McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast-food company. But they don’t sell food. They sell fun, good times, enticing experiences. Parents, do your kids ask to go there to get burgers or to get Happy Meal toys? Grandparents, do your grandchildren squeal “McNuggets!” or “I want to go inside and play!” when you offer to take them to McDonald’s on days you are together?
The most memorable meals in my life are not memorable because of the entree or dessert but because of the company. We ate either Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner at my Dad and Mom’s table for years. I really miss those times. Times like that allowed us to be family.
McDonald’s isn’t food; it is a fun experience. Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas ham are not memorable for their juiciness or mouth-watering flavor. They are meaningful because of the people with whom we share them.
And our life in the family of God is no different.
The church has a sacred meal that has been provided by the Lord. It doesn’t involve enough food or drink to keep a starving person from dying. Much less would it be enough to fill a hungry man’s stomach. It is an experience — an experience of joy in the presence of God. It is also a family gathering time.
The meal is not only an experience of God’s joy but of his other children. People with separate houses, separate careers, separate temperaments come to the table of our Father, and his table lets us affirm that we are a family — brothers and sisters together in Christ. We call the sharing of bread and fruit of the vine by different names: Communion, Lord’s Supper.
It would do well this morning to read from Mark 14:12-26. As an observant Jew, Jesus ate the Passover on Thursday night — or on Friday by Jewish reckoning, since Friday began at sundown — before his death at 9 a.m. the next morning. When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
“Take it; this is my body. Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. “I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:17, 22-25).
It’s about the invitation.
No matter whether you call it Lord’s Supper, or Communion, this meal hosted for us by Jesus isn’t about grape juice versus wine. It is about the grace that has invited us into God’s house and to his table. It is about our ability to recognize the ongoing presence of our Savior in one another. It is about a finished redemptive work at Calvary and an unfinished work of maturing and gentling, reassuring and refining our lives. And it is about proclaiming him to the world through this meal we eat with our Lord Jesus until he comes back and brings that unfinished work to completion. It is incredibly important that we examine our lives… If you have ought against a brother or sister… that needs to be taken care of… or you eat and drink judgement to your soul. This feast is not a joke… It is a celebration, yes… But it is also serious… and it demands a contrite heart.
And although no one is refused in partaking of it, it really has no meaning unless you are child of the King. Unless you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
It is your choice.
Baker Heights Elder
