Communion (Broken Open and Poured Out)

If you would like to go ahead and unwrap your elements, I’ll be giving instructions shortly and we will be partaking it together.

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

What we are about to do mirrors what Christ did with His disciples at the Last Supper. And Jesus was doing so much in that moment. As he sat with his disciples at the table, lit only by the candlelight, and Jesus knew that this would be the last time he would be in communion with his disciples until the Resurrection. And he chooses to do something, so normal and mundane, and yet it had so much power in what it represented.

He took a bread and he broke it open and he said that the bread represented his body. That very shortly, his body would be broken open for the forgiveness of sins. And he passed the bread around until everyone ate. And he took a cup and he poured it full of wine. And Jesus said the wine represented his blood which would be poured out for the forgiveness of sins. And he passed the cup around the table and had each one of them drink of it.

And I want you to think with me this morning: Why does he pass it around to the disciples? Why did they have to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Wasn’t it just Jesus who was dying? The power and the symbol of the bread and the wine would have worked just as well if only Jesus himself ate the bread and drank of the wine. But instead, he asks his disciples to partake of it as well.

You see Jesus was doing something very important in the moment. And if we aren’t careful, we can miss it. He was saying…very shortly, I will be broken open and I will be poured out. But in this moment I’m passing the bread around, and I’m passing you my cup, because if you believe in me, if you are my followers, if you are my Church, then you too will be broken open. You too will be poured out.

If you are my children, it means that you will break yourselves open and pour yourselves out for the sake of others. For the sake of your community, for your Church, for your kids, for your youth. That you will live to be broken open and poured out. That you, like the Son of Man, will live not to be served, but to serve.

So in this moment, I want you to look at your elements in your hands. In this moment, Jesus himself is extending to you the bread and he is breaking it open and he is saying go and do likewise, and Jesus is here, present with us, and he taking the juice and pouring it out and he is saying go and do likewise.

So this morning, in a moment, when we take the wafer I’m going to ask you to break it in half, and when we eat it....you are accepting the call of Jesus, saying I will be broken open for the sake of others.

And this morning, in a moment, when we take the juice… when you pour it into your mouth, you are accepting the call of Jesus, saying I will be poured out for the sake of others.

Are you ready?

Take the bread with me and break it:

This bread represents the body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which was broken open for your sake and for the sake of world. May it preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance of the fact that Christ was broken open for you so that you make break yourself open for the sake of others and be thankful.

Take the juice:

This juice represents the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which was poured out for your sake and for the sake of wold. May it preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance of the fact that Christ was poured out for you so that you make pour yourself out for the sake of others and be thankful.