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Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, July 30, 2017


Sermon


Text:1 Corinthians 11:23–30

Recently our children and grandchildren came and stayed with us for a week and it was wonderful. On one of the days it was so hot that we decided to find something to do that could be done inside. So we drove to Richmond to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to spend the day. It had been a long time since I had been there and it was even more impressive than the last time we visited over 30 years ago.

The last time we saw the King Tut exhibit that was touring the country but this time one of the most amazing parts was the Fabergé Exhibit. It is a collection of Russian art from the Romanov family collected and donated by Lilian Thomas Pratt. It is comprised of over 400 gold and silver objects, jewelry, enamels, gemstones, icons and of course the famous Fabergé eggs each crafted by skilled artisans. It really was quite beautiful to see the intricate detail and craftsmanship of each item and I was very glad to be able to be there. My granddaughters were mesmerized by the whole experience of the museum and it proved to be a good way to spend an afternoon together.

Later, as I reflected on what we had seen I wondered how much the collection was worth monetarily, I decided that it was most likely considered priceless. Almost all of the collection had been custom made for the Czars of Russia and their family members in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s and as beautiful as each item is it wasn’t enough to save Nicholas ll and his family from being murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918, nor do these items now mean anything to Mrs. Pratt who died in 1947. For all their beauty and the great expense of collecting these items they had no eternal value to the original owners. As I considered this I found it very sobering and it was once again a reminder that real wealth is to be had by investing in those things that are eternal and bring us closer to our eternal king who has offered us his kingdom as our inheritance.

The past month we have been considering what it means to worship God. We began by seeing that we were created in the image of God and should reflect his glory and honor. We were created to worship God and to enjoy him forever and we should join all of creation in revealing the majesty, power and glory of God. Man was not made for sorrow, sickness or death but for eternal devotion, joy and praise of our creator.

We’ve seen that when man fell into sin he was not merely breaking the rules but was failing to worship his creator and instead was worshipping the creature.

We have seen that sin should be seen as unnatural and against everything that we were created for. To those who have been transformed by Jesus Christ, worship should be the most natural thing in the world as the image of God is being restored to the purpose for which it was created. It should bring us the greatest joy and fulfillment.

In the second week and part of the third we considered how God has revealed to us his character and nature through his names and how this alone should give us reason to bow before him in adoration and praise. God revealed through His names and word that he is unchanging and we can trust that what he has revealed through his names. All of this should encourage us to follow him with confident joy.

When we speak, pray or minister in the name of Jesus we are declaring our confidence that Jesus’ name is above every name and everything that he revealed about himself and all that was foretold about him is summed up in that name. In His name there is authority and power that is in no other name under the sun and we can see in his word that at the mention of his name demons flee and nature can be brought into order and sickness and disease can be eradicated. We should even expect this is if we are willing to live for the glory of the name of Jesus.

We looked at the example of Israel when they humbly submitted to God in praise and worship that God’s response was to fill the tabernacle and then later the temple of Jerusalem with his holy presence to such a degree that the priests could not even minister there. We also saw what happened when they turned away from true worship and allowed other cultures to influence Israel’s worship of Yahweh by including the worship and practices of other religions. God’s Spirit departed the temple and ultimately it was torn down and Israel lost the land that was their inheritance and was sent into captivity.

Last week we saw how God gave explicit instructions to Israel as to how they were to approach him in worship. God was offering to his people a way to experience his presence in corporate worship so they would know him intimately and be willing to carry out the role that they were to play as a nation set apart by God. God wanted them to grasp the richness and vastness of the blessings that he was offering them but they would need to be faithful to the commands of God and worship him as the only true God and King of all creation.

We saw that God—in the design of the tabernacle and the temple—was revealing to Israel what the throne room of Heaven was like, and that they were being invited to join with what has been going on there for eternity as all the heavenly host bow down and worship God in all his glory.

We saw that many aspects of Moses’ regulations for worship pointed forward to Christ and things like the sacrifice ceased to be necessary after he came but instead revealed Jesus as the perfect and sufficient sacrifice. Under the New Covenant the Old Testament symbols give way to their fulfillment and the early church picked up on this and fashioned their worship accordingly.

When Christ’ sacrifice was seen in light of the Old Testament model the reason for worshipping became more clear than ever before. The God who had been the object of worship became the sacrifice needed to remove the curse and bondage of sin.

I was reminded of stories that I have read of people being rescued from a burning building where they had lain unconscious, and later, on meeting their rescuer, there was such love and gratitude in the eyes as they thanked the one who had put his own live on the line for theirs. The whole perspective changed and that person became vitally important. If we truly see the depth of our sin and the price that we should have had to pay for it, then our rescuer is the most important person in our lives, especially when we rightly understand who he is.

This morning we come to the last in our series on worship and our focus will be on two things:

  1. The way that we come to the Lord in worship is important and is modeled after the commands of God to Israel.
  2. The goal of our worship is that one day we will be allowed to enter into our heavenly inheritance and worship before the throne of God.

In our worship now we are allowed to experience a foretaste of the power, grace and blessing that will be ours and it is best seen through the table of the Lord.

Let’s consider our Old Testament passage from Exodus 24: 3–8,

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules, and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.  6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

The first thing I want us to see is that Moses is speaking to all the people of Israel the word that God had spoken to him. This word was given to Moses on Mount Sinai and it was comprised of the 10 commandments as well as the specific ways that they were to live before God and each other. The law of God is the expression of God’s holy and moral character and was to be seen as unchanging and eternal, just as he is unchanging and eternal. It was given as a gift to the people of Israel that they might know how to live in ways that correspond to the character and heart of God. They would in turn model this life to the other nations who would see their lives and the blessings that obedience brought them. It was to be their delight and joy and the path for successful living, not a burden or curse.

Moses read all that the Lord had given him and all the people answered with one voice, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” It was after the word was spoken and received that Moses rose up and built an altar and then assigned men to make burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings to the Lord. He took the blood from the sacrifices and poured half on the altar showing that God was accepting this as a covenant offering and atonement for their sins. He then read again the Book of the Covenant to the people and again they declared, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, we will be obedient.” Moses then sprinkled the remaining blood on the people that would put the covenant into effect and said to them, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

In doing this Israel was being consecrated for God’s service. They had heard the word of God and responded in agreement with it and the sacrifice was made for them to be set apart as the people of God. The covenant of God, “I will be your God and you will be my people” was put into effect. Both God and Israel were agreeing to keep their part of the covenant.

Israel had come into relationship with God through the blood of the covenant and it was on this basis that the tabernacle was now to be established as a place where God would come and dwell among his people and they would offer him worship that was wholly devoted to his glory and honor. It was after this covenant was established that we read in verses 9–11, “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.”

At this point we can look back at verse one where God originally called Moses, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders to come up and worship him from a distance. Moses alone is to approach God as he had been exalted as the mediator of the covenant between God and Israel. It was at this point that the representatives experience the presence of God and see him standing on the pavement of sapphire as they have a glimpse into Heaven yet because of the covenant relationship now established they were not destroyed. Instead they ate and drank in celebration of the covenant that God had just made with Israel.

The wonder of the scene resulted from Israel’s commitment to the covenant mediated through Moses. The original readers were reminded of the great blessings that would come to those who continue the commitment to their covenant promise to serve God and obey the commands given them by Moses.

We all know the story of how they quickly forgot their commitment to their covenant with God and turned to follow the gods of other nations. God foretold this through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:31–32,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

The writer of Hebrews points to this verse in Hebrews 8: 6 and points out,

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

In our gospel reading this morning we read of another example of a celebration because a covenant was being concluded and Jesus is now the mediator. Let’s look again at Matthew 26:26–28,

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 

The fact that Jesus used his last Passover meal to institute the Lord’s Supper teaches us that Jesus was what the Passover meal had pointed to and he was the one who was bringing continuity between the old and new covenants. It shows the essential relationship between Jesus’ death and the forgiveness of sins, as well as the connection to the Passover sacrifice. Jesus refers to his sacrifice as the “blood of the covenant” that we saw in Exodus 24 and this clearly shows God’s mercy in the relationship with his people where he is willing to be the sacrifice for their sins.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11: 24–26,

and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

In referring to the cup as “the ‘new’ covenant in my blood”, Paul was teaching that Jesus was renewing the covenant that God made with Israel in Exodus 24. Through his sacrifice as the Lamb of God Jesus was again making a way for all nations to find forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God and the celebration of what he was doing was to be seen and remembered through the meal at the Lord’s Table.

The order of worship that we use is based on this model that we have seen. We come to the sanctuary together as the people of God who have entered into Covenant with God through agreement with His Word and through the blood of Jesus Christ the sacrificed lamb. When we enter into the sanctuary we should come reverently and with a sense of the anticipation of encountering God through worship. We come to praise and honor our God and King who has made a way for us to be reconciled to him and we offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

We also come to hear His word once more and to bow our knee and will to his and we come to confess our sins as individuals and as a people, to find forgiveness through the sacrifice signified through the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

The goal of our worship should be the same as the goal of our lives, to come to the banquet table of the Lord in celebration of our new life in Him for all eternity. The table of the Lord then takes on special significance for us as the people of God and the Apostle reminds us of the holiness of the table and that it is not meant for those who have not entered into covenant relationship with God or those who refuse to bring peace and unity to the body. I Corinthians 11:27–30 says,

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

This warning seems to not be to those outside of the covenant but more importantly to those who see themselves within the covenant community but who refuse to be reconciled to others in the community. This is not intended for individual edification but that we might come together as one body to fulfill the call of the people of God. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10: 17, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

The table of the Lord is a place where we are told to come in remembrance of his sacrifice and the fact that he is present with us through the bread and the wine. Bishop John Rodgers in his book, Essential Truths for Christians, writes this concerning the presence of Christ at the table:

Just as Christ is present in our midst when two or three of his disciples draw near to God in prayer, so in this eating and drinking in obedience to Christ’ command, we draw near to Christ, who has already drawn near to us, as we eat and drink with him in the in-breaking Kingdom of God. Christ is in our midst as the host of this meal.

When we come together to worship God we come with the goal of ending up at the table of the Lord in celebration that all things have now been made new. They have been made new because we have bowed down in worship, responded by faith to the word read and preached, we have come by faith in confession and repentance for sins. When this has occurred, then the table of the Lord is a celebration and a remembrance of the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf but also that we will one day gather together with him in celebration of the coming of the King to the new Heavens and the new Earth. Some denominations feel that the Eucharist should only be celebrated occasionally so that it doesn’t become rote. If we truly understand the nature of corporate worship then the table of the Lord should always be seen as the goal. I suspect that the greater problem is that many often come to the table with no expectation of finding Jesus there as the host.

As I have thought, prayed and studied during this series on worship I have felt the Lord encouraging us to anticipate his presence and expect that he is prepared to meet us in new and powerful ways here. Let’s ask him to open up our hearts to experience his healing and restorative presence as we come to worship and celebrate at the table of the Lord.

Let us pray.

©2017 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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