I Corinthians 11:23-32          “What Is So Important About Communion?”   Aug 5, 2007

     Special occasions are often connected with food—Thanksgiving, Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.  Whenever there’s a special meal, the cook often spends long hours preparing and the smells of the good food gently drift through the house.  As the day wears on, we can’t wait to be told: “Come to the table!” This morning, Jesus has set the table and is inviting us, “Come to My Table.”  But why is this table of the Lord so important?  And how can we make it more important, more valuable, in our lives? 
     The first important fact to know about communion is that it can cleanse us from sin.  Before we sit down to a meal, we need clean hands. You don’t work in the garden or garage and then come inside, sit down, and eat dinner. You wash up first.  Vs 28 tells us to examine our lives before receiving Communion.  We may see something that needs to be confessed and cleaned up.  As we approach the altar, it is a time for confession and to find forgiveness of sin.

      Now some people can get confused about this.  How many of you ever did something wrong as a child and were sent to bed without supper?   Some people feel they have committed such terrible sins that they do not think they are worthy to come to the Lord’s Table.  In a sense, they send themselves to bed without supper.  Let me tell you--None of us are worthy, but if we have trusted Christ, we are eligible. He invites and authorizes us to come to the table.  He washes our hands and makes us ready to come to the table.  Christ brings us this forgiveness by the power of his poured out blood.
       Dr Leroy Creasy of Cornell University was among the first researchers who identified a chemical in grapes that reduces the risk of heart disease. He first reported in the Journal of Applied Cardiology that grape juice and red wine can help lower cholesterol and cleanse the heart of life-threatening impurities. At the Lord’s Table, grape juice represents the blood of Christ, which cleanses our spiritual hearts of sin’s deadly effects.  The importance of Communion is that it is for us the blood of Christ where we find forgiveness. 
        Now when we come to a holiday feast, we need clean hands but we also need a good appetite. What would happen if you were invited to someone’s house for dinner and an hour before the meal you ate a bag of chips, a Coke, and a package of Twinkies? After all this junk food, you’d have little appetite for the meal!   Well, as we come to the Lord’s Table, we need an appetite for the good things of God.  Paul tells us back in chapter 10 vs. 21, “you can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you can’t have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons”.   God offers us a substantive meal that will satisfy our spiritual hunger. But many of us today are stuffed with the junk food of this world.  Surrounded by material goods, immorality, cheap entertainment, we soon lose our appetite for the feast God has prepared for us. We think, “But all that other stuff tastes so good.”  Paul calls it the table of demons.  We are like children with a sweet tooth filling up on candy.  Soon our stomachs will hurt. We grow sickly.  The importance of the Lord’s Table is that it represents for us the good feast of God.  It is a calling for us to fill our lives with what God offers us.  Communion can give us a stronger appetite for the things of God.  Jesus promises, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  Do you hunger and thirst for God?  The table can help you in regaining your appetite for God and to put away the junk of this world.
      Communion can bring us forgiveness of sin, strengthen our appetite of God, and finally, communion can give us a spirit of thankfulness.  We need to be grateful for this meal.  This meal comes to us at a great cost. There’s a famous film named “Babbette’s Feast” that is a parable of grace and being grateful.  In the film, Babbette is a young woman who receives a small inheritance.  She decides to use her money to prepare a wonderful gourmet feast for her friends. She obtains the most costly ingredients and prepares a banquet worthy of a 4-star restaurant.  She spends all she has inherited to make her feast.   Sadly in the film, many of her guests do not appreciate her gift.  How often are we ungrateful for our lives and all God has given to us?  Jesus has prepared a meal for us that cost Him His life.  This is His broken body and spilled blood for those who have the eyes to see.  Those who feel thankful for the gift of life will find real life here at this table.

This past week I was away at the coast.  The warm late summer ocean waters of South Carolina turn a greenish color from the vast amount of phytoplankton growing there.  Did you know that these tiny, microscopic plants produce the bulk of the world’s oxygen supply?  We always hear of how plants produce oxygen but these microscopic plants produce most of what we breathe.  As I swam in the water this week, looking at the green color, I was struck with a deep sense of gratefulness that I could breathe because of these little plant drifters.  That led me to ponder my link to all things in the world and to feel deeply how thankful I should be for what God has given to me.  Then I remembered the Table of the Lord and all God has done for me.  The Table makes me thankful.

   This Table represents forgiveness of my sins.  This Table is a place where I can regain my appetite for what is really the good stuff of life.  This Table reminds me to deeply, deeply say thank you.  Washed clean.  Hungry for life.  Thankful for all.  That is where God would have us live.  He invites you to come to His table.  Amen.