Why Do We Do It That Way?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
January 6, 2008

Why Do We Do It That Way?
Isaiah 43:1-7

Why were the pieces of bread we had
for the Lord’s Supper last month so big?
That was a question I heard a couple of days later.
You may not even remember, but in December,
when we celebrated the Lord’s Supper,
the pieces of bread on the trays
that were passed around were much bigger
than the pieces we had been used to.

It was something we talked about
in the Worship & Music Ministry Team.
The question I had asked was the opposite:
why were the pieces of bread so small?
When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper
we are remembering the Passover Supper
our Lord shared with his disciples
on the night before his crucifixion.
The shared a common loaf of bread,
ordinary bread, that would have been passed around.
Each person would have torn off a piece of bread from the loaf,
in much the same way each of us will do in a few minutes
as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper
for the first time in this New Year.
The piece of bread would not have been a small piece,
but a good sized piece.
This is a meal,
and while what we eat may not fill our bellies,
we should take something we can literally chew on
as we hear the words of our Lord,
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
as we remember his birth,
his life,
his death,
his teachings.

The question, why such a big piece, was a good question.
I encourage questions because that’s how we learn.
You may have questions:
things that lead you to ask
“Why do we do that?”
“Why do we do it that way?”
“That’s not how I remember it was done in
the church I attended before I came here.”

Every denomination, every church,
takes its own unique approach to worship,
to theology, to biblical interpretation.
The Presbyterian tradition is built on learning,
built on what is the working definition of theology,
which is “faith seeking understanding”.
We work on our faith by seeking understanding
through learning and growing in wisdom.

Our primary resources are the Bible,
along with our Book of Confessions,
and our Book of Order.
We start of course, with the Bible,
the written Word of God,
the inspired word.
In the pages of the Bible God reveals himself to us,
in relationship with us.
John Calvin observed that in the Bible we find God
“not.. as he is in himself,
but as he is toward us.”
(Institutes, 1.10.2)

This make the Bible not “his story”
but our story.
When we read through the pages of the Bible
we are reading our own story of our relationship with God.
We are in the story of the children of Israel following Moses
through the wilderness;
we are there in the pages of the prophets Amos, Jeremiah
Ezekiel, and even the lesser known prophets
like Malachi and Obadiah.
We are in the parables of Jesus.
It is to us that Paul wrote his letters.
It is our book, alive and full of life.

It is why we don’t refer to the Bible as the
literal and inerrant word,
as some other denominations do.
We refer to the Bible as the inspired word,
kept current and fresh by the power
of God through his Holy Spirit.

Our Book of Confessions helps us to read with understanding
words that were written 2,000, even 3,000 years ago.
In our Confession of 1967 we read,
“The Bible is to be interpreted
in the light of its witness to God’s work
of reconciliation in Jesus Christ.
The Scriptures, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
are nevertheless the words of men,
conditioned by the language, thought forms,
and literary fashions
of the places and times at which they were written.
They reflect views of life, history, and the cosmos
which were then current.
The church, therefore, has an obligation to approach the Scriptures
with literary and historical understanding.
As God has spoken his word in diverse cultural situations,
the church is confident that he will continue to speak through
the Scriptures in a changing world
and in every form of human culture." (9.29)

So, when we get to a passage that reads,
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling,
in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ.”
(Ephesians 6:5)
we understand that that sentiment,
which we would now consider abhorhent
reflected a different time, a different culture.

In the same way, when we read
in Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth,
“women should be silent in the churches.
For they are not permitted to speak,
but should be subordinate”
(1 Corinthians 14:34)
we understand that Paul
wrote in patriarchal times.
He probably wasn’t a sexist, a chauvinist,
as the words might suggest,
but more a product of his time and culture,
the society in which he lived.
Imagine if we read those words literally:
we’d have a very empty church!

Our Confession teaches us to ask questions
as we read Scripture.
We always begin, of course, by seeking God’s
guidance through the Holy Spirit.
Then, as we read a passage, we are to interpret it
in a way that witnesses and testifies
to God’s work of reconciliation
in and through Jesus Christ.

Let's go back to the text from Isaiah that we heard.
We read it with our hearts and minds illumined by the Spirit;
We read it through the lens that is
the Living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.
So what is the lesson?
We heard, among other promises in the passage,
“when you walk through fire you shall not be burned”
Is the lesson that we can walk through a burning building
and escaped unscathed?

It is possible, as we were reminded of last week:
with God and through God all things are possible.
And there is precedent:
you remember from Sunday School
the story of Daniel and the fiery furnace.
(Daniel 3:19ff)

But, do you remember how our Lord responded
when he was tempted by Satan
to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple
to prove the scripture taken from the Psalms:
(Psalm 91:11-12)
“He will command his angels concerning you”
and “on their hands they will bear you up.”
(Matthew 4:5)
“Do not put the Lord God to the test,”
is how our Lord responded.

So we take the text and learn that
we are God’s beloved children,
precious in God’s sight, each of us,
every one of us.
We are loved,
even though we often do and say things
that lead us from God.
And God is with us, present with us
in every moment of our lives,
even in the valley of the shadow of death.

What better place to start this New Year,
grounded in love,
grounded in acceptance,
confident of God’s presence,
through his epiphany, our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you go through the year, keep reading,
keep learning,
keep asking questions.
Remember: there are no dumb questions!
Grow in faith, obedience, and understanding.

Take your first step by coming to the Lord’s Table
to be fed,
to be nourished.
Come to the Lord’s Table with your brothers and sisters,
with all God’s beloved in this church
and in churches of other denominations,
where things might be done differently
but where those gathered
gather in the name of Jesus Christ.

Come to this table
to share in this meal prepared by the Living Word,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And when you take a piece of bread from the loaf,
tear off a big piece.
Amen.