Jeremiah 17:5-10

Psalm 1

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

LUKE 6:17-26

The Community of Communion

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The passage of Luke that was just read is known as the Lukan beatitudes. Beatitudes are simply blessings. Probably for many here, when you hear the word beatitude, you think Matthew – and rightly so. In your bulletin you will find an insert that places the Lukan beatitudes beside those of Matthew. As you compare them you will see a great deal of similarity. But more importantly you will see difference. Luke speaks of the poor in verse 20, but Matthew speaks of the poor in spirit in verse 3. Luke speaks of the hungry in verse 21, but Matthew speaks of those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” in verse 6. Luke continues from the blessings to curses. Matthew does not.

Often, there is a tendency among Biblical scholars to highlight the continuity of the gospels. This tendency is most helpful to construct a cohesive person, Jesus, in order for readers to know him better. I am doing the opposite here. I am highlighting the differences in the two gospel accounts. I do this in order to show that in the tension of difference there is a possibility of even greater continuity and cohesiveness. I have already mentioned that when someone says the word beatitude, most people think of Matthew. This fact disturbs me. It disturbs me because Matthew alone does not give the whole picture. After all, there are four gospels.

So what can be learned from studying the differences between these two accounts? Most obviously, we see that while Matthew is concerned with strictly spiritual matters, Luke is concerned with the material world. Or, to put it another way, while Matthew is concerned with how God works within us, Luke is more concerned with how God working in us should cause us to act in the world. For those who are familiar with Matthew and Luke, this difference should not be surprising. But there is a more implicit and subtle knowledge that can be gleaned from this difference. The harvest of this gleaning is that Jesus was concerned with both how God works in us and how that work in us causes us to act in the world. In other words, one account without the other is incomplete. You cannot fully understand what Matthew is saying in his account of Jesus’ beatitudes without also reading Luke’s account. And conversely, you cannot fully understand what Luke is saying in his account of Jesus’ beatitudes without also reading Matthew’s account.

When I was growing up, I would greatly look forward to the times in which communion (or the Lord’s Supper, as we called it) was served in my church. It was a change of pace, and for the Baptist church, it is the closest thing to a ritual, besides baptism, that we participated in. And it was a novelty, because unlike the Episcopal Church, where the Eucharist is a staple of every service, we only took communion four times a year. So as the sacred event started the sanctuary was filled with silence. A mixture of serenity and reverence flickered across the faces of young and old alike. The anticipation was thick. As I think back, though, I also remember a collective dread with which the church was permeated. And this was due to fact that at every communion service that was held, the church was reminded that to participate in this rite with sin on your heart, you eat and drink judgment upon yourself, and this, according to Paul, leads to death. And so it was with fear and trembling that the sacrament became an intensely personal soul searching. This result, I think, is to the detriment of the event. Communion is, after all, a communal act by definition. It is, strictly speaking, a profoundly Christian act. And what is Christianity without the church, the body of believers?

I return now to my previous line of thought. You might remember that I said that Jesus was concerned not only with the work of God in us, but also with the effect that that work has on our actions. I believe there is something even greater that lies beyond this principle. That is that every action has a spiritual significance. At the same time every spiritual experience should be expressed in action. This is the idea that I hope you will all consider.

Over the course of the last six months or so, I have become accustomed to partaking in the communion sacrament at every service. Often this means that I partake twice on Sundays. And the difference in this experience from the one I had in church as a child has got me to thinking. What is the spiritual significance of the Eucharist, and what action should this elicit from me? The Episcopal Church teaches that through communion, the real presence of Christ is conveyed. So the spiritual significance is found in the Grace I receive by partaking. That part is pretty straightforward, but what of the resulting action? In order to answer this, I turn again to what communion actually means – community. I think about how different churches over the course of history have ironically used this sacrament as a source of division rather than as a catalyst toward community. Some of you here today may have experienced the rejection of excommunication. This concept, which is most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, is nonetheless practiced in all sorts of denominations and in all varieties of ways – the most destructive of which may be through subtlety. The causes for such practices range from racism, sexism, homophobia, and a general fear of the “Other” – someone who is not like us.

But all of this runs contrary to the spirit of communion. If there is any action required of us in response to receiving the real presence of Jesus through communion, it is to love others as Christ has loved us, with Christ’s love. I see that love here. And it is expressed in a variety of ways. I see it in the diversity of appearance. I see it in the hugs and the laughter of coffee hour. And I see it in the social programs, the purpose of which is to reach out to the world. I do not pretend to know your hearts, but I see your actions and I smile. But there is so much of your lives that I do not see. We all retire from here on Sundays and conduct our real lives. We go to work. We go to school. We interact with the world. I envision that we do this empowered by the Grace we receive here. I envision that in our contact with the world we express the accepting love that reflects the real presence of Jesus conveyed to us in communion. I hope that when people encounter us, they see in us what we receive in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

My vision as it were may be exemplified by a story I recently heard about a small Midwestern liberal-arts college. The college was looking to hire a new president. After having selected the candidates and interviewing each of them, they did something completely unexpected. They contacted the janitorial staff at the schools of each candidate, and they asked the janitor who regularly cleans the office of each perspective president to write a letter of recommendation for them. When they finally came to a decision about who to hire, they informed their new president that the reason he was chosen was the positive letter of recommendation his previous janitor had written on his behalf. They told him that the most important quality they wanted in a president is that he or she treated everyone with respect and kindness. And they encouraged him to continue to do the same.

The way the new president treated his janitor is exactly what I envision for each of us. Therefore I propose that when we each approach this altar, we do so not as individuals, but as a community. As we receive the bread, I propose that we remember that it represents the body of Christ, of which we are all members. As we receive the wine, I propose we remember the love that Jesus exemplified in shedding the blood that the wine represents, and that we allow ourselves to be challenged to love others in the same way. I propose that as the real presence of Jesus is conveyed to us in this sacrament, we remember that the Grace of God is not given to us only to be expressed in this church, but that it is our life outside the walls of this building that is transformed. And finally, as we are commissioned at the end of this service to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” I propose that we remember that we have received through communion together the means to accomplish this.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Evan Schneider
Seminarian

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Monmouth Junction, NJ