Sunday 6th July – Tracy’s first communion

Galatians 6: 7-16; Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20

If you were starting a new job, what sort of things do you think you need to take with you ? It’s a job that needs you to travel, so you might be away overnight. (Pack bag with keys, mobile phone, tool kit, first aid kit, spare clothes, clipboard, torch, invite ideas on other items). 

We have just heard Jesus’ instructions to his disciples, his apprentices, as he sends them off. Their job is to go on ahead to the places Jesus is intending to visit, spreading Jesus’ good news. But he doesn’t give them a training manual, or a list of things to take. In fact it’s just the opposite: he says ‘Leave your luggage behind, you don’t need a change of shoes, not even any money. Get out there with only my authority behind you, heal the sick and tell everyone that the kingdom of God has come near.’ That must have been a bit scary – but also exciting! Jesus trusts them to do the job just because they are his friends. 

Now you will know that Tracy has done years of study and preparation to get to today, this is her first service of Holy Communion as a priest, but Jesus’ instructions are still the same – get out there, without any fancy kit, without any set of instructions, just pray for people and tell them that God is with us. 

But there is one new way in which Tracy is equipped: now she has been made priest, she has been given authority to speak Jesus’ words of blessing and forgiveness, and she can now stand for us at the altar and celebrate Holy Communion. She can invite the Holy Spirit to make Jesus’ presence real for us so that we can receive his body and blood. That’s an awesome trust from God! 

We celebrate Holy Communion because Jesus told us to – in his last supper with his friends he said ‘This is my body broken for you’ as he shared bread. ‘And this is my blood poured out for you’ as he shared wine. ‘Do this to remember me’. He didn’t mean just as a way to think about old times, but a way to experience his presence all over again in our times. And right from the very beginning of the church, his friends gathered together to break bread and share wine. Over the years people have tried to understand more of what Holy Communion means, and there has been some serious falling out over different interpretations, but each strand of the church has contributed to the richness of what we experience.

In Messy Church back in January we thought about Jesus’ parable of a wedding party where everyone was invited. This helped us to think of Holy Communion as a party, a party that is held in heaven as well as here amongst us today. In our service books, you will see the heading Eucharist Prayer – Eucharist means thanksgiving in Greek. It’s a celebration! In Messy Church we made invitations, musical instruments and party food, and although Tracy is using formal words this morning, it’s still a party – joining us with Christians all over the world and all through time. We can think of the angels and everyone we know who has died all celebrating with us. It’s as if we have already reached the end of time, when God has promised to sort out everything that has gone wrong. Jesus has died and has risen again and we get to share in his feast – alleluia!

But Holy Communion is also something deeply serious: it’s the Lord’s Supper. In February in Messy Church we remembered the story of Zacchaeus, who was a cheating thieving tax collector that Jesus reached out to. Jesus invited himself to dinner with Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus responded by turning his life around – eating with Jesus brought Zacchaeus forgiveness. As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it is as though we are right there, eating with Jesus’ friends on the night before he died, hearing Jesus say “this is my body, this is my blood”. We remember how he died for us, not as something that happened a long time ago, but as something that affects us now. We are made part of what he did, so we can be put right with God here today. Just like Zacchaeus, we are forgiven and made new just by saying yes to Jesus’ invitation.

In the Roman Catholic church the Communion service is called the Mass. It’s a word that means ‘Go’! It comes from the same Latin word as mission. In the Mass, we receive communion for a reason, not just to make us feel good but to equip us to go out into our day to day lives. It is like rations for the journey, a pack lunch for the week! It’s the only kit we need for the job that Jesus gives us. Paul said in our first reading that we shouldn’t grow weary of doing good – the Mass strengthens us to keep doing God’s work. 

God knows that we are physical beings, not floating souls, and we need physical food. We need to experience Jesus’ food in our bodies, so he feeds us on real bread and wine. It’s only a taste, and today we are using wafers to represent bread, but it’s still proper physical food that tells us that Jesus feeds us and becomes part of us – so that we can go out and behave like him. 

Last of all, I want to remind us that in Holy Communion we are made into a family. Can you remember a big family meal, when everyone was invited? Skip the bits where people fell out, just remember the happiness looking round the table. Today we are gathered together just like that - sharing with God and each other. St Paul said that we are like a body, each of us a different part but all important. We don’t need to fit a particular pattern or look like anyone else, everyone is welcome.

I know that I have given you a whole load of different thoughts about Communion, but if you connected with just one of them, that’s fine. Different aspects may become important for you at different times. One of the brilliant things about communion is that it is not just a one off – we are invited to come back Sunday after Sunday! But if you want to say yes to any of the things I talked about, come to the table this morning and receive Jesus’ body and blood in bread and wine. The Church of England now teaches that everyone, no matter what their age, who has been baptised belongs to Jesus, and is welcomed at Communion, as long as they have had a chance to understand what it means. Our Messy Church families have already done that preparation, and I hope that I have done that for the rest of you this morning! But if you aren’t sure, or don’t feel ready, please come for a blessing, with your hands by your sides or across your chest. It would be our joy and delight to pray for each one of you. Amen