Do This

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
October 1, 2006
The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Communion Sunday

Do This
Exodus 12:1-14
Matthew 26:26-29

Take.
Eat.
Do this.
Do this in remembrance.
And they did,
the group gathered together,
gathered in that upper room
in the city of Jerusalem;
gathered in faith to remember that night
more than a thousand years before,
that night when death passed over Pharaoh’s slaves,
when death passed over the children of Israel,
when the angel of death passed over them
and in the process unlocked their shackles
and freed them from their bondage,
the bondage that had been their life
for more than 400 years.

There in that upper room
the men who followed Jesus of Nazareth
gathered to remember,
gathered to remember that night,
that night when the children of Israel
became for the first time a people,
when they took that first step toward becoming community.
The group climbed the stairs and took their places
in that simple room.
In dozens, even hundreds of other rooms,
in tents, and in other dwellings,
the same table was set,
the same meal was about to be shared.
Hundreds, thousands, of God’s children,
the people of God, the children of God,
gathered, a handful here, a handful there,
but all together, all in community
all gathered to share the meal.
They gathered to eat;
they gathered to remember;
they gathered because God said through Moses,
Take, Eat; Do this in remembrance.

Rituals had been added over the centuries.
The Hallel Psalms,
the psalms we know as 113 through 118,
were sung as the meal progressed.
Prayers were offered;
four cups now passed.
But the menu was unchanged after a thousand years:
lamb roasted with bitter herbs,
and bread made without yeast.
Everyone took;
everyone ate;
everyone remembered.

The men gathered in that upper room
had no reason to think that this Passover supper
was going to be any different from Passover suppers
they had been part of before.
But Jesus always seemed to surprise his followers;
And so Jesus took bread,
and gave thanks to his father in heaven,
and then he looked at that motley, tired group
gathered with him in that small room,
the air thick with smoke from the oil lamps,
the mens’ eyes heavy from the food,
the wine,
the late hour.
He looked at them with such deep, profound love
and said,
“take, eat, this is my body.”
And then he took the cup, --
probably an ordinary pottery cup,
rather than the cup of legends and movies --
he took the cup and
and he passed it to the men,
his friends, his beloved friends, saying,
“Drink from it, all of you
for this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins.”
Their minds dulled by exhaustion,
none of them understood.
Some of them may not have even heard.
And if they heard, they did not remember;
instead they mumbled and grumbled among themselves.
It would be Paul writing a generation later
who would help us to understand,
help us to remember,
help us to do,
helped us to hear the echo of God
speaking through Moses,
as God spoke through his Son.

We come to this table and we trace our heritage:
back not just two thousand years to that Last Supper,
but back more than three thousand years,
to that last night in slavery,
that night when all God’s children
became a community, a people, a family.

We come to this table to remember,
to remember just how much we have in common
with one another and with all God’s children.

On this World Communion Sunday,
we remember that
when our Lord invites us to this table,
we take our seats with the faithful throughout the world,
men and women who come from different cultures,
men and women who speak different languages,
yet share a common faith.

When we come to this table, we remember that
we have each been invited to this table
only by the grace of God that is Jesus Christ.

When we come to this table we remember
that we are being fed for a reason,
that we are being fed for a purpose:
not to fill our bellies,
but to renew and refresh our faith,
to strengthen our sense of discipleship.
so that we can serve more faithfully,
serve more willingly.

We come to this table to remember our Lord’s teachings,
especially his teachings on peace:
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged”,
“Forgive as you have been forgiven”,
“blessed are the peacemakers”,
“love your enemies”.

We come to this table to remember God’s hope for us,
that we will live in peace,
live in that day when we – you and I –
finally beat swords into plowshares,
and spears into pruning hooks,
a phrase that has such meaning to God
he spoke it not once,
but twice through the prophets.
(Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3)

Do this:
Come to this table
Come as a child of God, a disciple of Christ.
Come as a community, people of God,
Come to be fed by the love of God that is Christ.
the love that has set us free.
Come to this table to be refreshed and renewed:
refreshed and renewed for service.
Come to this table to be filled with peace,
and then take that peace out into the world.

Come to this table in communion with one another,
not just those of us gathered here and now
but with all our church family,
and with all in churches of other names and denominations,
and with all those who have gone before us.
For this is a foretaste, a preview,
a glimpse of the life that awaits us,
when we each take our seat
at the Heavenly Banquet in God’s Eternal Kingdom.

Come commune in communion;
take the Eucharist and be thankful,
share in the Lord’s Supper and be filled.
Come,
do this,
remember.

“Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
…The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing, [and]
it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:19)
AMEN