Antiques Road Show

from my message on 10/7/12, World Communion Sunday, start of PBS series, from I Cor. 11:23-26

Start with the video clip of The Antiques Road Show with LOGO, theme music, and people standing in line holding their treasures




What do you treasure? Explain the concept of the ARS, people bringing stuff from their trunks, attics, safety deposit boxes, garage sales, trash cans to a big convention center where experts/appraisers take a look at it. They try to give it an approximate date, who made it, its rarity, the market demand for such an item. Then there's the concept of provenance, a chain of evidence that this object really is what it says it is, who its previous owners were, etc.



Shift to Paul, who lifts up the treasure we have in this feast and its provenance, "For I received from the Lord that which I handed over to you.." A little more explanation perhaps..How we have continued this feast and now we celebrate it in so many lands and languages around the world...how we are united in this communion table..



Last lines.... What's this feast worth? In the ARS, that's the question, the appraiser is always asking, "Do you have any idea how much this is worth?



Video Clip of a few items, the appraisers announcing the value at auction or what it should be insured for, the owners responses...close with clip of something truly ordinary, but of great sentimental value to its owner, who would not trade it for anything



Hold up bread...how much is this worth? Hold up receipt from HEB...$3,89. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is priceless. What is community worth? You are not going to believe this but the church at Corinth was in conflict. Can you imagine that? People in church fighting with each other? They fought over which leader was more important, over money, over women in ministry, over marriage and sexuality, over worship, over understandings of resurrection. They even fought here at the table. It seems that worship was held in people's homes. The rich with the larger houses would often host. The other rich persons would be in the dining room having a lavish feast as they reclined around the table, while the poor crowd stood in the entryway getting maybe the leftovers. Paul reminds them of the meal Jesus had with his followers who were sinners like the Corinthians, like us, "on the night he was handed over ..." This meal comes as a gift from God to sinful human beings always. We remember that our first transgression in that garden long ago involved food. That is the context of this feast. It is not for perfect people. It is for people who are hungry for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for community. That's what happens when we eat this bread and drink of this cup, we become one, we become community. Communion leads to community. That's what we pray for our world today. One way for us to enact our prayers is that we who are rich keep sharing our bread until all of the world is fed. That's why we bring food for the food pantry on the first Sunday of the month.  That's why we walked in the CROP Walk; we had 48 walkers who raised over $6,000.  Texas ranks 2nd in the nation for percentage of persons who are hungry.  We share our bread until they are fed.  Then the world would look like this table. Then we would live in communion with one another.



(last line) What's that worth? It is priceless.



Video clip of the wax cylinder, the one of a kind, national treasure...that shatters in the appraiser's hands



The feast we share here reminds us that Jesus was shattered. It was not an accident. Not some tragic mistake of the judicial system. Jesus freely gives himself. Take bread. Take the cup. Remember the death, the sacrifice. Here's what is interesting about this bread, when it is broken, it gains in value.



We hope. Our hope is rooted in brokenness. Jesus is broken for a broken world. We are broken open, revealed for who we are. Jesus is broken "for you." Literally on our behalf. He is on our side. He is for us, not against us. We remember the Lord's death until He comes. He does come. That why we repeat this meal over and over again. Ed Shirley at St. Ed's said, "Communication tells us something we don't know. Communion deepens what we already know."



We keep eating here so that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood.   That's the good news I have to share today.