Okay, second week of the churchy words series. Last week we covered baptism and we had a baptism. This week we're covering communion and we had communion. So, a great start. This is the second sacrament. Baptism was the first one that we reflected on last week, and this is the second one, and so we'll be learning a little bit more about that this morning.
And what I thought I'd do, kind of to start us off, is to give us a picture of what the Lord's Supper is. As far as the words, we'll get into that a little bit later. But I thought I'd use a little bit of a recap, a little bit of going over again the story that we talked about from last week, the story of the Israelites, and maybe shift the focus a little bit from baptism, where we really focused on how they passed through the Red Sea and how that was a baptism for them and how God rescues through that. Some of that imagery helps us to understand what baptism is, and now looking at that a little bit more related to the Lord's Supper.
And so if you remember, last week we talked about how there were these 12 tribes, and they grew as families with 12 kids do, and they grew to the size where they were no longer welcome in Egypt as friends, and they became slaves and they were suffering there. And then God said, "I will rescue you. You are my chosen people." He made covenants and promises. If you want to learn more about covenants, you can come back next week, and Rob will be teaching on that next week. And so he made a covenant with them and he said, "I will rescue you."
And so there were the 12 plagues, or the 10 plagues, sorry, where Israel was rescued and God was punishing Egypt to pull them out of slavery. And at the end of that, the final plague, the final punishment for Egypt, is a very special one for us to look at that we didn't really talk about last week. So just before they were rescued, God used Moses to say to the people, "I am going to punish all of those living within the geographical area of Egypt." It wasn't just for the Egyptians, it was for the Egyptians and their slaves. It was for everyone. And he said, "The angel of death will pass through and the firstborn will die. Of people, of livestock, of servants, even Pharaoh himself will die."
And God prepared Israel by saying, "But I have a way of rescuing you even from this. You are to make a very special meal. A meal that I want you to remember and make every year from now on to remember what happens here." So God said, "I want you to take an unblemished 1-year-old lamb. And I want you to sacrifice that lamb. And I want you to make the food from that lamb. But what I want you to do with the blood of that lamb is to take it and put it on the doorposts of your home. And by doing so, you will be protected from this plague. This punishment will not fall on you. You will be rescued."
There were also rituals about the Passover bread that was to be used. It was to be bread without yeast, so it could be quickly made, easily eaten, and easily transported for them when they were to flee from slavery into the wilderness. So, we can see that God uses the blood of an unblemished lamb to rescue Israel from slavery, to get them out from under the oppression, the sin, the suffering of Egypt.
And then they enter into the wilderness. And in the wilderness, God sends provision for them again through manna. And manna, as Reverend Rollwage taught us, I don't know how long ago it was, maybe 6 months ago. Manna, who remembers what manna is? What does it mean? Does anyone remember? "What is it?" That's what the word means in Hebrew. "What is it?" Remember he taught us that? So, yeah. That's right. So, manna came down from heaven, and it is the bread from heaven. This is the way that God provided for the people, by sending this bread from heaven.
So, Israel stayed in suffering and struggling, as we talked about last time, and they kind of go through all sorts of different cycles of worshipping false gods and turning to God and falling away from God, and this goes all the way until the time of Jesus. And Jesus teaches something about this. He makes this really significant to them.
First, John the Dipper comes along, John the Baptist, and he proclaims something. And this is early on. This is before Jesus has said anything himself. And it shows the kind of prophet that John is. This comes from the book of John. It says John saw Jesus coming toward them and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He's taking that Old Testament imagery and applying it to the salvation and the lives of people in this world.
And Jesus teaches that he is the bread from heaven. In John 6:47 to 51, Jesus says these words. He says, "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." And of course, this upset a lot of people, but it connects beautifully to all of this Old Testament imagery, and it centers in the Passover meal.
And so when Jesus meets with his disciples to have the Passover meal the night before he's betrayed, we get this from Matthew 26: "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat. This is my body.' Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from the fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.'"
This meal that we celebrate, this meal that we partake in, it's even older than 2,000 years. It's over 3,000 years old. And Jesus is the bread from heaven. He is the cup. And the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to rescue us, not just from the oppression and suffering that we experience in the world like the Israelites, but to rescue us from our fall into sin, to rescue us from ourselves, to rescue us from everything that has been tainted by sin since the Garden of Eden. This is done only in and through Jesus, and that's what this meal signifies. So, for all those who believe, we are partaking in the body and blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit lives in us actively, and this is just a tangible example of what this is. So, that is the Lord's Supper, and that is how the gospel manifests in it.
Now, we have the word communion, which is another word we use. We say the Lord's Supper, but we also say communion. Now, this is a bit of a less common word in daily speech. It's not one that you would often hear reflected on. It's not one that people often use. I couldn't think of too many examples where you hear it in casual conversation. But the meaning, it goes back. It's kind of like an older English word that we don't use as often. So, we kind of have to go back a little bit to figure out what it meant.
So, if you look at the Latin word, the Latin roots are two words, which is com, which actually means common, and then the second half is unis, which basically means obligation, duty, or service. Okay, so the first half of the word is about common, something shared, something we have together. And the second half of the word is obligation or duty and service. Which is a very active thing, actually, when you think about that. So, communion, in its original context, in the word that it came from, was any time a group of people had a shared purpose, a shared mission, a shared objective, a shared method of service. So, it's not something passive. It was something very active.
Now, what does that say about what we understand for communion now? I think when you hear the word communion these days, if someone says, "We are having communion this week," today most people, even those not part of the church, would probably hear, "Oh, you're participating in some kind of religious ordinance or ceremony or ritual." That's kind of what that is. But in an older context, you know, a couple hundred years ago, it would say, "Oh, you're saying that we're united together in some kind of shared value that leads us into actively doing something." Okay? That's kind of a more common understanding of what that word meant.
Now, the question is, well, what does scripture say? What does the Bible have to say about this? Because we can't just simply rely on the Latin understanding of the word. So, if we go back to scripture to find where we find this word, the best passage that I could find for that is 1 Corinthians 10, verses 14 to 17. 1 Corinthians 10, verses 14 to 17, if you want to look it up, but I'm going to read it for you. And I want you to listen for communion in these words, okay?
"Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we share one loaf." Did you hear it? Did you hear communion in there? Let me say it one more time. "Is not, sorry, is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?" Okay, it's not in there. So, we actually have to look elsewhere, because the word communion is not in the pew Bibles that you have. You're not going to find it.
So, why is this a good example? Well, I'm going to read it to you one more time from the King James Version, okay? This is from the King James Version: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" Okay, so there it is. It was in the KJV, but it's not in the NIV.
Now, what does that mean? Does that mean the KJV is like the supreme Bible? Is that what that means? No, it doesn't mean that. It means it was translated from the Greek into the English at a different time, when that word was actually more commonly used. But the word that the NIV translators chose is participation. "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?" So, for us, participation is a better word to understand communion. Maybe it's tough when we're using old words, but maybe we'd be better off saying, "This Sunday we are participating together." Or another word that you could use, potentially, is fellowship. Fellowship is another word that really captures this.
When we go back to the original Greek, the Greek word that is used for both of these translations is koinonia. Koinonia. Koinonia means fellowship, participation, something shared. And that is something that is more active, okay? It actually connects really well with the original meaning and understanding of the word communion.
If we look at the examples where koinonia is used in the New Testament, I'll read them to you. Here from 2 Corinthians 6: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" There it is, twice. Partnership is koinonia and fellowship is koinonia. 2 Corinthians 13: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the koinonia, fellowship, of the Holy Spirit be with you all." Philippians 1, verse 5: "because of your koinonia, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." And it goes on like this, but if you notice, these examples are very active. They're a real thing. They require action.
The best example, I think, and actually the first example of the word koinonia in scripture, is found in Acts chapter 2, which, as many of us know, is the model for how the church should function. Acts chapter 2, verse 42: "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, the koinonia, to the breaking of bread, and prayers." They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship of the breaking of bread and prayers. This word is active. This word involves something.
If we look at what happened to the Israelites when they were forced, well, when they were rescued by God and taken out of slavery, that was something active that happened. Their fellowship at that time, as God rescued them through the Passover, the blood of the lamb, and the Passover bread, was to actually get them up and running away from slavery. It required action. You can imagine it was probably pretty frantic, intense. Their hearts are racing, their blood is pumping. Something was required of them to live into this reality of fellowship, this reality of koinonia, that scripture explains.
All right. So, what I'm advocating for here is for us to embrace a more holistic and older understanding of what the word communion used to mean. For us, communion often is a word that represents the ritual of partaking in the Lord's Supper. But what it originally meant was something that was active and shared and required people to do something. And I think that's a beautiful way for us to see and understand this meal and what happens in and through this meal.
This is not something that we simply sit in the pews and partake in. It's more than that. It's more than that. It happens here in this place, but we are called to be the body and blood of Christ to a hurting and broken world. To really have fellowship at this table is to live into what this table means, what this table is calling us to. It's not simply sitting here and remembering it. There's an active response that comes from us when we fully realize and understand what is happening here.
The gospel is that God does this. We don't have to do anything to earn it or to achieve it. That's not the point. But when we fully understand the reality of what is done in this meal, it calls us to live in a way that honours this meal. It calls us into working alongside Christ as Christ works in and through us through his Spirit to rescue a hurting and broken world. And this is what the table represents in our lives.
Let's pray together. Lord God, you have mission and purpose and calling for all of us. And you have met us here at the table, a table where we recognize that you have done the work that's required to rescue us. And Lord God, I ask that this good work takes root in our lives and calls us into action. As a responsive worship, Lord God, equip us with your Holy Spirit and show us what it means to live into this with truth and with grace. We ask these things in your name. Amen.