Windows into heaven: Light from the heavenly banquet communion FUMC 1/25 and 1/26

Windows into heaven: Light from the heavenly banquet communion             

FUMC 1/25 and 1/26

Picture it. You are invited to a great banquet. The invitation comes engraved on that really high-quality paper

 Finally, the night comes, and you walk into the room and the beauty of the room and table takes your breath away. The beautiful decorations say, “Someone went through a lot of work for me.” You are ushered to your place at the table. You’re surprised to se that you are surrounded by people you know and love, or maybe people you always wanted to meet.

 While everyone is laughing and celebrating, the food starts coming out. And it keeps coming out... and it keeps coming out. Baskets of food, plates of food, bowls of food, gravy boats of food, Oh, and then my favorite… the deserts start coming out. There is more food than an army could eat in a year.

Although there are thousands of people at the table, the host talks to each one… and even knows your name. If you need something, he gets up to get it himself… because he told the servers to sit down at the table and enjoy the feast.

It is the best night of your life. And best of all, the host says, “the table is always set, come back any time!”

Does that sound kind of like a fairy tale? You know like you have just fit into the glass slipper or found a genie in a bottle? You might think it is fanciful, but communion is just such a banquet. Maybe it is even better because you don’t have to dress up and you won’t gain any weight.

 The Jews, before Jesus, of course, ate together often. There were a lot of occasions and a lot of festivals, but Our first reading today talked about Passover as one of those family banquet times.

In new testament times, and even today, Passover is still the ultimate banquet. Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples on the night of his arrest. We refer to it as the last supper. We think of it like this…

Wait until I start again

 but it probably looked more like this.

Our window today is what I call the “light of the great banquet.” Of all the windows this one is probably the most straight-forward.

             

 Let’s start overall. The backgrounds of each window Is blue. In stained glass art, the color blue is used to denote heaven or eternity. This great banquet is not just the one that happened 2000 years ago. It is not just the communion we will share today. It is those, but it is so much more.

It is a banquet prepared from the beginning of the world when God gave Adam and Eve a banquet in the garden of Eden and they stuffed themselves on the apple appetizer. And It is the wedding banquet described at the end of time in Revelation 19 where the Lamb (Jesus) takes the church as his bride.

Communion is the eternal past rolled into the eternal present and tucked inside the eternal future. When we receive communion, we are partaking with all those who celebrated Passover before Jesus. We share with the disciples where Jesus invited us to, “Do this in remembrance of me.” We are partaking with the early church in the catacombs, Martin Luther and John Wesley, and everyone since. We receive with all those who do today. And we are communing with all those who will be.

Think about it. All of eternity past, present, and future all packed into that one little cup. That’s pretty amazing.

 Let’s move to the two outside windows the Window with the wheat on the left and the window with the grape vines on the right. The scrolls don’t seem to have any special meaning except they are place to write a scripture.

The wheat banner contains John 6:35. “I am the bread of life.” The crowd from yesterday’s feeding of the 5000 has followed Jesus to the other side of the lake. They are harassing Jesus, clamoring for a meal like the one they had yesterday. with 5000 other people. Jesus replies, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. Hear that. NEVER as in eternity.

There is one other thing here. There are 10 heads of wheat. 10 is an important number in the Hebrew tradition. 10 is made by adding the numbers 4 and 6. In Hebrew Numerology we talked about the number 6 in that front window up top. 6 blue gems represent humanity. Not coincidently the 6 heads are in two groups of three… oops, 3 again… trinity. Those 6 heads surround 4 heads in the middle. 4 is the number of physical creation. The Bread of communion is a cooperative effort of God the creator (represented by the trinity) creations fruitfulness (the number 4) and humanity’s sowing and tending the crop and it all comes together here.

The other window again has the banner. It also has a grape vine, with no fruit. No grapes are shown.

There are how many leaves? 3 which means trinity, Out of God grows the vine (Jesus) who brings life and we as the branches must stay connected to the vine to have life. The banner is John 15:5. If we read that including the verse the vine.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Jesus.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Maybe, whereas the wheat window reminds of the cooperative role of life and therefore no fruit without God.

 Then we come to the centerpiece of the window: the cup and grapes. If you notice, the cluster of grapes that lays in the cup is  still attached to the branch.

  “You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me” … unless you are attached to me. The juice becomes the blood of Christ, not because of us, but because of who God is. As we abide in Christ, we are filled with the life giving, sin forgiving, fruit bearing life of Christ. That is the reason we tear off a piece of bread and hand it to you. Communion is not something you take, but something God gives. We receive communion… by no worth, or work of our own.

Surrounded by the wheat on one side representing the partnership, and the grape vine on the other representing the sovereignty of God, communion becomes the perfect union between our work and God’s work in salvation and in the coming of the kingdom.

 Going back to that banquet table, look around. You’ll probably find people who surprise you. Individuals you judged as unworthy. Groups you may have stereotyped because of a few individuals. People with whom you disagree. It is a good thing for them that Jesus is the host because we probably would not have invited them. But then it is a good thing for us too, because we are as unworthy as anyone to be at the table. A community… like a family is not filled with cookie cutter people. We are enriched by people of different colors, ideas, ages, beliefs, and lives. God’s community gathered around h table is the most diverse community ever gathered… and yet.

And the word communion is the word of “union.” It is not enough to have a widely diverse guest list, but if the union falls apart there is no community. When we are around the table of our Lord Jesus Christ there is no us and them. There is no mine and yours. There are no turf wars. There is no bickering or bullying, there is no too old or too young, there are no church members and guests. … why? … because if one member hurts, we all hurt. If one member is lifted up, we are all lifted up. And besides being one with each other we are one with Jesus, abiding in him who is the head of the body of Christ.

This is the table of community. The table of unity in Christ Jesus. A table of unity with Christ Jesus. It is a table of grace.

during communion, we will be playing Philipps Craig and Dean’s song “table of grace.” But I really want to point out the first words.

Hear the good news, you've been invited

No matter what others may say

Your darkest sins will be forgiven

You will always have a place

At the table of grace, the cup's never empty

The plate's always full and it's never too late

To come and be filled with love never ending

You're always welcome at the table of grace

Play short video table of grace