Real Presence - More Than Words. (Sermon -26/6/22)

INTRODUCTION

During the week I met with a fellow retired cleric and his wife. I had come to know them through his wife, as I had grown up with her in the church of St Matthew’s Ashburton.

Of other ministries, they also spoke of the wonderful 11-year ministry they had in Launceston. It was a Church that shared its building with the local hospital by acting as its’ chapel.

He described how the Altar of the church was made of a LARGE, COMPLETE ROUND SLICE OF TIMBER, TAKEN FROM THE MAIN TRUNK OF A MASSIVE HUON PINE.

One day as he stood at the altar, he recognised that the trunk of the tree, its massive trunk displayed the tightly packed time rings.

Inquisitively he later began to carefully count the rings to learn its' age, ultimately getting to two thousand.

Amazement he realized this tree was living at the birthday of Christianity. It shared its beginning, as Jesus walked the fields of Galilee and the laneways of Jerusalem. The conclusion is that it would still have been living if it hadn’t been cut down.

Now here it was as the Lord’s Table, at the heart of our great sacramental memorial of our Lord.

I immediately responded by saying to him, wow, there is a sermon in this.

TRUTH

The Eucharistic feast has stood at the heart of my Christian devotion throughout my life.

When I was a young teenager acting as an altar boy at St. Matthews, Ashburton, I can still distinctively recall the day the realization hit me that if ever I wanted to know the truth, I would encounter it in the Great Thanksgiving act of sharing the bread and wine, the sacramental moment representing Jesus’ resurrection life.

It has stood at the centre of my life ever since. In my search for growing in truth, it has always tantalized me for what else it has to offer.

To me, it’s the meal that keeps on giving.

SUPERSTITIOUS

I do get annoyed when I hear people, including other clergy downplaying its significance by claiming it is just a remembrance of the story of Jesus' life as he walked the land 2000 years ago, and that anymore is superstition. This is not my experience.

HEALING ENCOUNTER

I want to share a very personal story with you explaining why I believe it is very much more. A unique living encounter with the Lord.

As I grew up through my teenage years my inner being was drawn to the mystery of life’s spirit, the sacred of life, and the sense of being we call God. I pursued a regular daily life of prayer, and most importantly times of silence. To me, its’ mystery was beyond words.

When in my 20’s, I entered theological college at St. Johns College, Morpeth, NSW, there was an opportunity to follow a very disciplined life of prayer. Some obligatory, some voluntary.

This I was happy to do, but with it came the question that I had wondered about in earlier years, where would I fulfill that ministry, perhaps a school or hospital chaplaincy, parish life, or having met a religious brother maybe a monastery.

In this environment, I felt deeply challenged to seriously think of joining the Franciscan brotherhood. I had previously visited them in Brisbane? After a considerable inner struggle, I determined that monastic life was not the life I wanted to live. I said NO to the call to celibacy and the monastic.

THE FALLOUT AND HEALING

Yet, I soon found myself feeling very separate from life and everything around me. I became depressed and struggled for weeks going through the daily routine of worship and study without any sense of life.

In hindsight, I think I shocked myself that I said NO! to what at that time I regarded as of the highest of spiritual ideals.

Approximately a month later on the last day of term, as usual, I attended the Morning Prayer, meditation, and the voluntary Eucharist, but still with little attention to what was happening.

LIBERATION HEALING

Deep into the proceedings of the service, my attention was alerted to what the priest was saying, really the first time in weeks.

“On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread; broke it, and gave it to his disciples.

After supper, He took the cup, and again giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples,

As I heard those words, a great transformation began within me. A powerful flow of energy began surging from deep within me, through my body, and out through the top of my head. I felt as though I was floating.

After a month of distress, I was freed, released, liberated, and ready to return to a fuller life, through engaging with those special words of Jesus, the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the wine.

As Anglicans, we teach the nature of the Eucharistic as the Real Presence of the Christ.

This moment of personal healing and transformation was showing me how true that was.

QUESTION

It is not merely the telling of the historical life of Jesus of Nazareth who lived 2000 years ago. It is this, but so much more.

It illustrates beautifully how life, past, present, and future hold all together as one.

As we noted in the example of the 2000-year-old Huon Pine altar table, part of a tree born at the time of Jesus but still living here in our day is a beautiful symbol of the Eucharistic truth.

The tree that lived in Jesus' day continues to live today. Not merely a memory of its origin, but a living witness, always fully present in every age.

As someone responded, ‘the upper room here in St. David’s

It speaks of Jesus' prayer recorded in John 17, “Father may they be one as we are one.” If only our eyes could see how real this is.

LARGEST TREE

Another fascinating fact about the Tasmanian forest looks at this unity in Christ It is the description of the largest tree in the world.

Not the tallest, or one with the thickest trunk, but the one with the most extensive span.

A tree in southern Tasmania that spread its root system some 15 kilometers from the original tree and across the centuries has spored new trees in its surrounds creating its own forest. But in reality, the thousands of trees are all the one tree, each with its own face.

Is this not the story of Jesus and his disciples, not just the 12 but all through history? His spirit is rebirthed in his people like that ‘Tassie’ forest.

CONCLUSION

In his gifts of bread and wine, we come together to celebrate this great mystery of the presence of the risen Jesus.

We may not see him, we may not feel him. But we are living in his loving spirit because he feasts and walks with us every moment of our day.

We gather in this eucharistic agape meal to celebrate his presence in our lives.