The Reverend David Balfour

Sermon

Preached on12th August 2007 at St John’s Dumfries

The Eucharist (2)

RE-CAP.

Thank you for the comments after last Sunday’s Sermon.  In reflection -for some of you what I was on about is “old hat”, something you already know and practise.  I make no apology for going over old ground.  I find that it is important for me to stop and think and pray again about what I do in Worship. This November I will have been celebrating the Eucharist for 44 years and I still haven’t plumbed the depths that are in it.  

How can we plumb the depths when what we are about is MYSTERY.

Seeking to encounter The Living God.

Hebrews expresses it so well – let me read it again

1    We have come before God's holy mountain:

        the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God;

2    we have come before myriads of angels

        in festal gathering:

    before the assembly

        of the first-born citizens of heaven;

3    we have come before God the judge of all

        before the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

            and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.

4    We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken:

        let us therefore give thanks to God,

5    thus offering acceptable worship with reverence and awe:

        for our God is a consuming fire. 

                                Hebrews 12: 22-24, 28,29

Br. Brian SSF, who is a hermit in New Zealand, in an article in Taonga the NZ Church Magazine has this to say: Quoting from the Eucharist service in the NZ Prayer Book.

The Lord is here

God's Spirit is with us

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

it is right to offer thanks and praise

Those words summarise the purpose of life and purpose of prayer. In corporate worship and personal prayer we acknowledge the omnipresence of the Lord. It is the prayer of affirmation. God is here in the Word and Sacrament, in the company of the faithful - the worshipping community – in each person and in my own heart.

Yet God is also here wherever we go and in whatever we are doing. He is here in every event and situation, in every crisis and celebration, in the sorrows and joys of daily life. Our task is to acknowledge her presence and firmly believe that his Spirit is with us as we face the demands of each day.In regular worship and prayer we turn away from our ego-centricity and the idols of the present age towards God.

Someone else has put it this way:

Spirituality is experience of the sacred other which is accompanied by feelings of wonder joy, love, trust and hope. It enhances connectedness within the self, with others and with the world.

• It illuminates lived experience.

• It may be expressed in relationships, prayer, personal and communal rituals, values, service, action for justice, connection with the earth.

• It may be named in new and redefined ways, or through the beliefs, rituals, symbols, values, stories of religious traditions.

It is also important to underline what may be obvious, but which we can so easily forget that in our individual personalities we approach anything from very different perspectives. That applies to God and our worship too.  Let me tell you a story.

Loma and I spent a year in an Evangelical, Pentecostal Protestant Community in Sydney Australia.  Their worship on Sundays was mainly singing Choruses, Prayers, a Sermon, and on some Sundays Holy Communion.  They used a Common Cup on some Sundays and individual little glasses on another.   I really enjoyed the Worship and it is one of those places that will forever be for me a Holy Place, the Lounge of this large property on a beach in South Sydney.

However on one occasion we went into Sydney.  As we were walking past a Roman Catholic Church I decided to pop in for a prayer.  As I went through the door I automatically looked for the Holy Water Stoop, put my fingers in it and made the Sign of the Cross.  I then became aware of the smell of Incense hanging in the air.  Immediately I felt centred and connected.   The Holy Water, the Incense and the tactile activity helped me to connect in a deep way, it doesn’t do that for everyone.

 So for some of us tactile parts of worship can really help.  Holy Water at the door, Incense, making the sign of the cross, genuflecting ? (down on one knee), bowing the head at the name of Jesus.  It is worth noting that the only mandatory act in worship in the Scottish Episcopal Church is to bow the head at the name of Jesus.

Other folk find words and thoughts are their best way to connect. and need time to process what they are hearing.   Especially say after the OT lesson and the Epistle, and   after the Sermon.  Remembering that we are listening for what God may want to say to us. –

Some of us encounter God in our thinking rather than in the tactile or words themselves.

For years I used to argue with a colleague about religious experience.  It took me a long time to realise that he also experienced God, not in my way, but through reading and reflecting on Theology.  It was something that stirred him deeply.  In my arrogance I tried to get him to see that he was missing out.  

For some silence, meditation and contemplation are the places that they encounter God.  

All these are valid ways to God and in our Liturgy it is good to make space for all of them.  

As an aside I have always thought that the Angel Font could well be used as a Holy Water Stoop. The use of the Stoop is to acknowledge the gift of our Baptism which is our right of entry.  

SILENCE

A comment about Silence – we are in an age where there is almost a total lack of silence, many of us have radios or iPods going all the time, then there is musack in lifts etc.  This means that for quite a number of folk silence is scary.  Yet if we are never silent how can we hear what is said in the “still small voice”.  The only way I know of coming to terms with silence is to enter it scary or not.  Our minds might wander, that is the nature of the mind.   We worship by bringing them back and focussing them again.    

It is all about each of us having an encounter in a way that fits our personalities.  

Coming into the Presence

David Adam who was the Vicar of Lindisfarne, Holy Island, said this, and I quote.

To discover the Presence is a homecoming,

and it is the only way we will be at home in the present.

We come so that we can come into The Presence.  

Last week we looked at the first half of the Liturgy, which can stand on its own and finished with the Intercessions.

The elements are PREPARATION ? which includes Confession and Absolution.  

We then move into the Gloria – lifting our hearts to God.  

We LISTEN to God’s Word from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospel – and an exposition in the Sermon.

We offer PRAYERS for the World and the Church.  

I wonder how many of you noticed the Freudian slip last week, the omission of the Creed.  I say Freudian because I really don’t see the need to say the Creed Sunday by Sunday, as I hear it all repeated in the Canon, the next part of the Liturgy.  However it is good to stand up and say I believe.  However for some folk the Creed is a real difficulty as they can’t sign up to it totally – let me encourage you to leave out the bits that you can’t say.  I really don’t believe that God will strike us down.   The problem of Creed is to some extent is that we are repeating something that was a major issue in the 4th cent. in language that was relevant then.

We say we believe before we move to the next part of the Liturgy.

The Emphasis changes from the Lectern and the Pulpit to the Altar.  

A place of Offering and of Receiving.  We now come to a different kind of service –

MINISTRY OF THE SACRAMENT –

Begins with the PEACE.

The Peace is a very solemn and important part of the Liturgy.  There is Scriptural warrant for it:

Jesus said, ? You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times: You shall not murder; and whoever murders shall be liable to judgement. But I say this to you: that if you are angry with a sister or brother you will be liable to judgement; if you insult a sister or brother, you will be liable to the Council; and if you say, ?You Fool?, you will be liable to the hell of fire.

So when you are offering your gift at Altar,  if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the Altar and  go; first be reconciled with your Brother or Sister, and then come and offer your gift.

St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 23 – 29 says

For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that

on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, 'This is my body, which is for you do this as a memorial of me'. In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.' Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death, and so anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be behaving unworthily towards the body and blood of the Lord.

Everyone is to recollect himself before eating this bread and drinking this cup; because a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the Body is eating and drinking his own condemnation.

The Peace is a time for restoring relationships to make sure that when we come to the Altar we are in right relationships.  It is also a time to offer each other the sign of Peace – Christ’s peace.  It is not a time for chatter, or catching up.  Coffee is the time for that.  Please take this part of the service seriously. I am sure that is why some folk really dislike the peace as it can easily take our eyes off Worship.

OFFERTORY

Now comes the Offertory Hymn during which the Bread and Wine are brought from the back of the Church by members of the Congregation.  In one Parish that I served as folk came into church they would take a wafer from a dish and place it in the Gold Ciborium, (Chalice like Container).  In doing so there was prayer that could be said in effect said, “Here I am Lord, I bring myself to offer you all that I am”.  The Bread and Wine represent the offering of ourselves.  Be aware of the folk acting on our behalf get involved with the movement.

THE COLLECTION is both duty, the giving that enables the Parish function, and it is also Thanksgiving for all that we have received.  Giving with a generous heart.

The Priest Presiding, on our behalf, Greets us.

 We are all meant to be involved in what happens and what is said in this part of the service ? the service is still a corporate activity.

THE PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

The Lord be with you,

we respond and also with you.  

Then we are exhorted to lift our Hearts, not just our minds, our feelings our centre of emotion, to reach out with all of our being. To move into a deeper relationship

Let us give thanks.

Eucharist means Thanksgiving – we come to say thank you for so much, the air we breathe, all that we have, all the relationships that bless us, and those that challenge us, thank you that God has called us, everyone of us.  One could go on forever thinking of things for which to be thankful.

The Priest continues with the rest of the Canon, the Priest says it on our behalf .  In the old liturgy the Priest said everything and for a large part with his back to the people.  This modern Liturgy is a Dialogue between Priest and people.

 So instead of having our heads down we are invited to watch and to feel part of the Priest’s praying of the Canon.

Notice how the Drama of Redemption is recalled – Creation – Incarnation – Call-Baptism – Death and Resurrection of Christ – Salvation – The Memorial – Covenant – Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension.  It is all gathered up in this one great act.

We join in by offering of ourselves – a single, holy, living sacrifice.

EPICLESIS

The calling down of the Holy Spirit upon us and upon the elements that they will be for us – in a mystery – the Body and Blood of Christ.  And we may be kindled with the Fire of your love and renewed for service of your kingdom.

We need help to be Christ’s Body, both in the Church,  (to be at unity and love with one another) and in the World.

There have been various attempts to explain what happens in the Eucharist -  how do you explain mystery.  One of Doctrinal arguments at the Reformation was all about trying to explain.  Was it Trans-substantiation or was it Con-substantiation or was it Real Presence or was it just a Remembering.

It is interesting to note the word Memorial.  Jesus was a Jew, this was the Sabbath meal, Memorial for a Jew was entering in experience the original event.  So celebrating Passover in 2007 they are back in Egypt with Moses.  

So too are we back in the Upper Room, at Calvary, and at the Empty Tomb with Mary Magdalene.  Each of us has to find our way of being there, in our own imagination and experience.  We were so busy protesting at the Reformation that at times ‘we threw the baby out with the bath water’ and in some ways lost this emphasis.

THE ELEVATION

At then end of the Prayer of Consecration comes the Elevation when the Priest lifts the Priest’s wafer, representing the bread, and the chalice of wine somehow now The Body and Blood of Christ.  -  The gathering together of the whole Prayer in a manual act that Glorifies God.

The Fraction –The Priest breaks the Bread -  am I prepared to be broken in the service of God.  Jesus is the pattern we are called to follow – it means laying down of our lives too –

We then prayer the Prayer of the Children of God ? which reminds us of our Baptism.

We come to receive Holy Communion – Communion with Christ – and communion with one another.   There are two places where everyone is equal,  a Coffin and at the Eucharist .  There are no important people at the Altar rail – each unique person comes and is welcomed for who they are, and where they are on life’s journey.  God comes to meet them.  God loves us warts and all.   It is a solemn moment, a mysterious moment, an individual and communal moment.  We share a meal with God and each other.  

A comment here about children receiving the sacrament.  

In Anglicanism, from the Reformation onwards, a person couldn’t receive the sacrament till they were confirmed.  One of the arguments being that one had to understand what was going on.  Having tried to explain this to children aged 12 and upwards I have always thought it was an impossible task.  However for years I followed the party line.  Let me tell you a story:

One Sunday Gabrielle who was three years old, put out her hands for the Bread.  I Blessed her and moved on.  Gabrielle burst into tears and went back to the pew crying.  When I got home after the service Loma said, ‘You’ve got a problem.  Gabrielle is upstairs in her room crying.”  I went up and sat her on my knee and asked what was wrong. “ I wanted Jesus and you wouldn’t give Him to me”, was the sobbed reply.  I immediately took her to the Church got the Reserved Sacrament and gave Gabrielle Communion.  Gabrielle may not have been able to give a theological argument for the Sacrament, she just knew that she wanted Jesus.  Needless to say I have never refused a child since.

In many parts of the Anglican Communion today it is the norm to admit children to the Sacrament. The Orthodox have always administered the Sacrament to children as soon as they can swallow. They administer Confirmation at Baptism.

The Anthem – is, I think, an important part of this part of the service – a piece of music that can lift our hearts and minds and emotions towards God.  

After Communion.  There is a shortish prayer of thanksgiving.

THE BLESSING

We receive a Blessing.

In one sense we have already received a blessing, through Each Other as we meet, through Scripture, and the Sacrament.  This Blessing is for us to get on with the job

THE SERVICE IS OVER – THE MINISTRY BEGINS.  All that we have been about is now to be lived out in the world.  

I always like to sit and reflect on the service and what is to come this week as I listen to the Voluntary -  Tom practices like mad it would be good to enjoy his offering.

POSTSCRIPT: (which for me sums it all up)

Was ever another command so obeyed? For century  after  I century,

spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on

earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance,

for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme

old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuge of

fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better

thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to

the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little

country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of

wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old

woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for

Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or

for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die

of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetish

because the yams had failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna;

for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for

a barren woman for Captain soandso, wounded and prisoner of war;

while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk;

while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the

windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary

of his vows furtively, by an exiled Bishop who had hewn timber all day in a

prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonization of St. Joan of Arc

one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this,

and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month

by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly,

across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to

make the plebs sancta Deithe holy common people of God.

The Shape of the Liturgy by Dom Gregory Dix.