I am who I am. . ., You are who you are
sermon by Manfred Schreyer
1 Cor 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, :24 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."1 Cor 11:26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
I have celebrated holy communion in many settings in my life. I celebrated communion with close friends, in small groups, in very large settings, I even was in worship services where I was not allowed to partake, because I was not one of them.
Communion for me is the one moment where I feel the closeness of Christ, the realization of what He did for me, I experience the freedom He has given me, the forgiveness that I have received and I am reminded about the truth that He has shared with me through His life on earth.
But for many, communion is a distant place. There are many people in the world who remain slaves to the world. A world that has taught them how to react and act simply as a tool for self-preservation.
Every time I am going out with my son to eat, sporting events, family gathering, etc. you can count on one thing they will talk about his athletic ability and/or they will talk to me about the life they experience. Many of them seek answers for themselves, for a "greater help" to
But that is not all that easy. Even though Christians know what it means to have a life in Christ we have the tendency to push our understand of the realized truth upon them. And I assure you, when we as mature Christians do that we often fail, because we pull them into a direction which is really strange and the level of comprehension does not match the experiences and world view they hold.
Make no mistake, they want to go. . .to the place you offer. . .but the road is plastered with misunderstandings. I recently read the following story:
A man glances out his home window and sees his neighbor. The neighbor has his pick-up truck backed to his side door, both the storm and main doors are propped open and a refrigerator blocks the doorway. Obviously the fridge is being moved and help is needed, so the friendly onlooker rushes to help his red-faced neighbor.
"Need a hand with that refrigerator, Fred?" asks Steven as he throws himself into the task. "Sure do! This thing weighs more than I thought!"
Fred and Steven throw their muscular arms around the appliance. With sweat rolling down their faces, they grunt and strain as the fridge moves a quarter of an inch then stops. They reposition their arms. The fridge barely sways even though both men are winded. After wrestling with the stubborn refrigerator for a full ten minutes, Steven gasps "Fred, I don’t believe we’re ever going to get this thing in the house." "In the house!" exclaims Fred, "I trying to get it in the truck!"
So, first of all we have to agree on the direction the unbeliever wants to go. We have to make certain that we understand where the unbeliever wants to go. We are not there to argue our case. . .we are just there to tell the story. The story of human experience . . the story of human experience with God.
Often we as believers make assumptions, just like in the case of moving the fridge. All Christians know the story of Christ, but we focus very little upon the persons life who is reaching out to us and asks for our help. We think we know where they are, but often we don’t. . .and if we don’t we can’t offer them a safe passage. Allow me to illustrate that in another story I recently read:
Imagine a very thin lady seated at a dinner table. She fidgets with her food, spoons it from one side of her plate to the other, eats little if anything, then excuses herself from the table.
"How can a visibly gaunt woman eat so little or not at all?" we ask. Our observation could lead us to two premises–either she dislikes the food or she is not hungry. If we accept the first premise–that she dislikes food--our sympathetic approach might include a variety of recommendations.
We inquire about the type of food she does like--maybe fast food, Mexican or Chinese. If not perhaps the immaculate look of a seven-course meal appeals to her appetite. Maybe she prefers her food prepared a certain way–broiled versus fried, rare versus well done. If none of these recommendations help, she could have sitophobia–a fear of food.
Let’s now assume the second premise — that she is not hungry. If this suspicion is true she may be suffering from a malfunctioning metabolism. We make a doctor’s appointment for her. The physician suspects a thyroid condition and orders blood work. And it’s possible she has hypogeusia–a diminished sense of taste.
But as persistent as we’ve been, all approaches make little difference in this lady’s eating habits, or lack thereof. She eats very little and infrequently! Our methods have been genuine, compassionate, and justifiable. We have devoted considerable time in our quest to correct the dilemma, but to no avail.
However, if we learn this woman is anorexic, our approach changes dramatically and immediately. We realize our initial assumptions and strategies are ludicrous and laughable because they do not bear on the primary issue--a distorted self image.
When this self-starved lady looks in the mirror she sees an obese lady looking back and no amount of persuasion will convince her otherwise. When this primary issue is addressed, her food intake as well as the frequency of her eating increases. But take note–her increased eating is a byproduct of confronting the main issue–a distorted self-image.
I read read both stories at Christiananswers.com.
And believe it or not for most people that is the reason why a relationship with Christ does not make any sense. They live under the impression that they are not worthy of a relationship, they live in guilt and they cannot accept the fact that Christ will accept them. . . .and the other reason is simply they do not like the food we offer.
Finally there is a third reason, the lady does not like the food because she has tasted some of the food before and the taste left a nasty taste in her experience and she is about to vomit. Let me assure you that even if the food she tasted was not intended to be bad . . .the taste will remain. . .
So you see, to bring the Christ to people is not so easy. It takes a different meal for most of those who do not believe. The essence remains the same: the food is to fill our hunger.
Let us be mindful in our approach to those who are with us at the table. More important let us be mindful with those who see the table in their reach and seek at place at the table.
Some of us have just tasted the soup and are afraid to go to the main course. . .some of us are over zealous because we already tasted the whole meal and are anxious to dish more out to those who have just started.
To be in Christ means to know where our brothers and sisters are.
Sermon by Pastor Manfred Schreyer
posted Thursday September 21, 2006 22:51:03 -0400
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