May only truth be spoken here today and may only truth be heard; in the name of God: Father (+), Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

I remember clearly the very first time I presided at a celebration of Holy Eucharist.  It was the morning after I was ordained a priest at King’s College Chapel – my alma mater – and I was terrified.  I remember taking a drink of water in the sacristy just prior to the worship and my hand was trembling so much that I spilled the water all over the counter.

 

Here I was, preparing to celebrate the Holy Mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood for the very first time and I was shaking like a leaf in a strong breeze.  I am not usually an outwardly nervous person – I feel nervous every time I climb a pulpit and ever time I come to the altar but I have learned how to control it.  But this day a day when I would do something for the first time I was a wreck.

 

The congregation that had assembled were those closest to me, my wife, my parents, my grandmother, a couple of good and dear friends, and a couple of people I did not expect but was really pleased to see.  They were there to partake in the worship and to support me as I made this leap.

 

I came out to the altar, kissed it, looked up and the emotion almost overwhelmed me.  I could feel the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes – tears of joy.  I took a deep breath, focused on the missal, spread my arms and began, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…”  From there on I was completely focused upon the substance of the liturgy. 

 

I made it through the confession and my first absolution and was doing very well thank you very much… until… until I came to the words of institution – as I began to speak the words of Jesus, “Take, eat: this is my body” in the back of my mind I was screaming, “What are you doing?!”  I had never said these words out loud before and they felt strange on my tongue to be sure.  I remember for months afterward too there was this niggling little voice in the back of my head saying, “Ummm… are you allowed to do this?”

 

My fears and my nerves are based on how important I feel the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Eucharist is to us as Christians.  Today Jesus gives us a glimpse into just how important this act is for us as Christians – as people who follow Christ.

 

For us who are called to be Christians the presence of Jesus is paramount to who we are and what we do.  Today we will all be recommitting ourselves to that mission as we renew our baptismal vows.  Integral to those vows is the promise to break bread together in fellowship and worship.

 

For when we break bread together we are re-membering the body of Christ that is fractured.  The body of Christ is made up of each of us as individuals but when we all partake of the Blessed Sacrament we all become unified once again – we become re-membered one to another.

 

So we worship here and we hear words spoken and the elements we present become something far more than simple bread and wine.  The bread and wine are consecrated to become the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.  I do not believe that they become actual flesh and actual blood but they do become the presence of Jesus. 

 

And what do we do with that presence?  We eat it!  We take it into our hands, we put it in our mouths and we chew it up and swallow it, we sip from the cup and swallow it!  We make that presence part of ourselves: our souls and bodies.  We are fed both physically and spiritually.

 

In the end the Eucharist is that which feeds us spiritually to go out into the world and do the ministry to which we are all called.  All that we do, in the name of the Lord, flows from the Eucharistic Feast and the presence of Jesus within that feast. 

 

The Eucharist is not something to be afraid of; it is something to partake in and in doing so we join ourselves to Jesus – this is why it is called “making” our communion rather than “taking” our communion.  For when we eat of the bread that is Christ’s body and drink of the cup of his blood we are making a statement to God that we have invited Jesus into ourselves and have made him part of us.

 

All who come to a Eucharistic celebration and are baptized should make their communion.  It is a meal that has been prepared and we have been invited to share in it - to not partake of what is offered is just plain rude.  Just imagine how you would feel if you invited someone to your home for a meal and all they did when you served it was sit there and stare at it!

 

Now some have said to me that they do not feel worthy enough to make their communion that they are in someway impaired from making their communion.  To them I always say, “Well, at the very first Eucharist everyone partook.  Jesus gave his flesh and blood to Judas too; knowing what he was about to do Jesus still gave Judas communion.”

 

In our baptisms we promise to be disciples, we make solemn vows to our God to live a certain way and to follow the life and example of Jesus.  We stand before God and vow that this is the life we want to live and the sacrament of the Eucharist is that outward symbol that feeds us with the inward grace of Christ’s presence so that we will have the strength to live up to those vows we make.