GOOD EATS!

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon today is entitled, “Good Eats!” and my focus is our Gospel (Luke 24:36-49). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

One of my favorite shows was entitled Good Eats! If you never saw it, Host Alton Brown explores the origins of ingredients, decodes culinary customs, and presents food and equipment trends. Punctuated by unusual interludes, simple preparations and unconventional discussions, he brings you food in its finest and funniest form.[1] I mention this cooking show because of Jesus’ question, “Have you anything here to eat?” The question leads to three points about food: in Luke, the Lord’s Supper and the Church today.

First, Luke. After the Risen Lord greeted his disciples with peace, they became startled and frightened because they thought that they were looking at a ghost. Stories of ghosts and other phantoms of the night abounded in Jesus’ time, but one point worth noting is that ghosts lack material substance. You can't shake hands with a ghost or invite him to eat dinner with you.

In this Resurrection account, the disciples were startled and frightened precisely because they thought they were seeing a ghost. So, Jesus invited them to touch Him, underscoring his point by reminding the disciples that His glorified Body has flesh and bones.

To deepen this point, Jesus asked his bewildered disciples for something to eat. This was a sign that he was indeed raised from the dead – body and spirit. Recall that Jesus instructed Jairus and his wife to give their girl something to eat after he had raised her to life. Only the living require food to eat.

But there is something more important here than good eats. In Jesus’ culture dining with someone indicated solidarity with that person. To eat with someone meant you identified with that person. To take a meal with another was to offer that person the right hand of fellowship in the deepest sense of the term.

Meal fellowship is an appropriate image for an incarnational Christianity. Meal scenes and meal imagery (including parables spoken at or about a meal) serve as a “main course" here. There are ten meal scenes in which Jesus eats with others in Luke. Three of them have parallels in the other gospels; seven, however, can only be found in Luke, and are integral to and reflective of Luke’s theological interests.

Now, when it comes to sizing up Jesus' table companions, one has to speak in terms of his democratic eating habits. For Jesus it was not the food but the people he ate with that mattered most. His dining partners were diversified and inclusive. Every meal was a shared meal. Jesus never ate alone, and where Jesus was present, salvation was also. That said, there is no better image for salvation than a feast, the major metaphor for salvation.

Lastly, Luke speaks of the eucharist in a story of meals and journeys with Jesus. Unlike foxes who have dens and birds who have nests, the Son of Man had “nowhere rest his head” (9:58). His entire life was one great journey in which meals and simple hospitality played a critical part for him as well as for his followers. Jesus, his disciples, all who would follow later, and the church itself are a people on a journey, a people of hospitality, both offered and received. The eucharist is the supreme expression of that hospitality, sustaining them and us on the journey to the kingdom of God.[2]

With that, we move from my first point, food in Luke, to my second, the Lord’s Supper. Every time we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, it is like we are with his disciples, sitting at table with Jesus. We receive Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. What we receive is no phantom ghost, but the very substance of the Son of God Himself. Other Christians do not believe this. Some confess that because Christ is at the right hand of the Father in heaven, He cannot possibly be present in Communion. Others believe that the Lord’s Supper is simply a memorial service. That is not to say that they are unworthy to take the receive the Body and Blood of Christ, but to share the Lord’s Supper requires one to be in fellowship with that Church.

Those of you who were present for Maundy Thursday know that I spoke of Mark’s account of the Last Supper. I am not going to repeat what I taught from Luther’s Small Catechism or The Formula of Concord, however, I am going to cite an even earlier work that I recently re-read.

The Jerusalem Catechesis was one of the first catechisms of the undivided Christian Church. Its 24 teachings, given sometime around 350 AD, reflect the deep, sacramental understanding of the early Christian Church, the meaning of Baptism and all the Sacraments and the beauty of our participation in the life of the Trinity through our participation in the Church, the Body of Christ, of which we are members.

Its use of the word symbol means much more than we westerners tend to think. It means an actual participation by grace. That said, the instruction to newly baptized Christians that “it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers … in the divine nature.

Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith. You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ.”

My friends, through grace Christ invites us to his holy meal to eat his Body and Blood. Through God’s grace and our belief as a Church body and members, we share in the divine nature. What does it mean for us? With that, we move from my second point on the Lord’s Supper to the Church today.

The Gospel passage we heard today is the last meal story in Luke. In each of the previous nine, Jesus was the host. In this one, the Church is the host. The previous passage, the Road to Emmaus, is one which speaks clearly of hospitality. It is hospitality that is vital to the Church today, and to speak to the Church today, I return to one of the Church Fathers recognized by the Synod, Gregory the Great of the 6^th century. Usually, Gregory’s sermons were detailed exegetical commentaries. Here, he dispensed with that which gave him the opportunity to sing the praises of the great virtue of hospitality.[3]

We know that the two disciples were walking on the road and, while not believing in Christ, spoke of him. The Lord “exchanged a few words with them, reproached them with their slowness in understanding, explained to them the mysteries of Holy Scripture concerning him, and yet, their hearts remaining foreign to him for lack of faith, he pretended to go further. … It was necessary to test them to see if, not yet loving him as God, they were at least capable of loving him as a traveler. Truth journeying with them, they could not remain strangers to love: they offered him hospitality, as one does for a traveler.”

Gregory points out that they begged, urged, pleaded, pressed or constrained Jesus to stay with them. He continues, “This example shows us that we should not only offer hospitality to travelers, but to accept it. The disciples set the table, offer food; and God, whom they did not recognize in the explanation of Holy Scripture, they recognize it in the breaking of bread.”

“As you can see, the Lord was not recognized when he spoke, but he deigned to be recognized when he was given food. Love, dear brothers, hospitality, love works inspired by charity.”

Hebrews reminds us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2) As does Peter, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Pet 4:9), and Matthew, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). 

After citing these passages, Gregory said, “What great virtue is hospitality. Receive Christ at your tables, to deserve to be received by him at the eternal banquet. Give shelter today to Christ who presents himself to you as a stranger, so that in the day of judgment you are not for him as strangers whom he does not know (cf Lk 13:25), but that he receives you as his own in his Kingdom.”

My friends, I am sure each of us has pressed strangers in our midst to accept our hospitality. It may have been one who was a stranger in our country or community. It may be one who was a stranger to God or the Christian Faith. At times, simply offering is met with resistance or refusal. Perhaps people are reluctant to receive hospitality. Perhaps they think that they must reciprocate a gracious act. But our salvation, as we know, is a free gift from God. That is why we should and do offer hospitality to strangers in our midst – to be channels of God’s free grace to them that they too may receive and enjoy salvation through Christ.

I was thinking about this point because periodically, I stop by the church during the week, and notice a car drive up to the Blessing Cupboard. People come when no one is around to notice, take what food they need and leave. For all I know, they are strangers in our midst to whom we offer hospitality. A while back Barb Kraynie explained the history of the Blessing Cupboard. Most of you know it, but it bears repeating.

“The blessing cupboard was started in May 2017. I had seen a Facebook page called blessing box. I thought there are many people in our area that could use the help but are not comfortable letting people know. With the cupboard they could come any time anonymously and take whatever they need. It also gives other people the ability to donate any amount anytime that is convenient for them. Not only church members but many people in the community stock the cupboard. We do not keep records of donations and what we give out. Linda has been instrumental in expanding our giving with the Christmas boxes the past few years. She also has used her contacts to get donations from Blackhawk schools and Boy Scouts. When I was working, I drove by the church every day. I would stop and check if food needed stocked. I was amazed the amount that came and went on a daily basis.”

Friends, this is a wonderful Christian ministry we provide for the community. As we move through this great Season of Easter, open yourself to God’s grace poured into your hearts. Open yourself to divine hospitality, and may the grace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats

[2] Eugene LaVerdiere, Dining in the Kingdom of God, p. 9.

[3] https://sites.google.com/site/aquinasstudybible/home/luke-commentary/gregory-the-great-homily-23-on-the-gospels

Christ Matters

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Why Christ Matters, and my focus is our Epistle (1^st John 1:1-2:2) Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Homer. Google Homer and three results populate your screen. First, a fictional character in an animated television series, The Simpsons. Next, a fishing city in southwest Alaska. Finally, the ancient Greek author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Fishing aficionados and animation fans aside, the ancient Greek author who had a lasting effect on classical literature impacts our culture today more than the longest running American sitcom. Homer, I will save for my final point and open with an introduction of John’s Letter and its meaning to our church.

John’s letters emerged from an environment of conflict and appear to provide a window into the history of the early church where John served as pastor. Unfortunately, since our knowledge of his church is vague, we cannot reconstruct a precise picture.

The surface issue appeared to be the proper understanding of Jesus. The abiding center of life and unity in John’s Gospel became the focal point of dissension and division. Those who shared fellowship and friendship in the Fourth Gospel[1] clashed over the proper understanding of Jesus. Mutual excommunication challenged the infant church’s identity and existence.

Unlike Paul’s letters that encouraged Christians, John’s First Letter warned the community against the views of dissidents. John’s contrast between light and darkness distinguished believers from dissident evildoers. Believers walked in the light; evildoers preferred darkness.

John based his image of believers walking in the light from the attributes of God: light, fidelity and righteousness. He wrote, “God is light, and in him is no darkness … He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[2] Believers walked in the light, claimed fellowship with God and one another, and lived lives free of sin.

John opened with a phrase that echoed the Gospel and Genesis – the beginning. He then captured the listener’s attention and interest; stated his purpose for writing; and divulged his essential plan. He did this by claiming to be an eyewitness, which underscored that he personally heard, saw and touched Jesus – the eternal Word. Then John set before his readers this: Life is in Jesus Christ. He advanced nothing new, visionary or imagined; rather, made his focus that which eyewitnesses heard, saw and handled. In short, John established that no faith was certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning.

No faith is certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning. John said, if you have fellowship with us – eyewitnesses, tradition-bearers, apostles – you have fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word. Fellowship is not simply a conglomeration of people with some things in common; fellowship is grounded in what the eyewitnesses saw and heard. In creating fellowship or church, John did it in order that OUR joy may be complete.[3]

John wrote that phrase as the last of the apostles in the last of his days. He sought to preserve the integrity of the apostolic message. Knowing those in fellowship with him believed and lived right, John strengthened their resolve to continue their beliefs and lifestyles, and warned them about the very real possibility of sin, that is, committing apostasy and wandering off into the dark as some did already.

Secessionists who committed apostasy and wandered into the dark were deceived by the day’s deadly philosophies. One danger that influenced Christians was to view the physical world, including one’s body as intrinsically alien to one’s true self. Those who embraced this philosophy actively disdained all things material and denied the reality of the incarnation and any need for blood atonement. Their remedy to overcome sin was to flee this material world, to escape this sinful world of flesh and blood. To counter this, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. … [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[4] Therefore, the sinner should not fear, for the sinner’s friend is Jesus, the righteous one, the Son of God who is love. With that in mind, as Christians, we walk by faith. In fellowship with the Apostles, we walk as children of the light, and our joy is complete.

Walking as children of the light in fellowship with the Apostles, we recognize that we are still sinners who need forgiveness. Regarding this, Martin Luther observed, “We should always be suspicious of ourselves and fear and grieve that perchance some puffing up of the mind be in us still. For who will boast that he is pure spirit and does not still have the flesh in opposition to the spirit? … If you have flesh and are in the flesh, then certainly this pride is also with you and you in it, until this body becomes altogether spiritual. Always, therefore, we sin, always we are unclean. And if we say that we have no sin, we are liars, because we deny that we have the flesh, when yet the flesh is all around and has with it these evils in order to attack the spirit.”

In another place, Luther said, “Those who are truly righteous not only … plead for the grace of God because they see that they have an evil inclination and thus are sinful before God, but also because they see that they can never understand fully how deep is the evil of their will and how far it extends. [They] believe that they are always sinners, as if the depth of their evil will were infinite. Thus they [humble themselves, plead and cry] until they are perfectly cleansed – which takes place in death. This, then, is the reason why we are always sinners.”

The Lutheran Service Book reminds us that to confess our sins is not merely to benignly admit to them. Rather, it is to acknowledge them as justly deserving of temporal and eternal punishment, knowing our unworthiness, and confessing all we did in thought, word, and deed – including the good we failed to do – as that which contributes to a deadly bondage from which we are unable to free ourselves.

We are unable to free ourselves; but Christians differ from other people in that sin does not rule them. Christians must accuse sin and fight against it throughout life.[5] For that reason, we find these words in Luther’s Morning Prayer: “I pray that You would keep me this day from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you.” … It is important to me to recognize the reality of sin in my life and pray this way daily. Otherwise, I too may become a sinful secessionist.

Having examined John’s Letter and our Lutheran tradition, what might John say to us today? What practical application does John’s Letter have for today’s Christian?

For assistance, I turn to Homer. Adam Nicolson’s book, “Why Homer Matters,” rediscovers and re-presents the ancient Greek poet, best known for the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” Homer’s epic poems ask eternal questions about individual and community, honor and service, love and war, and tell us how we became who we are.

I mention Nicolson’s work because I want you to think about who influences your life today. Who shapes you? Who acquires you? Who’s your daddy? Ask yourself these questions because in our world, as in John’s, Homer mattered and Christ mattered. Homer influenced his world’s philosophers and teachers, legislators and leaders. Likewise, the Risen Christ influenced people then and now.

Homer influenced men like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. In turn, their work in the fields of logic, ethics, metaphysics, scientific method, politics and religion profoundly influenced people like Alexander the Great and Greeks for centuries before Christ. 1^st century Christians and pagans put stock in the teaching of the Ancients, which forced John to open with “That which was from the beginning ...” No faith is certain unless its object, foundation, origin and end are from the beginning.

Today, we may not consider the influence of Homer and other thinkers on our personal formation but consider their influence on our culture. Francis Bacon: scientific method. Confucius: social relationships. Machiavelli: politics. Thomas Paine: individual rights. Adam Smith: economics. Tolstoy: anarchism. Thoreau: civil disobedience. Nietzsche: religion. C.S. Lewis: apologetics. John Stuart Mill: utilitarianism. Dewey: pragmatism and progressivism. Calvin: predestination. Thomas Hobbes: social contract. Albert Schweitzer: reverence for life.

Ask ten people who influence them. Most will say parents. Some might say siblings, spouse, relatives or mentors. Few say pastors or theologians like Luther, Walther or Pieper. On second thought, a number might add Jesus. However, when you consider the big picture, that is, our culture, ideas proposed by thinkers thousands of years, centuries and decades ago, influence it more profoundly than parents do. Homer matters more than we think. …

Christ matters more than we think. For the ideas of men may control cultures, but apart from the one who is the propitiation for our sins and … the sins of the whole world,”[6]who offers salvation?

Homer Alaska or Homer Simpson may sway me more than great Greek minds; but as a Christian in this culture, how often do I consider what Jesus Christ did for me? How often do I consider that I may be walking in darkness because I am influenced not by Christ and His teachings, but by other teachings? How often do I consider that I may not have fellowship with Apostolic teaching, but with false philosophies? How often do I say, “I have no sin”?

The Law shows me my sin. It convicts me rightly to condemnation. The Gospel frees me of my sin. Christ “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[7]

Jesus paid my debt with the only payment that can forgive me of my sins – his blood. Jesus paid the world’s debt with the only payment that can forgive it of its sins. He is propitiator and propitiation. … How often do I consider that Good News?

Let us give Homer and others their due for their great ideas but let us give God glory for His great deed. Let us give God glory in one word: forgiveness. Forgiveness is the greatest act of love I can show to my enemy and my fellow man. When challenged by Pharisees for keeping company with sinners, Jesus quoted Hosea, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’”[8] When scoffed on the cross, Jesus pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[9] When bestowing the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, Jesus instructed, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”[10]

Tell me, friends in Christ, whom shall I not forgive? If Christ was crucified for my sins and the sins of the world, who in this world is not deserving of forgiveness, my forgiveness? If my Risen Lord instructed me to forgive sins, who in this community is not deserving of my forgiveness?

Employees who embezzled my profits? Siblings who got what I wanted from my parents’ estate? Students who lied about me? Neighbors who gossiped about me? Teachers who failed me? Coaches who made an example of me? Principals who punished me? Pastors who reprimanded me? Police officers who ticketed me? Bosses who fired me? The list is as endless as God’s forgiveness.

Forgiveness distinguishes Christians in this world from everyone else, but forgiveness is not an idea to discuss like fishing holes, sports teams, politics or economics. Forgiveness is an act practiced daily. Forgiveness shapes you, acquires you. If you are a child of the light, forgiveness is your daddy.

Friends, know Christ forgives you and the sins of the world. Believe the Risen Lord grants you peace and forgiveness. Share the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection and what His forgiveness means to you when you are forgiving the undeserving. Praise God when you forgive and know that our joy will be complete.

You may never propose new ways of thinking or post 95 Theses. You may never craft epic poems or create a Homer Simpson, but if you forgive the unforgiveable and love the unlovable, you will make a difference – and you will give God the glory. And your joy will be complete. For that, children of light, pray to our Holy Trinity, and may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

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[1] See John 15:1-17:26

[2] 1 John 1:5, 9.

[3] 1 John 1:4

[4] 1 John 1:9; 2:2

[5] Ibid, 144.

[6] 1 John 2:2

[7] 1 John 2:2

[8] Matthew 9:13

[9] Luke 23:34

[10] John 20:23