BREAD
Rev. Barry W. Szymanski, J.D.
First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
Minister of Pastoral Care
February 6, 2011

THE SERMON

This morning I want to talk about Holy Communion, which is one of the two sacraments that Jesus told us to celebrate. I am going to speak of Holy Communion using one of our historic documents of Congregationalism called The Savoy Declaration of Faith. London, 1658 – Sections 28 and 30]. The full references, including scriptural references, will be in the Sermons at First booklets which are published a week or so after I preach. Before doing so I to embarrass myself by showing my lack of knowledge of baking bread so you bakers, please bear with me.

We refer to Eucharist as "The Bread of Life." Good solid bread is known as 'the staff of life.' I am not talking about refined flour, but good, heavy bread – still available at bread stores. What I want to explore is why Jesus chose bread as one of the principal elements of Holy Communion.

Some weeks ago I spoke about another of the elements: using water as essential in the Sacrament of Baptism. Why did Jesus use bread as one of the two sacraments he instituted? Bread is universal. Bread is a staple of people from South Africa to Peru, to Finland and China, Pakistan to the Philippines. We have leavened bread and unleavened bread. We have flatbreads – and loaves, roti, chapatti, whole grain, white, and rye. And we have cakes and cookies! We have ravioli and pizza, dumplings and pierogi, challah and matzah, and tortillas.

Bread is made from flour from wheat or grain, or seeds from grasses. People who began o form extended villages, called cities, often did not bake their own bread, but purchased bread. Communities were formed, then, around bread. Looking at the wheat fields of just Illinois, Iowa, and the Dakotas, we can see the importance of grain to feed the cities. And dotting the landscapes of those states are the grain elevators to store the grain, and the railroad tracks and highways to ship the grain. In cities we have industries to mill the flour.

Making bread was, and remains, a major societal task. In scripture there are countless references to threshing, and winnowing, cutting wheat stalks with scythes, and then tying into sheaves. Even today we see grasses tied into large rolls left in fields to dry.

Jesus spoke of farmers scattering seeds on good soil, and on not-so-good soil. And Jesus spoke of fields where wheat and weeds grew together, and He spoke of separating the good and the evil using the analogy of winnowing the seeds and the chaff.

During winnowing, which is shaking the grain so that the grain falls, but the chaff simply blows away into nothingness – or is burned. In early days, the whole household was involved in growing and making bread; then it became a communal activity. Some people were farmers, some millers, some storers of grain, some bakers, and some merchants.

Remember the story that Jesus told of the farmer/merchant who was planning to build even more storage towers, but he died that very night? And recall that Jesus spoke of "two women at the millstone, one is taken, one left" Mt. 24:41. We like to eat with others – it is a communal event – we even use the term, breaking bread together. Look at the stories where Jesus had large groups of people and he fed them with bread and fish. And note the reverence toward the bread when Jesus and the disciples picked up the leftovers – there was no garbage.

When a person has shared a meal with us, we tend to think of them as a friend. So, imagine the disappointment of the Psalmist when he wrote that "Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me." Ps. 41:9. Grasses and grains have seeds to propagate themselves! But what do we do --- we use them for a different purpose! We destroy them so that we stay alive. Grain and grass seeds die so that we live. This is one reason that Jesus is the called the Bread of Life.

Let us now look to what the earliest Congregationalists stated, in the Savoy Declaration in the section where they affirm their belief in the sacraments. The Congregationalists declared that Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by Christ, to represent Him; and to confirm our interest in Him, and solemnly to engage us to the service of God, in Christ.

The Congregationalists maintained that there is in every sacrament, a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: so that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other. They asserted that the grace, which is exhibited in or by the sacraments, is not conferred by any power in the sacraments; but, rather, the grace is conferred upon the work of the Spirit, and the words of institution, when authorized, [which gives] a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.

They acknowledged the scriptural basis of Holy Communion.

They confirmed [and I quote] that “Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of His body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in His churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing forth of the sacrifice to Himself in His death;" The Lord's Supper therefore becomes a seal of all benefits given to us as believers.

The Lord's Supper, they maintained, is spiritual nourishment to us, and our growth in Jesus. It is also our further engagement in all duties, which we owe to Jesus; and is a pledge of our communion with Jesus, and with each other.

They declared that this sacrament is a memorial of that Jesus' offering up of Himself, by Himself, upon the cross, once for all. Jesus' offering of Himself was praise to God. They stated that Jesus appointed His ministers to pray and bless the elements of bread and wine, and to set them apart from a common to a holy use; and to take and break the bread, and to give both to the communicants. They declared that the outward elements in this sacrament, which were set apart to sacred use, have a relation to Jesus crucified.

So that, truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, that is, the body and blood of Christ; even though, in substance and nature, they still remain only bread and wine, as they were before.

This is pretty heavy theology. So I will repeat it: So that, truly, yet sacramental only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, that is, the body and blood of Christ; even though, in substance and nature, they still remain only bread and wine, as they were before.

I want to go back to the Gospels and also mention that Jesus was born, and then laid in a manger. What is a manger? A feeding trough used to put in grain and hay to feed animals. Even the beginning of the Gospel story about the birth of Jesus takes us back to grain.

One hundred years before the Savoy Declaration was expressed, John Calvin wrote this: “. . . after commanding us to eat his body and drink his blood, [Jesus] adds that his body was delivered for us, and his blood shed for remission of our sins. Hereby he intimates, first, that we ought not simply to communicate in his body and blood, without any other consideration, but in order to receive the fruit derived to us from his death and passion; secondly, that we can attain the enjoyment of such fruit only by participating in his body and blood, from which it is derived.” Selections from His writings, edited by John Dillengerger [Anchor Doubleday, 1971] p 512-513.

I want to share a passage from another theologian, Helmut Gollwitzer. He was captured in 1945 and imprisoned in Russia until 1950. He died in 1993. He wrote that the Lord’s Supper “ . . . presupposes that a bridge has been thrown across the deep gulf which was made by the Cross that a link has been fashioned between what Jesus was before the Crucifixion to his disciples, and what He wills to be to us all, down to the present day. . . . The gravity of death and the radiance of resurrection brood over every Eucharist that we celebrate. . . if any of you are confused and afraid and tempted, you should come to Communion. If you do not know Jesus, but you want to know Him, if you do not notice that Jesus has already been walking with you for a long time, you should come to Communion. For . . . the promise that here Christ can be known in His living presence.” The Dying and Living Lord Copyright 1960, Mulenberg Press.

In the his book, “The Congregational Way of Life,” a contemporary Congregational Minister, Rev. Arthur A. Rouner, Jr., wrote that: “. . . the Lord’s Supper is an acting of the Gospel message, just as preaching is the speaking of that message. There are some Congregationalists who say that communion is only a remembrance, a commemoration. I would die if that were all it was! No; when Jesus said the bread and wine were His body and blood, I believe He was promising that whenever we share in His Supper as a sacrament, He would come and be with us just as surely as He was there with the twelve in the Upper Room. In this service then, Christ is here, not in the flesh and not just in memory; but really, truly, and actually present among His people in the power of His Spirit. He is here as a Person–the Son of the Living God– welcoming us, and bidding us to sit down with Him to receive the Bread of Life.”

In Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, Jesus refers to himself a number of times as the “Bread of Life.” Many in the crowd did not like what he said. In verse 52 of chapter 6, the author of John wrote this: “The [people] then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus disciples were also questioning Jesus. In verses 60 to 62 there is this passage: “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”

We know the rest of the story. And we also know that Jesus, the Bread of Life Himself, washed the feet of his followers. Now let us prepare to share in Holy Communion.

Jesus asks us to remember Him, and to accept him, --- in the power of the Holy Spirit! Amen.

The Savoy Declaration of Faith.
[London, 1658 – Selections from Sections 28 and 30]

XXVIII. Of the Sacraments

I. Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by Christ, to represent Him and His benefits; and to confirm our interest in Him, and solemnly to engage us to the service of God in Christ, according to His Word.

II. There is in every sacrament, a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass, that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.

III. The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them; neither does the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that does administer it; but upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution, which contains, together with a precept authorizing the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.

XXX. Of the Lord’s Supper

I. Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein He was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of His body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in His churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing forth of the sacrifice to Himself in His death; the sealing of all benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto Him; and, to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him, and with each other.

II. In this sacrament, Christ is not offered up to His Father; not any real sacrifice made at all, for remission of sin of the quick or dead; but only a memorial of that one offering up of Himself, by Himself, upon the cross, once for all: and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God, for the same: . . .

III. The Lord Jesus has, in this ordinance, appointed His ministers to pray and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use; and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants; but to none who are not then present in the congregation.

IV. . . .

V. The outward elements in this sacrament, duly set apart to the uses ordained by Christ, have such relation to Him crucified, as that, truly, yet sacramentally only, they are sometimes called by the name of the things they represent, to wit, the body and blood of Christ; albeit, in substance and nature, they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before.

Rom. 4:11; Gen. 17:7, 10.
Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 11:23.
1 Cor. 10:16; 11:25, 26.
Rom. 6:3, 4; 1 Cor. 10:16, 21.
Gen. 17:10; Matt. 26:27, 28; Titus 3:5.
Rom. 2:28, 29; 1 Pet. 3:21.
Matt 3:11; 1 Cor. 12:13.
Matt 26:27, 28; 28:19, 20.
1 Cor. 11:23-26;10:16, 17, 21; 12:13.
Heb. 9:22, 25, 26, 28.
1 Cor. 11:24-26; Matt. 26:26, 27.
Rom. 4:11; Gen. 17:7, 10.
Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 11:23.
1 Cor. 10:16; 11:25, 26.
Rom. 6:3, 4; 1 Cor. 10:16, 21.
Gen. 17:10; Matt. 26:27, 28; Titus 3:5.
Rom. 2:28, 29; 1 Pet. 3:21.
Matt 3:11; 1 Cor. 12:13.
Matt 26:27, 28; 28:19, 20.
1 Cor. 11:23-26;10:16, 17, 21; 12:13.
Heb. 9:22, 25, 26, 28.
1 Cor. 11:24-26; Matt. 26:26, 27.
Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26.
Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:20.
Matt. 26:26-28.
1 Cor. 11:26-28; Matt. 26:29.