Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Fifth Sunday of Epiphany
February 4, 2007
W. Gregory Pope
Living in Loving Communion
with God and One Another
I Corinthians 11:17-26; 13:1-14:1
The fifth sermon in a series on
Being the Body of Christ in the World: Loving God, Loving Neighbor
(Holy Communion)
I am concluding with you today a five-part series on our identity and mission of Being the Body of Christ in the World: Loving God, Loving Neighbor. But in reality, this is what we are talking about every Sunday; this is what we are to be about every week.
We are the Body of Christ, each one a member of the Body, bringing his or her own gifts to be used for the common good, to build up the Body of Christ.
We are to be the Body of Christ together in the world. Our mission is to continue the ministry of Jesus where we live, a mission Jesus defined by two commandments: Loving God, Loving Neighbor. It’s that simple. It’s that difficult.
We learn how to love from Jesus as we live together in community. Nothing is more important than loving one another. It is a love that makes of us a family - the family of God.
The Corinthian church to which Paul is writing is having a difficult time loving one another. He has heard that there are divisions among them. That when they get together it brings out the worst in them. All they do is criticize each other and debate about who’s more important. They brag about their gifts. Some think they are more significant than others in the congregation. They bestow honor on some and speak poorly of others. And I as a pastor two thousand years later am so glad Paul got all these problems straightened out so that would not have to put up with such foolishness.
These Corinthians even let their divisiveness make its way into their worship - and on Communion Sunday at that - which was most likely every Sunday. It seems that several within the congregation would stop by McDonald’s on their way to church and bring in all this food and make pigs of themselves, while the poor among them would go home hungry. Some of them would drink too much and leave worship so drunk they coudn’t walk. Their selfish behavior and their failure to provide for the poor among them made a disgrace of their worship and brought judgment upon them as they gathered around the table. Paul said their behavior was such that it made them just like the crowd that spat on Jesus at his death.
Wow! The failure to love one another, coming to church and behaving selfishly, is like spitting on Jesus at his death? Those are strong words.
Paul says, “This meal where we remember Christ and his self-giving love for us is a love feast. It is a reminder that we are loved by Christ, and that we are to love one another as Christ first loved us.”
It seems these Corinthians were arguing among themselves about who had the greatest gift and were competing for the so-called important parts of the Body of Christ.
And Paul says to them, “You’ve got it all wrong. Being the pastor or the prophet or the deacon or the miracle-worker - that’s not what’s most important. What’s most important is that you love one another. And that you take that love out into the world, a world drowning in hatred and division and hopelessness.
“It doesn’t matter what else you do well,” he tells them. “It doesn’t matter what other wonderful things people say about you and your congregation. It only matters that you have love for one another and that you are sharing that love in the world.”
We can be the most intellectual congregation in the city of Louisville. We can have one of the most beautiful sanctuaries around. We can even live a storied history. But if we do not have love for one another, and if we are not taking that love out into this community, nothing else matters.
The love we are called to embody is a love that is kind toward others and patient with others. It is not arrogant or rude. It is a love that does not insist on its own way. It is a mature love that has put away childish antics. It is a love that trusts and believes in people. Even when you’ve been betrayed, you love, because the world needs all the love we can give.
And it starts in the family of God. Everything we do, every gift we offer, is to be evaluated by its capacity to share love. Rooted in God’s love for us, everything we do is to be an expression of our love for God. And according to Jesus, if we love God we will love our neighbor. If we say we love God but do not love those around us, scripture calls us liars.
And if you want to know who you are called to love, you can read that most disturbing story told by none other than Jesus himself about a man who was traveling down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and was mugged, robbed and left for dead. The only one who stopped to help, the hero of this story, was a Samaritan. The Samaritan was the neighbor, the one person most hated by Jesus’ audience. We can’t choose the neighbors we are called to love. Every person is our neighbor.
The meal at this table we call Holy Communion. Because it is a time of communion with God and one another. And that meeting is holy. It is made holy by the love and mercy of God that meets us here. God’s love and mercy not only makes communion holy, it makes communion possible. What do you think brings you to this table? Your good works or good looks? Your spirituality or social standing or moral respectability? No. God’s mercy has brought you here, and led you into communion with God. Grace and love have brought you here - and mercy, the fathomless mercy of God, embodied in Jesus Christ.
All kinds of sinners streamed to Jesus and he invited them to table fellowship. Tax-collectors, even chief tax-collectors like Zacchaeus who had robbed and cheated and gotten rich off his fellow Jews. Jesus welcomed outcasts and prostitutes, those no one else loved. Because all are welcome at the table, and all are loved. There is joy at the table because Jesus is here full of mercy and grace and love for all. The communion at this table is holy because it is a place where all are welcome and all are equal and all are honored and all are beloved.
Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world,
Every color, every race, allare covered by his grace.
All. And that makes this table a ministry of hospitality. Henri Nouwen described hospitality as a safe place where we are welcome to come without fear and be who we are. There is a social and horizontal dimension to the Lord’s Table among ourselves that is as crucial as our relationship to the Christ we meet here. The person you will stand beside and across from at the table today, the one with whom you will share the bread and the cup - Christ welcomes them as he welcomes you. They are your brother, your sister. And we must welcome all as Christ as welcomed us.
A story is told of St. Francis of Assisi. At his monastery a particular monk could not maintain the Lenten fast like the other brothers and was calling out in hunger in the middle of the night. Francis got up, prepared a meal and then invited the entire community to the table to eat. Francis did not want this one monk to feel embarrassed or guilty for what he physically could not endure. Francis’ action is a visible expression of the truest meaning of Christian communion and hospitality: You can be who you are, with all your failures, because we are family here.
At the Table it is most important how we regard one another in the Body of Christ. It is a place where all are welcome and all are equal and all are deserving of honor and respect. As the old saying goes: The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Everyone gathered around the Table of the Lord is the beloved child of God. There are no human distinctions that matter. We are all one in Christ. We are each of us made in the image of God. And we are reaching the highest point of spiritual maturity when we understand that, and because of that, love one another.
I share a story with you I shared a few weeks ago at the Interfaith Breakfast downtown. It’s a story I want you to keep in your heart and mind as you come to the table this morning.
An old teacher of wisdom called out two of his younger disciples and asked them, “My sons, how can you tell that the night is truly over and the day is dawning?
One of them replied, “When you see a tree in the distance and can tell whether it is an apple tree or a pear tree. Then you know the day is dawning.”
The elder teacher shook his head. “No.”
The other disciple thought for a moment and replied, “When you see an animal in the distance and can tell whether it is a dog or a sheep. Then you know the night is over.”
The old teacher, betraying his disappointment with a raised eyebrow, shook his head. “No.”
So the two disciples insisted. “Tell us, venerable teacher, when is the night over and the day dawning?”
And with all the wisdom of the ages, the old teacher said slowly and deliberately with piercing eyes, “My sons, the night is finally over and the day is truly dawning when you can look into the eyes of another human being and recognize there your brother, your sister. Until then, it is still night, no matter what time it is.”
This, it seems to me, is what Jesus was trying teach with his story of recognizing the neighbor in the one you cannot stand. This, it seems to me, is what Paul was trying to teach the Corinthians, admonishing them to put away their divisiveness and their criticisms and learn the most excellent way of love. This, it seems to me, is the heart of the gospel.
How do you know when the night is finally over and the day is truly dawning? What is it that makes the face of God shine like the sun over all creation? It is when you look into the eyes of another human being, be he your best friend or she your worst enemy, and there discover your brother, your sister. Until then, it is still night, no matter what time it is.
On the night before he died, gathered with friends who would forsake him, close companions who would betray him, Jesus entered into a new covenant with them. He took the bread and he broke it and said, “This is my body broken for you.” He took the cup and lifted it high and said, “This is my blood poured out for the world. As often as you eat this bread and drink from this cup, remember me.”
To remember Christ is to remember his commandment to love one another as he has loved us. To remember Christ is to be a holy community living in loving communion with God and with one another.
You are invited to the table today, every last one of you, because Christ welcomes us all.
And as you partake of the bread and the cup, you are encouraged to look into the eyes of the one across the table from you and see in her face your sister, see in his eyes your brother.
Let us come to the Table of our Lord as the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, for a Holy Communion of love - a communion with God, a communion with one another.
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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