Homily: "Thanksgiving in July" by Marvin Ponder

Baptism: Anjali Evelyn Griffith - Rob Mohr
Mark Stephen Walsh - Calvin Thomsen

Prayer: Shirley Ponder

Pastoral Welcome: Timothy Gillespie

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55:1–3, John 6:35, 63, TNIV - Darold Retzer

Prayer of Blessing: Jacqueline Lynch

Note: Baptisms and child dedications are listed in the extras section of the DVD

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERMON

The communion meal is exactly what the name implies.  It is a communion of our spirits with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.  From the days of the early church until now, feasting at the Lord’s Table in the “Agape Feast” has been a central, vital part of Christian worship.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:16 the bread which we break and the cup which we bless are a means of entering into intimate fellowship with the living Christ, whose blood and body they represent.

During the years that Jesus lived among us in the flesh, he spent much of his time ministering to people across the table in the social setting of a meal.   He ate with tax collectors and sinners.  He invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house to share a meal.  He loved to sit at the table in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  The night before he died, he shared a last supper with his disciples.  Even after his resurrection, on at least three separate occasions, he sat and ate with his friends.

Jesus was trying to teach us through all of these experiences of table fellowship that in the most basic, common elements of our lives – in our eating and our drinking – God is making his presence known to us.

So Jesus invites us once again, today, to put our feet under his table, and to learn the meaning of the bread and the cup.  The same Holy Spirit, who was present that evening in the upper room, is here with us today.  He transcends time and space, lifts the Jesus of 31 A.D. out of the dusty roads of Palestine, and brings him here to this table and makes his presence real to us.

With the eyes and ears of faith we re-live that experience with Jesus and his disciples in the upper room.  We ARE those disciples.  Jesus washes our feet, and we are all now clean.  His words nourish us, heal us and restore us.  We participate in this feast with the assurance that we belong to him.  We rise from this table empowered to live as forgiven and forgiving children of God in a world that is hungry and dying.

Marvin Ponder
Associate Pastor
Pastoral Care

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