Text: John 6 Theme: God s banquet sustains us in life and death. Being Filled. This morning I have a table and chairs set up because we are

Transcription

1 Text: John 6 Theme: God s banquet sustains us in life and death. Being Filled This morning I have a table and chairs set up because we are going to talk about the Great Banquet today. Hopefully this little table will prompt us to imagine a much larger and grander table that is God s people, all joined together. I have some stuffed animal friends here and anyone who would like can come and put an animal friend at the table. The Great Banquet is an image that we get from the Bible of a table where people we like and people we don t like come together. It is a table where people are fed and their greatest needs filled. If you were to imagine a great banquet, what food would you want served? The Great Banquet is a euphemism for heaven. I would guess that we all from time to time wonder what it will be like after we die. Some of us are comforted by theological ideas of how God s love doesn t end at death but even becomes more intense. Some are comforted by stories from people who have briefly died and then were brought back to life and tell tales of a gentle, all encompassing love. Yet there is still some anxiety for most of us as we try to imagine what it will be like.

2 The Bible does not talk very much about life after death. The largest single text on the issue comes from Paul s writing, in first Corinthians, chapter fifteen. If you go home and find your Bible and look it up you will recognize many of the phrases that Paul used in first Corinthians, chapter fifteen in Handel s Messiah. He made a song, a hymn out of Paul s testimony regarding life after death. This is the Christian hope and promise, that God is with us as we move from life to death to life. It should be noted that Paul did not die and then come back to life. It is not a report that Paul gives us but it his belief, his understanding given his knowledge and experience of Jesus Christ. One of the most meaningful images of life after death is that of the banquet table. A table that is set for us, to fill our every need and longing, a table that includes the presence of our enemies. That is not something we think about when we think about life after death. We think about being reunited with loved ones. We think about seeing Jesus. Maybe for you life after death is nothing but a feeling, a glow. But when in Christian mysticism we talk about the great banquet table. Present at the table are our loved ones as well as our enemies. We wonder how that will work. It may make us afraid or at the very least we might have some anxiety about seeing an enemy again.

3 In this world we get a taste of the banquet. In this world we have get an inkling of what heaven is like. This taste is found in a community of faith who come together to celebrate the Lord s Supper. This passage from John is one of the texts we use to help us understand both Communion and the Great Banquet. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. As such it is his job not just to invite us to the banquet but to be the banquet, helping us move out of fear and anxiety into the kind of wholeness where we no longer worry about sitting down to a banquet table with our enemies. One of the underpinnings of the Christian life is that through study and prayer we grow to become more Christ-like. And we remember that he who had so many enemies at the moment of his death prayed for them. We also want to be able to pray for our enemies. When Jesus said, I am the bread of life he is talking about filling us with the kind of spiritual nourishment that nurtures us into having the will and the courage to pray for our enemies. One of the famous people who died this year and yet whose spirit and teachings remain is that of Nelson Mandela. He said about enemies, If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy, then you make a partner out of your enemy.

4 Elie Wiesel who survived Auschwitz and went on to testify to his experience of human kind, who won a Nobel Laureate tells us that we get to a place when we realize the enemy is more than just the people who have hurt us. It is also our indifference to the cruelty we see around us. It is impossible to confront and make peace with our enemies until we can first make peace with our own selves and the indifference that pulls at us. We have hope, can face life and death because Jesus is the bread of life, ready always to offer the resources needed. I ve mentioned before an author names Sara Miles who has written three books about the Christian faith. She came late to church, to believing, first entering an Episcopal church in her forties. She writes about her fascination and astonishment in seeing the Christian life actually lived out. I ve mentioned before that the Food Pantry they run at the church she works at takes place in the sanctuary. They bring in as much food from stores and farmer s markets and then they tell people to get as much food as they need. She says that when Jesus said, Feed my sheep he didn t tell us to ask for an ID first as we do in Food Pantries like ours. Because of her experience in feeding hungry people she says this, I understand why Christians imagined the Kingdom of Heaven as a

5 feast, a great banquet where nobody is excluded, where the weakest and most broken, the worst sinners and outcasts, were honored guests, who welcomed one another in peace and shared their food. Let this broken bread and shared wine be a fortaste of your kingdom we sang and bring us finally to your heavenly table where no one is left behind, and we will join with saints and angels at the feast you have prepared from the beginning. Today we remember the banquet table and we remember there will be a day when we sit at the table as a whole community, in communion with those who have gone before us. This table sustains us in life and death. It is time to light the candles remembering those of our community who died this past year and are already at the Banquet Table. When I call out their name, I want us all collectively to say present as we honor their spirit that lives on in those of us who remember them. Donna Wrend. Present. Dolly Matthews. Present. Tom Taves. Present. Dave Thoreson. Present. Randy Moore. Present. I would invite any of you to come and light a candle for any of your loved ones who have died. It can be this year or it can just be

6 someone that is on your mind. Light the candle, say their name clearly and we will respond with Present.