough strength to insult him: “You said you were king; c’mon save yourself and us too!”

Some king indeed…Today the church gathers around the throne to celebrate Christ our King…

We gather at a place called The Skull and we watch a man die…”The King is dead!”

There’s no denying that this scene is hard to watch…

We want our king to wear a crown of gold, not a crown of thorns…

In fact, we’re kind of surprised that this story is told on such a joyous Sunday, right before Christmas, one of the happiest times of the year…

Isn’t it just like Jesus to speak to us in unexpected and surprising ways?

This King of ours was more interested in the poor than in the rich…

More interested in freeing those in bondage than sucking up to those in power

He defied the status quo…

He ate when he was supposed to fast

He worked when he wasn’t supposed to work

He hung around with the wrong crowd and blessed those who most people ignored

He taught us to forgive the unforgivable

He made it clear that his idea of being King meant be a servant and that he expected nothing less from his followers.

This is a truly humble King who rules through love, compassion, and infinite wisdom…

This is a King who knew that, “If you want to save your life, you will lose it.
If you lose your life for my sake you will save it.”

And so, this King willingly gave up his life that day on the cross…
“The King is dead.”

To save our eternal lives when he was raised from the dead…”Long live the King!”

Seems like today may be the perfect time for us to re-visit this Gospel story…

Next Sunday we begin our time of preparation to welcome the Infant King Jesus

It’s good that we remember why he was born; why he died; and that he reigns today.

Jesus is dead; long live Jesus Christ, our King!

Amen!

The Challenge of Christmas

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Christmas can be a challenging holiday for faithful Christians. It is at once the celebration of the present and future kingdom of God, as manifest in the birth of Jesus the Messiah and King. This concept of the Kingdom of God, being both now and in the future, is a difficult theological concept to grasp. Emmanuel – God with us – is a reality many of us struggle with. How can God’s Kingdom be realized both now and in the life to come? Where is God in the midst of economic crisis, job loss, poverty and war? Why isn’t God’s presence obvious when my friend has cancer or my family suffers grief? Isn’t God’s Kingdom about the reign of Christ as King? Then how come Jesus doesn’t take charge and fix everything?

John Dominic Crossan writes in God and Empire: “The Second Coming of Christ is not an event that we should expect to happen soon, violently, or literally. The Second Coming of Christ is what will happen when we Christians finally accept that the First Coming was the Only Coming and start to cooperate with its divine presence.” In other words, the Kingdom of God to which Jesus constantly pointed is as fully available now and always as it was 2,000 years ago. The question is whether we will choose to live as if the One in charge is God and not “Caesar.”

Now, I’m not sure I agree with Crossan’s lack of expectation for Christ’s return. However, he makes a valid point when he challenges us to accept the divine presence of God here and now. That is the once and future kingdom we celebrate – God came to earth in the Christ and remains here in the Spirit. The question is: Will we allow “God with us” to be in charge? Will we seek God’s counsel and ask for God’s advice about everything in our lives? Will we allow our faith to inform our decision-making? Will we bring Jesus into the midst of every conversation and consider His opinions?

God’s Kingdom cannot be realized if we resist God’s authority over all aspects of this world. We will never recognize God in the midst of life until we are willing to take “me” out of the center of everything and focus on God. I believe that, when we allow God to be in charge, we gain clarity of purpose and peace of mind. All at once the pressure of trying to control our circumstances is lifted as we let God do what God does best – control our circumstances.

It’s difficult sometimes to see through the cultural trappings of Christmas to the reality of Christ. It can be a challenge to ask God to take charge of our gift-giving habits. Taking “me” out of the center of self-centered and self-serving advertising that began in October isn’t as easy as it sounds. You may not think that God has an opinion on how we celebrate this holiday; I believe that God does have an opinion and that it is our obligation to seek it and prayerfully consider it as we go about the busy-ness that consumes us this time of year.

Christmas is indeed a joyous time of year for Christians and we have much to celebrate. But even the most joyous celebrations can be filled with solemn meaning and thought-provoking reality. I pray that the joy of the season will prompt a new depth of understanding of your personal relationship with the reason for the season. Our family wishes you the best of everything Christmas has to offer. Merry Christmas!

May “shalom,” God’s peace be with you,
Pastor Don 

It's always Thanksgiving

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1, New Living Translation)

As I write this article, we are preparing for our November 22^nd Annual Charge Conference and just beginning to plan for The Hanging of the Greens on November 28^th. Of course, this also means that Thanksgiving is coming – Thursday, November 25^th. We’ve got our Church Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday, November 21^st and the Ministerial Alliance Community Worship Service that same evening. Whew! What a whirlwind this time of year seems to be. I hope you’ll check the calendar in this newsletter carefully and keep up with all the various activities coming up this month. We don’t want you to miss anything in the life of our church.

What is most important this time of year is that we all remember to give thanks to God “…in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) It is Thanksgiving time…Even though we should be thankful at all times…This is the time of year when we are most reminded to be thankful. The only challenge is that some of us may not feel very thankful right now. You may know someone who is out of work; you may be someone who is facing a major crisis; your family may be in turmoil; you may be grieving a terrible loss; or you simply may be looking at our culture and wondering how things could possibly get any worse. With all this pessimism, how can we begin to think about being thankful?

Gratitude is due our God regardless of our particular circumstances at this moment in time. We give thanks simply because God is good and faithful and his love for us is a warm embrace that continues even when we are depressed, or worried, or sad, or in pain. God’s loving embrace surrounds us precisely because we face the difficulties of our life; that’s really what the psalmist is talking about – God’s love is faithful and forever. God knows that we will always face adversity in this life and God promises to be here with us to help us through whatever the world throws at us. When we face problems at work, God is there to keep us calm and focused. If you’re looking for a job, God is leading you to the people and places you need to help you find the right opportunity. When we grieve the loss of a loved one, God is there to comfort us and help us to understand how life will be different, but not horrible after the loss. When we see all the bad things at work in the world, God shows us opportunities to serve as faithful witnesses and help to make this world a better place. Only God can do all these things in the midst of the huge obstacles we encounter every day. This is why giving thanks to the Lord is so important…God deserves our gratitude.

I recently read an article about gratitude and I was reminded that when we feel appreciated we tend to give more to the people appreciating us. If we learn to appreciate more of what we already have, we will find that we have more to appreciate. The things that we allow our minds to focus on tend to become the things that dominate our lives. If we focus on gratitude, our lives will become worth appreciating. If we focus on our problems, they will only multiply and grow. It is really basic investment strategy: If you invest your time and energy into something good, it will appreciate in value and you will find yourself surrounded by the dividends of this investment. Gratitude breeds gratitude; love breeds love; and smiles breed smiles.

We are so busy living our everyday lives that I think we forget about being alive. In our rush to pursue our goals, to get the kids to practices and games, to get the shopping done, to get ready for the holidays, and so on and on and on…We spend so much time rushing around that we forget to notice what we have in our lives for which we should be truly thankful. We have our very life, our families, our homes, and God’s good Creation – That’s a lot to say “thanks!” for right there. I’ll bet if you took a minute or two you could think of a whole list of things that bless your life that deserve your gratitude. I also believe that, no matter how bad your day gets, you can always think of someone who has it worse than you. For these we pray as we thank God for what we have.

Don’t let Thanksgiving Day be a once-a-year thing; make every day thanksgiving day and give thanks to God at all times and in all circumstances. That is God’s will for your life and we believe that God’s mercy and love endures forever.

God bless,
Pastor Don 

Not Worthy, But Welcome

“Not Worthy, But Welcome”
World Communion Sunday – October 3, 2010
TEXT: Luke 7:1-10; 1 Corinthians 11:17-26

There is a hymn I remember from childhood that we often sang before communion.
The words of the first verse are also a prayer that we were taught to remember and pray every time we got ready to receive Holy Communion.

“O Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should come to me;
but speak the words of comfort, my spirit healed shall be.”

Taken from Luke’s gospel, the words of this prayer express the humility with which we should approach the altar AND the faith that allows us to come to the altar in spite of our sin.

We are NOT worthy, but we ARE welcome!

Let us pray:

O Lord, I am not worthy
that Thou should come to me;
but speak the words of comfort,
my spirit healed shall be.

O Jesus, we adore Thee,
our Victim and our Priest,
whose precious Blood and Body
becomes our sacred Feast.

Lord, we come to you now seeking to better understand this Holy Mystery.

Guide our meditation; lead us in our learning,
help us to approach your altar with reverence, humility, and faith.

We are here in the Name of Jesus the Christ.

Amen.

“The story is told of a little girl whose parents had taken her forward to receive Holy Communion.

Disappointed with the small piece of bread she was given to dip in the cup, the child cried loudly, "I want more! I want more!"

While embarrassing to her parents and amusing to the pastor and congregation,
this little girl's cry accurately expresses the feelings of many contemporary United Methodist people.

We want more! We want more than we are receiving from the sacrament of Holy Communion
as it is practiced in our churches. “

This story is the opening of a document that was adopted by the 2004 General Conference of the United Methodist Church entitled, “This Holy Mystery.”

This document contains the official United Methodist position on Holy Communion.

It is based on a survey taken in 2000, which revealed that there is a strong sense of the importance of Holy Communion in the life of Christians;

Unfortunately, there is an equally strong sense of any meaningful understanding of Eucharistic theology and practice in our churches.

Clergy and laity alike recognize that grace and spiritual power are available through the sacrament, but they do not feel enabled to receive these gifts and apply them in their lives.

For me, this represents a frustrating disconnect between the contemporary church and
the early New Testament church…

How can we profess to be “followers of Jesus Christ,” and yet not understand one of his most fundamental commands to us: “Do this in remembrance of me”?

We know that people have a deep hunger for the riches of divine grace,
for real communion with our Lord and Savior;

Yet, we fail to recognize that Holy Communion is the most concrete way we have of satisfying this hunger by remembering and encountering the Living Christ.

We have lost the passion for Holy Communion that inspired the early church to gather in secret, fearing for their lives, just so they could celebrate the Sacrament and remember what Jesus had done for them.

“It was a dark, foggy five o’clock in the morning and a thousand people were anxiously waiting for the doors of the cathedral to open.

Who were they?

Why were they there?

What were they anticipating?

The crowd was composed of a variety of people –
primarily working class people, but standing shoulder to shoulder with them were the educated and wealthy, the lords and ladies.

In a few moments they would be kneeling side by side at the Table of the Lord –
laborer and squire, uneducated and educated, maid and mistress –
recognizing that at this table all were equal.

It was the early Methodists flocking to receive the Sacrament of Jesus at their nearest Anglican Church.

The priests inside were overwhelmed at the size of the crowd and were hurriedly preparing more Communion elements.

What was it that the early Methodist people, like the people of the early Church, experienced in the sacrament that caused them on occasion, due to the crowds, to wait five or six hours to receive it?

History tells us that the eighteenth-century Methodist revival was a Eucharistic revival,” as was the revival prompted by Jesus in the First Century.

You see, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Movement, taught that Holy Communion should be received every day, if possible.

Holy Communion is a means of receiving God’s grace and we ought to avail ourselves of every possible opportunity to participate in the sacrament.

So how did we come to the practice of celebrating Holy Communion once a month or,
worse yet, once a quarter?

What has led so far astray from Christ’s command?

The story is told of a man who goes to the store to buy a ham for a large family gathering.

He wants to have plenty of food so he seeks out the largest and most beautiful ham he can find at the butcher shop.

He takes it home, proud of his purchase, and watches in horror as his wife promptly cuts off the end of this beautiful ham.

“Why did you do that?” he asks.

“Well, because my mother always did it that way,” the wife answered.

So, to solve this mystery, the wife calls her mother to ask why she always cut the end off of the ham. Her mother told her because her mother always did it that way.

So, the woman called her grandmother and asked her why it was necessary to cut the end off of the ham.

Grandma replied, “Well, I don’t know why you girls do it, but that was the only way I could get it to fit in my pan.”

Too often, we continue to do things the way they’ve always been done without bothering to find out why they’ve always been done a particular way.

So it is with our practice of quarterly or monthly communion…

When the early Methodists gathered, they believed that The Eucharist and preaching were inseparable.

They viewed Holy Communion as the central act of worship and celebrated the sacrament at every gathering.

They saw Holy Communion as an opportunity for persons to encounter Jesus and be converted to the faith; in fact, Susanna Wesley, John’s mother, was converted at The Lord’s Table.

John Wesley wrote that the Sacrament was “the grand channel whereby the grace of the Holy Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God.”

So, what happened to change all of this?

The Methodist Movement came to America and the ways of doing church changed…

In England there was always an Anglican priest available to bless and distribute the communion elements.

In America there was a shortage of clergy and the Circuit Rider system was born.

Clergy travelled from town to town, outpost to outpost, and many congregations would go for several weeks or months without an ordained clergy person in their midst.

These congregations continued to meet for worship and study, but they could not celebrate the Sacraments.

When the circuit riding preacher did come to town, he celebrated communion, baptized new converts, and performed weddings. These were tasks that only the clergy could perform and there simply weren’t enough clergy to be in all the places where Methodists were meeting.

One hundred years passed as this country grew and the Methodist Church began to put down roots in communities across the land.

Clergy began to be appointed to these churches and the need for the circuit riders diminished. However, too much time had passed and people didn’t remember the days of celebrating communion at every worship service.

Ultimately, the practice of the church became to celebrate monthly or quarterly communion simply because that’s the way we’ve always done it…

Trouble is, in the twenty-first century, nobody realized that the real reason for this practice was that the pan was too small.

The 2004 General Conference of the United Methodist Church urged us to reclaim This Holy Mystery and restore it to its rightful place as the center of our worship.

The problem is that there is still a lot of misunderstanding about our sacramental theology and a resistance to changing our practice.

On this World Communion Sunday I am challenging you to open your hearts and minds to a renewed discussion of our sacramental heritage and to the possibility that we can re-discover an exciting means of receiving God’s grace in our lives.

That is why I began our discussion this morning with the “I am not worthy” text…

I believe that none of us is ever worthy of being in the presence of God;
we are all sinners – we all fall short of God’s glory.

That’s what makes communion so special for me…
It doesn’t matter how unworthy I am, Christ still invites me to His table.

I am welcome to encounter the presence of God in Holy Communion, no matter how unworthy I may feel, because God forgives me and His forgiving words heal my broken spirit…That’s a very special gift.

We need to look at Holy Communion within the larger context of United Methodist theology.

According to biblical and Christian teaching, we believe that we are sinners, constantly in need of God’s grace.

We believe that God is gracious and loving, always making available the grace we need.

Grace is God’s love toward us, God’s free and undeserved gift to us.

The grace of God is made available to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and it works in our lives through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

John Wesley described “means of grace” whereby God conveys Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying grace to us…

These “means of grace” are:
the public worship of God
the ministry of the Word, either read or preached
Holy Communion
both public and private prayer

These means are not to be understood as ways of earning salvation;
rather, they are ways to receive, live in, and grow in divine grace.

Our Wesleyan tradition continues to emphasize the practice of these means of grace throughout our salvation process.

This morning I ask that you consider Holy Communion and what it truly means in the life of the church…This is the beginning of our re-awakening the Sacramental Mystery…

Holy Communion is an act of thanksgiving…
It is a way for us to praise God and express our thanks for His mighty acts throughout history…creation, covenant, redemption, and sanctification…
”Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever!”

Holy Communion is the communion of the church…
It is a celebration of the gathered community of believers, both here in our local church and throughout the world wherever Christians gather to celebrate the Eucharist, Christ is there also. “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Holy Communion is a remembrance, a memorial…
This is a dynamic re-presentation of God’s past acts of salvation. It is also a celebration of the fact that Christ is risen, and is alive here and now, and is present in the Sacrament. This is not simply a remembrance of some past event.

Holy Communion has to do with the outcome of God’s purpose for the world…
“Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” brings us into communion, not only with those present at the table with us today, but also with the saints who have gone before us. When we participate in Holy Communion we get a foretaste of God’s future Kingdom, a promise made clear in the words, “until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.”

In the midst of the personal and cultural brokenness in which we live,
we experience everlasting fellowship with Christ through Holy Communion.

Nourished by sacramental grace, we strive to be formed into the image of Christ
and to be made instruments for transformation in the world.

My friends, none of us is worthy to receive Christ, but all of us are welcome at His table…

I encourage you to receive Holy Communion at every opportunity.

For now, we will continue the once a month tradition at our morning worship service;

We will also continue to offer the Sacrament every Sunday evening at worship;

In this way we all have the chance to experience this means of grace every week.

I long for a time when the United Methodist Church enthusiastically embraces its rich heritage and returns to the practice of celebrating Holy Communion at every worship service.

I truly believe that this is one way that we can renew the heart of our church and revive the spirit that once motivated our church.

Like the little girl who was disappointed in the amount of bread she received, I believe that United Methodists are looking for more in the life of the church…

I believe that we all want more grace, more love, more Jesus…

I believe we can all cry out, “I don’t want much, I just want more!”

O Lord, I know I am not worthy to receive You,
but I also know that I am welcome at Your table because You invited me here.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...Amen