Communion Service

0:00 Morning. Thanks Susie and team. So back in the days when I was preaching a bit more regularly than what I do now, my mother-in-law would make the odd appearance in my sermons. Sometimes it was relevant to the theme and other times she'd just done something so ridiculous that it needed to be shared. Like the time she gave money to the homeless people in sleeping bags outside the old Virgin store in Belfast. And then discovered they'd been queuing overnight to spend hundreds of pounds on concert tickets. Well, she's at it again. You've obviously heard that we've got a wedding coming up this weekend.

0:43 And the ceremony is in this little church in Ballyneur beside the school. Now, we live two doors away from this church. And my mother-in-law lives with us. Yes, guys, you heard that correctly. And her one big question about the day is, how am I getting to the church? Now, when I say we're two doors away, we're actually closer than one door away, because it's the rectory and it's down a long lane. And when she asked this question, it was just like everybody in the house just kind of looks at her. Like we're walking.

1:23 But then she revealed the real issue. She said, but that road's very dirty out there. Now she has a car, and there's a car park at the church, but still, you walk down our driveway, you cross the road onto a pavement just a few yards away, and then you cross it back to the church. It can't be that hard. But I suppose I understand a little bit, because no one wants to go to a wedding with even the slightest mark on their carefully chosen outfit. We were in Belfast the other week and came across a bride who was about to meet her groom for the first time. It was all carefully choreographed, videos being taken, a photographer there, and then the big meeting. And I couldn't help but notice, but her dress had quite a decent train behind it.

2:15 And it was pigging. It was absolutely filthy. It just looked like somebody had taken it and dragged it through. A filthy, mucky puddle right at the start of her day. Now, at least it was behind her back, so she wasn't going to have to look at it all day, but still, it's not the image that you want to have etched on your mind on your big day. I was doing some reading a few weeks ago, and my attention was drawn to the issue of clean clothes. It's something that comes up now and again in the Bible. And when I knew I was speaking at this communion service, somehow it just seemed relevant.

2:53 And obviously for us with extra significance, given the wedding that's coming up. But let me read to you from the last book of the Bible, Revelation. And pay particular attention here when clothes are mentioned. It's Revelation 7 and then Revelation 21. After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from?

3:41 I answered, Sir, you know. And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat.

4:06 For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.

4:43 They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Those who are victorious will inherit all this and I will be their God and they will be my children. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

5:30 It shone with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. At various points in the Bible narrative, clothes are given significance. It starts when God himself provides coverings of skin for Adam and Eve after their disobedience has caused them to feel shame at their nakedness. And then at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, we read it in Exodus 18, when God has brought the Israelites out of Egypt and is going to give them his laws, we read this. The Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Make them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. They were going to meet God and they had to be prepared. Washing their clothes was signifying something to them.

6:34 And then in Exodus 28, we're given rules for the clothes that the priests should wear to show the dignity of their special role representing God to the people. And then in a scene in the prophecy of Zechariah, which mirrors some of that with the priests, the high priest Joshua, late in the Old Testament, finds himself given new clothes. We read this, then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this man and a burning stick snatched from the fire. Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, take off his filthy clothes.

7:30 Then he said to Joshua, see, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you. Then I said, put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him. while the angel of the Lord stood by. And if we jump over to the New Testament, there's a parable of Jesus where clothes take on importance. It's a wedding, funny enough, and many will recognize the story of guests being invited, but giving all kinds of excuses as to why they couldn't come. So lots of others are invited from the highways and byways. And as they come, something interesting occurs.

8:10 The king came in to see the guests and he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, how did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend? The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, tie him hand and foot and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then if we jump forward to Revelation, the early part of Revelation, and the letters to the seven churches. We also encounter the same theme in the message to the church at Sardis. You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white, for they are worthy.

8:53 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my father and his angels. And then that takes us to those examples from Revelation that I read at the start. So you see, clean clothes are important in the Bible. And when we read these different examples, we can pick up that it's not just about, you know, not wanting to look bad or merely being embarrassed that you've squirted the ketchup on your shirt. It's pointing to a much deeper reality. And I guess it actually goes back to the very first example, Adam and Eve, when God clothed them. Remember how when they disobeyed God and decided to make their own rules, the first thing they felt was shame.

9:45 They'd never felt that before. And it was just the two of them. And now they're in a new place and it wasn't good. They tried to cover themselves using leaves, but that's never going to work. Because the leaves were already dead by that stage and they wouldn't last. So God steps in and provides skins to cover them. Something had to die to provide their clothes. And so is set in motion a fundamental truth or principle.

10:18 Sin brings shame. And God needs to provide the clothes to cover our shame. And ultimately, it involves someone dying to provide those clothes. What we commemorate and the message we share as we participate in this communion service is that core truth of the Christian faith. Our sin shames us. And we need God to make the clothes to cover our shame. And those clothes involve the death of Jesus Christ. his body sacrificed his blood shed to make us clean all of the old testament rituals and sacrifices animals sacrificed for sin offerings pointed forward to the day when the ultimate sacrifice would be made the sacrifice to end all sacrifices when god himself would come in the flesh Jesus Christ.

11:23 He'd live a sinless life and present himself as the final offering for sin. And in so doing, he'd provide forever the clothes that we need to cover our shame. When I was growing up, we used to sing hymns that had phrases like, are you washed in the blood of the lamb? And I got kind of uncomfortable with that as I got a bit older because so often they were sung with no explanation. And I used to wonder if someone comes in off the street and hears somebody at the front asking, have you been washed in the blood of the lamb? What on earth would they think is going on in our church? It sounds deeply disturbing. And yet there is a deep truth in there that needs to be explained and shared.

12:11 As the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. We need to learn from Adam and Eve. They tried to provide their own covering, but it was never going to be enough. And maybe we can be tempted to think we can pay for our wrongs. Maybe we think that, you know, if we do some good, we can balance out the bad. But Isaiah the prophet puts PED to that notion. He wrote, all of us have become like one who is unclean, and even all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. So as we participate in this simple communion feast, we're stating that this is what we believe.

13:02 We're saying that we're shamed by our sin and that we can do nothing to solve the problem. But we're also saying that Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection has provided what we could never do for ourselves. His blood makes us clean. He provides the clean robes that enable us to be part of that amazing picture of the bride in Revelation 21. And through him, we are assured that we inherit all those amazing promises that go with it. As we eat this bread and as we drink the wine, that's the statement we are making. And as we prepare to do it, I want to make this very personal. Maybe for some of us, we've never actually come to that point of realizing and surrendering to this truth, the truth that we are shamed by sin and that we cannot deal with it ourselves.

14:07 And I wonder if maybe today is the day that you need to take that step of faith that is required. To stop thinking that you can be good enough, to admit that like the rest of us, your sin is real and to receive for yourself the free gift of cleansing and forgiveness that Jesus offers. Maybe you've sat in church before. Maybe you've even taken communion before, but without getting to this point. How amazing if that was to become a new reality for you today. Or maybe for some of us, our issue is completely different. You know the truth. You could teach it better than I could.

14:48 You believe it all. You trust in Jesus, but somehow something is wrong. I wonder if you're sitting here embarrassed by your dirty clothes. Now, I don't mean that you spilled your coffee on the way to church this morning, although I'm sure somebody probably did, but I mean you're ashamed of your sin. Whilst you've believed in Jesus and you'll readily sign up to the truth, you're just struggling with it right now because your sin weighs heavily on you. Maybe it's issues of immorality that you struggle to get over. Maybe it's feelings of shame. Maybe it's a situation that got out of control and you said or did something that you regret.

15:27 Maybe it was a harsh word or a broken promise. Maybe it's a dysfunctional relationship. The reasons could be many, but put simply, you feel dirty. You know, I understand that. I reckon most of us know that feeling. But you know what? That's Satan's voice coming over too loud. And in many ways it echoes that example of the high priest Joshua that we read about from Zechariah the prophet.

15:56 Satan is the accuser. He's the voice that's telling you how bad you are and keeping you mired in your shame. And you need to hear what God says. Listen to it again, the story of Joshua. He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. Look you, you're not good enough. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you.

16:29 Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire? Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, take off his filthy clothes. Then he said to Joshua, see, I have taken away your sin and I will put fine garments on you. I have taken away your sin and I will put fine garments on you. Today, as you take the bread and wine, hear those words spoken over you and be freed from your shame. And finally, as well as this being a time for some deeply personal reflection, let's not forget that it is called communion.

17:31 And that suggests it's something that we share. It's not just a time for quiet introspection between God and us, although it's very much that. But it's also a time when we acknowledge together that we are the body of Christ. And we have a responsibility toward each other. So to keep the clothing metaphor, let me read some words that Paul wrote to the church in Colossae without any further comment. They speak all too well for themselves when it comes to the communal aspect. aspect of our Christian lives. So as we use this time to embrace again the reality of God's love for us individually and the truth of Christ's death and resurrection and what it means for us, let's also take seriously the challenge of this Christian life together and how the outworking of what God does in us should impact how we treat each other.

18:34 As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. forgive as the Lord forgave you and over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity let's pray we've already mentioned one old hymn this morning are you washed in the blood another one comes to mind And one of the verses says this, Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly.

19:47 Wash me, Savior, or I die. Lord Jesus, as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we state again this most fundamental of truths that we are sinners and cannot make ourselves clean, but that your sacrifice, your body broken and your blood shed is our only hope. We thank you for your victory over sin proved by your resurrection. And we thank you for the generosity of your great love for us. Father God, we come to you washed clean by Jesus. May we grasp that truth today, maybe some of us truly, for the first time. And for those of us who are struggling with our failures, may we hear you speak over us. I have taken away your sin and I will put fine garments on you.

20:47 And as we grasp in you the reality of your great love for us, Lord, may we be inspired to share it with each other. As we share together in this bread and wine, may we not just seek grace for ourselves, but may we seek it and share it with each other. May you do your own work of grace, both in us and through us. May you clothe us with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Help us to bear with each other and enable us to forgive. Clothe us, Father God, with your love. In Jesus' name. Amen.