Letting God’s Spirit Soak In – Matthew 26:26-28 and John 6:35
/Lectionary Readings for April 3, 2022 5th Sunday in Lent, Year C
Isaiah 43:16-21 v19 Watch closely: I the Lord am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak, and you’re about to see it.
Psalm 126 v3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Philippians 3:4b-14 v10 I want to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him…
John 12:1-8 Mary Anoints Jesus’ Feet
Peace through Leadership Quotes
“Let’s choose today to quench our thirst for the ‘good life’ we think others lead by acknowledging the good that already exists in our lives. We can then offer the universe the gift of our grateful hearts.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
“You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst.” ~ William Langewiesche
Thirst is an indication of us lacking what we need. These days, many of us are thirsting for renewed connection with others, companionship, compassion. By sharing God’s love with others, we can help quench that thirst – and thus create peace, one interaction and one relationship at a time.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading
With today being communion Sunday, and my message focusing on the juice we’ll soon drink, I’ve selected four short readings that may help us better understand the spiritual connections Jesus was making when He spoke at that last supper with His disciples.
The passage from Leviticus reminds us that God has always considered blood – human or animal – sacred. In the time of Moses, blood was so sacred that it was used in the Israelite’s sacrificial system to symbolize the precious gift of life returning to God. Fast forward 1,200 or so years to Jesus dying on the cross, and we can better understand how His disciples would have looked at that traumatically horrific scene and made sense of it by declaring that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice to atone for humanity’s sins. The Gospel of John (John 1:29) declares, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” As Margie brilliantly put it, “Jesus’ blood was His life force, and the cross was the altar.”
The verses from Matthew will sound familiar since they are incorporated into our traditional communion service. Several people in our Bible Study group pointed out that when Jesus told His disciples “This is My body… This is My blood…” they likely had no idea what He meant in that moment. But days later, after Jesus’ resurrection – and certainly decades later when the gospels were written – Jesus’ words took on a profound and sacred meaning for the early Christians.
In the short verse from John, Jesus again speaks metaphorically about alleviating His followers from all hunger and thirst. Recall His audience: desert people who lived in near-poverty, constantly concerned about hunger and thirst. He was speaking to one of their greatest needs.
Finally, in 1st Corinthians, Paul encourages us to drink in God’s Spirit. I love the impossible metaphor of drinking God’s Spirit.
Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as Martin shares today’s readings.
Read Leviticus 17:11-12, Matthew 26:26-28, John 6:35, and 1 Corinthians 12:13.
Before I start, I’d like you to close your eyes and remember a hot summer’s day when you were working in the yard or maybe exercising, and you stopped long enough to drink a tall glass of ice-cold water. Remember how it felt running down your throat as you drank it. Hang onto that thought.
All the churches I grew up in used Welch’s grape juice – so much so that, as a kid, I assumed the 11th commandment was “Thou shalt use Welch’s and no other grape juice before me.” Nef and I were actually talking about this Friday night over dinner, which brings me to today’s installment of “Methodist History.”
In the mid-1800s, nearly all Christian churches used wine for communion; that’s the way we’d always done it. But many American churches wanted a non-alcoholic option to support people trying to overcome addictions to alcohol. Some used water and others used fresh squeezed grape juice. But you couldn’t store grape juice for very long because it would ferment and… back to wine.
Long and fascinating story short (read it here)… In 1869, a dentist named Dr. Thomas B. Welch who was a communion steward at First Methodist Episcopal of Vineland, NJ perfected a way to pasteurize grape juice in his kitchen. He sold the juice to churches as “Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine.” And that is how Welch’s Grape Juice was born.
About 10 years ago – long before I even thought about becoming a pastor, I was part of a men’s Bible Study. At the time, I was thinking about The Last Supper and communion a lot. I have no idea why, but I was. I casually mentioned that while talking with the group’s leader who immediately responded, “Great! God is clearly guiding you to lead us in communion next week.” Ummmm, OK… Our group had never celebrated communion together, and I had never done more than cut bread before but… why not?!?
Being a recovering perfectionist, I spent the next week feverishly preparing to lead my first communion service – because I wanted to “get it right.” For those of us who have spent decades attending church services, we’ve been on the receiving end of communion perhaps a 1,000 times. But running the show? That’s a whole ‘nother ball game. Who wants to be remembered as the person who messed up communion?!? So I read scriptures and commentaries. I prayed, memorized, and practiced.
Since there were 10 or so of us in the Bible Study group, I decided we’d share one loaf of bread – rip off what you want; easy. As for the juice, I found enough “small, clear” glasses at home for everyone to use.
Days later, our evening group met as usual. We shared what was happening in our lives and where we were sensing God’s presence. Then our group’s leader announced, “Charles will now lead us in communion.”
I said the bit about the bread – so far, so good. And I said the bit about the wine – still no big mistakes. I invited everyone to drink their juice. And then, as God often does, He surprised me. Which completely threw my mind off “the service” and opened me up to God’s presence.
You see, I’m used to either getting a slight taste of juice with my bread or just a sip from one of the mini cups churches often use. But when I DRANK that small glass of ice-cold grape juice in one big swallow, I could feel it running down my throat, into my chest and I swear to you… I thought I could feel it running into my blood. It was refreshing. It was… unexpected.
Despite decades of participating in communion services, that was the first time that I felt God’s presence in me during communion. The message was and is crystal clear: God loves us so much, in such a personal and intimate way, that His Spirit saturates us so that His presence completely merges with and nurtures our presence – not just during communion, but every day – a shared experience with our Creator. God wants the Holy Spirit and our spirit to be living, breathing, growing, exploring, and working together – as one. A shared existence.
Simply because… God loves us THAT much.
Today’s last Scripture reading seems particularly appropriate this morning: 1 Corinthians 12:13 “We were all ceremonially washed through a baptism of immersion together into one body by one Spirit. No matter our heritage – Jew or Greek, insider or outsider – no matter our status – oppressed or free – we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
As we come forward in a few minutes to receive the elements of communion, you will each get a small glass so you can DRINK the Spirit. Let the Spirit fill you; sense God’s Spirit soaking into you, nourishing you. As we prepare for communion, I encourage each of you to meditatively connect with God. These questions may help you get the conversation going:
Lord, what would you like me to hear from You today?
What would you like me to share with You?
What do we need to ponder together?
Or maybe… Lord, remind me how much You love me.
When we realize that God’s Spirit is living inside us AND inside everyone we meet, we are more likely to be at peace with ourselves and others. We’re more likely to be able to love ourselves and love others. And in doing so, we are more likely to welcome more people into this universal community of faith we call the Kingdom of God.
Amen? Amen!