SPONSORED BY CHRIST

               I am sure that we are all familiar with the phrase, “sponsored by” – You can fill in the rest. A stadium or team sponsored by a major corporation; a television program sponsored by a big company or, on public television, by a charitable foundation.  In an earlier time Kings would sponsor artists, singers and poets.  And we all know that “sponsored” means “paid for.”  I came across the story of a young German man who used the term in a unique way.  It seems that his Oma (OH-ma), German for Grandma, bought him an automobile, his first car.  It was a gift of love and a sacrifice for Oma to buy this car.  In honor of her gift, to remember her gift, and so others would recognize the gift, he put a bumper sticker on his car that read “Sponsored bei Oma.”  In other words, “Paid for by Grandma.” (Clinton J. Holloway, Lest We Forget, 65, Nashville, Cold Tree Press)

               As Christians, maybe we should all wear a sign that says, “Sponsored by Christ.”  Paul said in Rom 6:19-20, “Do you not know that … You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price.”  There is an old Gospel hymn that says:

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed thro’ his infinite mercy, his child, and forever I am.

               From the very beginning the church has been singing about being paid for by Christ.  In Revelation 4 and 5 John describes a throne and the one who sat upon it held a scroll in his hand that was sealed with seven seals.  No one was found who was worthy to open the book and John began to weep greatly.  One of the 24 elders told him to stop weeping because the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has overcome and he can open it.  Then John looked, and perhaps expected to see a ferocious lion, but instead he saw a Lamb standing as if slain, who came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne.  At this the four living creatures, representing the animal and human world, and the 24 elders, representing all of the church, sang a new song, saying:

Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals;

For you were slain, and by your blood you purchased people for God

From every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 

And you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God;

And they will reign upon the earth.

               As we come to the table today we remember that this is our song, our story, our claim as well.  We are all “sponsored by Christ,” paid for by him. 

MEMORABLE AND SIGNIFICANT SERVICES

1 Corinthians 10:14-21

               Last Sunday Ron described a significant communion service he attended at one of the Selly Oak colleges in Birmingham, England.  It started me thinking of some memorable services Frances and I have attended in England and other places.  I remember the first time that I experienced a one cup communion.  My first thought was that this could not happen in our germ conscious culture.  A very meaningful service we experienced was in the Church of England Cathedral in down town Birmingham.  The action of going to the altar, having the officiant hand the elements to me and say, “the body of Christ for you,” and “the blood of Christ for you,” left an indelible impression on me.

               Frances found a communion service in the Lutheran Church of Madison, Wisconsin especially memorable, not because we went to the altar.  That was different than our usual Christian Church experience, to be sure, but what was really different, and in her case unexpected, was that the cup contained wine and not grape juice.  For one who had never tasted wine that was memorable.

               Two unforgettable services we were in occurred overseas on tours to the Holy Land.  One was sitting on stones in the ruins of ancient Corinth within a few feet of where the Apostle Paul had stood before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, who refused to act on the complaint against Paul by Jews who opposed him.  There we listened to a reading about the Lord’s Supper from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

               The second was in Jerusalem in what is called the Garden Tomb.  In a beautiful garden setting there is a tomb cut out of the rock wall with a huge round stone rolled away from the opening.  Although it is not the actual tomb of Jesus it evokes feelings of majesty and mystery and helps one more easily recall the miraculous event that took place 2000 years ago.  It is a memorable experience to sing, hear the scriptures and share in communion there.

               These and others have all been memorable.  But one that I had was not just memorable.  It was life-changing.  After one ordinary service in the chapel of Phillips Graduate school in Enid, Okla. I would no longer take communion in the same way.  I learned as a teenager in the Milwaukie Christian Church that the reason we had the Lord’s Supper weekly was because we wanted to be a New Testament Church; we wanted to restore the essential faith and practice of the New Testament church.  The original church had the Lord’s Supper weekly and so should we.  I still believe that.  However, it did not occur to me to ask a more significant question: why did the early church do it every week?  Then, in seminary, I chose to write a term paper on 1 Cor 10:14-22.  All of my research, my struggle with the meaning of the text over many weeks came together at the end of the semester when I attended that chapel service.   The key word in the text is Koinonia, a Greek word translated variously as fellowship, sharing, communion, or participation.  Paul uses it here to express the deepest spiritual relationship between Christians and Christ and with one another.  Here, in the Lord’s Supper, we share in the blood of Christ, we share in the body of Christ.  Here we participate with Christ in his sacrifice and we participate with one another in Christ.  Here we meet Jesus Christ and renew our vow allegiance to him. 

               Whether it is here or in some far off exotic location, in a small plain building or a magnificent Cathedral, with long-time friends or among people you hardly know, whether the liturgy is simple, like ours, or laden with tradition and complexity, every time we partake, the meaning is the same.  We are here to meet Christ, to share in his sacrifice, to renew our loyalty to him, and to do it together with fellow Christians.