10/02/2011 ARMS WIDE OPEN: GRACE COMMUNICATED. GRACE RECIPROCATED.

ARMS WIDE OPEN:

GRACE COMMUNICATED.  GRACE RECIPROCATED.

The 4^TH Sermon in the “You Ought’a Preach That” Series

            I’ve asked my daughter, Krista, to help me with a live sermon illustration. 

            Notice three hugs.  With the first one, Krista hugs me.  Arms tight by my side, I fail to hug her back.  To see love communicated, but not reciprocated is heartbreaking, isn’t it?  With the second one, Krista hugs me & I hug her right back.  With the third one, my open, inviting arms anticipate & welcome her hug.

            Now, substitute Jesus for Krista.  Imagine Jesus being the one who lovingly extends a hug to you.  How do you respond?  Do you just stand there, rejecting him?  Do you hug him back?  Do you see him coming & welcome him with open arms?   It’s like our gospel lesson: God welcomes us to his banquet.  Some accept the invitation.  Others, sadly, do not.

            United Methodists have our doctrines, but most days we are not, what folks call, doctrinaire.  We’re not big on quoting church doctrine.  As a matter of fact, United Methodists are often wary of persons who can quote our Book of Discipline more than they can the Bible!  We’re rarely slaves to the rules.  I’m not making excuses, nor bragging.  It’s just who we are many days.

There are a few tenets that we do hold, & jealously guard, & enforce with zeal.  Our opposition to the injustice of gambling is one.  Another is our theology of the open table.   This is the communion doctrine that invites & welcomes persons to the Lord’s Table. 

In preparation for each celebration of the Lord’s Supper we announce:  “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly (honestly, sincerely) repent of their sin & seek to live in peace with one another.”[1]  It’s not quite a “Y’all come!” whereby anything goes, as our “About Communion” piece explains in the bulletin.   We do, how-ever, have a much broader invitation than many churches extend.

Open communion stands in opposition to what is called “fencing the table,” a closed communion that prohibits even baptized individuals from receiving the consecrated elements of bread & wine.  As John Wesley’s heirs, we do not believe that anyone has the right to refuse communion to the earnest seeker after Christ.  Why?  Because God’s grace (Christ’s love) is made real & availed in holy communion.  If we deny it to someone, then we believe that we’re denying God’s expression of love to them.

Communion is a command that Jesus said to do.  Communion memorializes (devoutly remembers) Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  It is a sign of our forgiveness.  It is a “foretaste,” as Wesley called it, of the grand, heavenly banquet.  It is a sacred fellowship meal of gathered believers.  It is all of those things, but one thing more, the most important thing of all:  it is an outward & visible expression/sign of God’s love & grace, a love & grace that are normally invisible, yet very much alive inside our hearts.  We believe that Christ’ presence & love are as real in these blest elements as they are real in our believing hearts.  U.M.’s cannot deny that gift of love to someone who genuinely desires it.

It is intriguing to me how we won’t deny communion to others (a good thing!), but we will deny it to ourselves by only receiving it occasion-ally.  Early Christians, long before there were any such things as denomina-tions, celebrated this sacred meal every time they gathered to worship.  It was an expression of Christ’s love, a gift from God, that they didn’t want to miss.  The sermon & singing may not have been great, but welcoming Jesus in communion was always the best.  I often wonder how we can call it an “open table” when it’s closed more Sundays than it’s open.

After college, I worked two years at a sheltered workshop.  The special needs youth & adults employed there did piece work.[2]  If there was ever an argument against welfare, it was these hard-working employees who took such pride in being as productive as they could, despite some severe inabilities.  How their faces glowed as they showed off their paychecks, most times with amounts that wouldn’t even provide a day’s groceries in our homes.

Len was one of the workers.  He was in his 40’s & of normal intel-ligence.  His club foot, colostomy, & other physical problems limited him from holding the kind of job he wanted.  Len limped along slowly, had a crooked smile, & was judged to have an unkempt, off-putting appear-ance.  Because of his medical issues, there was often an unappealing, embarrassing odor about him, something he could not correct. 

At the workshop, I held the title of “Personal & Work Adjustment Trainer.”  The acronym for such an unwieldy position was P.W.A.T.  I was a PWAT – an unforgettable job title, if ever there was one!  My responsibility was to help higher functioning workers secure “real jobs.”  Len fit that description.  He had no problem landing a job.  He had trouble keeping it.  The demands of most employment situations meant that he couldn’t maintain the required pace & would eventually be let go.  Len would dejectedly wind up returning to the workshop time & again.

The two of us got along famously, a relationship that carried over outside of work.  We each enjoyed drum & bugle corps, at times travelling to those musical exhibitions together.  Len was also active in the Moravian Church a block from his home & on the youth team there.

Even after I left my job to go to seminary, Len & I maintained our relationship.  During those years, Len still did not have the kind of job he needed & remained living at home.  Money was something he involuntarily did without. 

When Deb & I got married, we invited Len to the wedding.   Knowing it is impolite to arrive at a wedding reception without a gift, yet unable to afford a purchase, Len pulled from his bedroom wall one of his most treasured possessions -- a picture of Jesus knocking at the door of our hearts.

The artwork which Len gave was not the actual Warner Sallman painting so well known to many of us, but an especially gauche 3-D knock-off.  The picture, itself, was of a miniature plastic figurine of Jesus standing in an artificial garden set … which was photographed, & the picture glued onto cardboard … then placed in a thin, filigree, metallic frame.  The frame had been dipped into a substance resembling bronze – a coating that was peeling after years of age & exposure.  Accenting the work’s three-dimensional characteristics was a nightlight bulb illumining the entire piece.  Let’s not mince words.  It was ugly.

Here it is.

Tastes for fine art aside, imagine returning this gift to the giver.  “I don’t like it.”  “I don’t want it today.”   Imagine stuffing it away in a closet or burying it with the four hand-mixers we received for our wedding.  No way.  It was hung in our house, along with the other pictures & mirrors & gifts we received.  It never matched any décor, but it had its home with us, as intended.

Len’s wayward icon, like the refrigerator art that graces many a kitchen, is imbued with meaning & memories.  It conveys a caring, thoughtfulness, & love that even this rather Stoic, unsentimental Pennsyl-vania German will not deny.  I cannot neglect this gift from the heart. 

Communion is a gift from Christ’s heart.  When serving at the Last Supper & hanging on Calvary’s cross, Jesus’ arms are wide open.   Obviously, he doesn’t give us actual hugs, anymore, to show his love.  He presents his love in the holy communion gift.   That’s why he says, “Do this.  This is for you.” 

Jesus is always ready to give this gift.  Do we receive it as often as he’s ready to give it?  Do we stand with arms stiffly by the side while receiving his sacramental hug?  Or, do we appreciatively welcome his gift with arms wide open, greeting him with our love?

In the Name….                  Copyright 2011 by G.D.Knerr in Lansdale, Pa.  All rights reserved.