Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

22:23 Thank you, Christovale. Will you all please join me in prayer. holy and living god may you speak to our hearts our minds and our souls may you feed us today pray all this in your name amen this summer we have been on a sermon series called at christ table and i think it's fair to say that we've done some eating. We have partaken in Holy Communion as we will again later today. We have had some good coffee hours, sometimes with enhanced snacks. But today I thought I'd give you a little extra appetizer. In ancient Jewish culture, children, when they were learning the scriptures, they would start by hearing a verse from Psalm 19. How sweet are your words unto my lips sweeter than honey to my mouth. And then they would literally put honey on their lips to associate the word of God with sweetness. So today we're going to do something a little similar.

23:35 I know you when you walked in you got either your Jolly Rauncher or Werther's Original. Some people wondered if that was the age difference. Who got Werther's Originals? Who got Jolly Raunchers? No, I think it's mixed. Well, either way, I hope that you associate the word of God today with the sweetness of your candy. If you're watching online, I now encourage you to get a piece of candy or a little bit of honey. And may you taste and see that God is good. So at this point, please eat your candy and listen to the word of God as it comes from Matthew chapter 26, starting at verse 26. Even the sound of the wrapper tastes like God. I love it. While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it, he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body given for you.

24:38 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it in you with my father's kingdom. This is the word of God for you all the people of God. Thanks be to God. this summer we have looked at passages in which Jesus is either at a meal or describing a meal and throughout these different passages we have seen a variety of different realizations and impact it had in Jesus's time and for us together we've sung along to Brandi Carlisle's song crowded table in which we yearn for a table that is wide and open for everyone and we've noticed that Christ's table always has room for the people we least expect.

25:41 That both excites us and it haunts us. In ideal situations, we think of how beautiful a white table can be when it includes people of different ages, nationalities, and socioeconomical backgrounds. And we say, yes, we want that. And yet when we are challenged to think of that one person, that one person on your deplorables list and we think at the table and we realize that at christ's table they are invited to we realize how radical christ's table might actually be this summer has been a good challenge for us and this week we close with jesus's most famous meal the lord's supper one that we view as a sacrament a sign and seal of god's goodness and grace You will hear the words again when we take communion.

26:36 But as we saw in the scripture today, on the night of Jesus' arrest, as Jesus knew the end was coming, there was a big party. And in the middle of the party, Jesus interrupts and takes some bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to his disciples, saying, this is my body given for you. in the presbyterian tradition when we take communion we don't believe we are actually eating the body of christ but we symbolically remember it is a sign of god's grace yet because it's a symbol for us it doesn't mean we merely just remember my hope is that when we partake of communion through the holy spirit you feel the grace of god in your body your mind and your soul. I hope that you feel it deep in your bones that you are a child of God. You're one who is deeply loved and to the grace of God is enough. One of my favorite books is The Life of the Beloved by Henry Nouwen in which he makes a case for your belovedness by looking at the bread of communion.

27:48 his argument is that in the same way that Jesus takes the bread blesses it breaks it and gives it that you too are shown your belovedness as Jesus has taken you has blessed you is with you in your brokenness and gives you to be bread for the world so today I want you to taste and see that God is good and to be nourished in your belovedness through the eyes of four meals that I've had in the last few years. So meal number one, Jesus takes bread. Now before we talk about what Jesus does with the bread, I want us to pause with the first word, taken. Henry Nouwen understands this word as chosen. Before Jesus blesses the bread, before Jesus breaks it or gives it away, Jesus takes it. And now it says that this is also the story of our lives. Before anything else, God has chosen you. And to feel chosen is something radically special. I think you know that feeling.

29:05 Maybe it's the first time you were picked for a sports team. Maybe someone chose you for a promotion or chose you to be their spouse or chose you to be their friend. There's something about being chosen that makes us feel seen. It tells us that you matter. It says, I want you here. I see something in you. now in the summer of 2019 a group of friends from seminary and i were asked to host a week-long retreat for young adults who were in the midst of transitions we got a grant to go along with this and we got and we called it cultivate the hope was to help young adults lean into their belovedness while also discerning what god might be calling them towards but there were only 12 spots we couldn't imagine how many people would apply, but around 250 applications came in. We were overwhelmed. At one point, one of my friends said, I think the acceptance rate for this might be tougher than getting into Harvard. But after much prayer, we chose our 12 participants. And when we called them that they had been accepted, they were incredibly grateful. They had been chosen. But I think the moment they truly felt chosen came a few days into the retreat over dessert. One evening after dinner we invited everyone back for dessert and there waiting for them was a table filled with ice cream. When they had applied for the retreat we had asked them one seemingly insignificant question. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? They had completely forgotten that they told us But we remembered some of these flavors were hard to find.

30:56 Yes, there were typical easy ones like strawberry and vanilla bean, but there were some wild ones too. Raspberry peach, pistachio, and wait for it, rum raisin. Rum raisin ice cream. And in that little moment, these 12 young adults didn't just feel like participants in a retreat. They felt known. Someone had remembered something about them. Someone had made room for them. Someone had gone looking for the thing that was just for them. They felt chosen because they were. God has chosen you to be God's beloved. You have a name that someone named you, but you also have another title, child of God. God has chosen you.

31:48 you have a story and your story is important. It is your own, but it's also part of God's incredible story and you cannot be replaced. God has chosen you because God created you and God loves you. In this chosenness that we have, it's not like being chosen for a football team where someone else doesn't get chosen. Henry Nouwen writes, to be chosen as the beloved of God is something radically different. Instead of excluding others, it includes others. Instead of rejecting others as less valuable, it accepts others in their own uniqueness. It's not a competitive, but a compassionate choice. It's not a competitive, but a compassionate choice. Your chosenness does not make someone else less chosen. There is room for all of us at God's table.

32:44 And perhaps this is the first step in discovering our belovedness, knowing that you are already there. It may begin with head knowledge, may not always feel beloved. There may be days when you question your worth or compare yourself to someone else or wonder whether you have done enough to deserve God's love. But friends know this. Before you did anything, before you accomplished anything, you were chosen. You have already been picked. God has your favorite ice cream ready at Christ's table. You have already been chosen.

33:27 Meal number two. Jesus takes bread and Jesus blesses the bread. last year while i was on sabbatical we got to go to guatemala my home country my wife my parents and at that time a year and a half old aggie and i were able to visit great tourist spots but we were blessed also with time with family and with so much good food breakfast was usually the best eggs with salsa called chidmol fried sweet plantains bread and beans and for like two months after the trip, Augie was asking for frijoles at every meal. Yet the meal that comes to mind that reminds me of a blessing was actually just a snack, specifically a snack for Augie. You should also know that on my dad's side of the family, we have been Presbyterians for well over half a century. My dad's uncle built the pews in the Presbyterian church in Guatemala where they grew up. My dad was the youngest elder elected at the church. That's where my parents met and where I got baptized. And I actually have a cousin who is a Presbyterian minister at a different church in Guatemala. So while we were there, we made sure to visit the church I was baptized in and the church where my cousin is a pastor. While at my cousin's church, it felt like your typical Presbyterian service, but more in the chapel church style. It was on the contemporary side but still deeply reformed and when it came time for communion the elements were passed in our seats the person next to you served you communion april my wife served me and then when i got it i gave i took off a little piece of bread i gave it to aggie and said this is the body of christ given for you he ate it without hesitation as for him it may have felt like just a snack The room was pretty quiet with only light music in the background, and then my son at the top of his lungs yells, Ma Spahn!

35:33 Which means more bread. This got a big chuckle out of most. And so of course, because there was a reaction, he kept on yelling, Ma Spahn! Until the chuckles died down. it did make me think though about how theologically correct that felt to yearn for maspan to yearn for more grace to yearn from that blessing that only comes from the divine the temptation is to believe that you do not deserve a blessing or to limit grace to others only. But friends, please know what has been abundantly clear at Christ's table. Grace and the table are there for you. May you go with the blessing that there is mass bond for you. There is always more grace. Whenever we feel like we are not enough or worthy, there is mass bond for you. For you have been blessed.

36:38 meal number three jesus takes bread jesus blesses it and then jesus breaks it this meal takes me back to homecoming of 2022 the service had ended and the party in bonnell hall was already in full swing get excited for next week it's going to be a blast but we were in Bonnell Hall and then suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder and it was the Reverend Scott Black Johnston and he said we need your help. A family of four from Venezuela came in looking for assistance. There were two parents, a 10-year-old boy, and a five-year-old girl. In the summer of 2022 there was a huge influx of immigrants coming through the border seeking asylum and a friendly reminder that seeking asylum is a legal way to enter this country.

37:38 But in August of 2022, the governor of Texas began to bus immigrants seeking asylum and in the process people were stripped of their belongings and didn't know where they were going. As a result, that fall our ecumenical outreach partnership and our outreach team significantly increased its meals and services for many of our neighbors, but specifically for the immigrant community. This family on homecoming Sunday was the very first family to show up on our doorsteps who were transported from Texas. They arrived the day before on a bus. They had some food vouchers, but no money and no other clothes. They explained to me that when they across the border border patrol had taken all their belongings and their shoes and what they currently had was just the clothes on their backs friends they took their shoes all they had wearing were flip-flops the kind that you would only wear in a shower at a gym through your help and generosity we were able to walk over to a department store and get them some clothes and shoes Afterwards, we went for lunch at a diner on 57th when they shared their story with me.

38:59 One of pain, hurt, brokenness, and trauma. The father shed tears as he shared how guilty he felt for putting his kids through such a trek. And then there was a pause when the food came. And then we all laughed with joy as this five-year-old girl's eyes lit up with a huge cheeseburger and with ketchup only that arrived at the table. The kind of eyes that only gets big when you see the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. The laughter continued as she tried to grab this giant cheeseburger with her tiny hands. And then she takes a breath of fresh air with delight as she takes her first bite. family of faith, I still cannot answer the question of why there is brokenness in this world. I often find myself more with prayers of how long, oh Lord, rather than ones of praise.

40:02 Yet this meal, this joy from a cheeseburger, reminds me of the goodness of God, the goodness we can taste and see amid our brokenness. In the midst of hurt and pain, there is a God who shares in the brokenness and says, I will go there. I've heard your stories of pain and brokenness and grief. They are tough. Your brokenness is part of your story. But friends, it does not define your story. in your belovedness. May you know that the God who created you cares for you and is at work in your pain. meal four Jesus takes bread blesses it breaks it and then gives it to his disciples journalist and author Reverend Jeff Chu has completely changed how I view fried rice Jeff is a friend and he's actually the pastor who baptized Auggie I loved fried rice before meeting Jeff but now I cannot eat fried rice without thinking of Christ's resurrection. In his essay, Can I Get a Witness? It's called Fried Rice. Jeff shares memories of his grandmother making him fried rice from leftovers and in detail from the sizzling sound of the oil in the wok to the crisp bottom crust. He writes how fried rice is ultimately comfort food for him because it carries the hope of restored relationships. It reminds him that he has been loved well in the midst of so much pain. Fried rice reminds Jeff, and now me, of resurrection and new life. He says the best fried rice he's ever made was for his husband Tristan, made with brisket from their favorite barbecue place in Austin, Texas. As Jeff puts it, the brisket's fat rendered in the wok coated all

42:13 the rice. He says, I diced up extra yellow and orange bell peppers as well as onion to balance the rich bits of brisket. Sriracha helped too. This dish sang of our little Texan and Chinese household in a way nothing else I cooked has. April and I have also made a resurrection rice with our leftovers too. Our best has been with leftover carnitas. Jeff continues to write, Fried rice helps me remember all I've learned from my grandmother, as well as the divine pledge of resurrection. It helps me remember how God has promised to renew all things. It helps me remember how meals, meals received, meals prepared, meals served, meals shared, have nurtured me as well as allowed me to nurture others. And it helps me remember that I believe in a greater feast yet to come.

43:13 and this is where I think Henry Nowen's fourth movement being given is in dialogue with what Jeff is talking about. Nowen says that the life of the beloved is a life that is given away. Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and then gives it, and Nowen says this is also the pattern of our lives. God takes us, God blesses us, meets us in our brokenness, and then gives us to one another. I love that idea of being given does not always look like some grand heroic act. Sometimes it looks like making fried rice. Think about what Jeff is describing. His grandmother gives him more than a meal. She gives him memories, tradition, a way of loving, a way of gathering people around a table. Years later, Jeff takes what he received and makes something of his own.

44:12 He cooks for Tristan. He brings together brisket and fried rice, Texas and Chinese culture, his past and his present, and creates something new. What he received became something he could give. And maybe that's what it means to live into being a beloved child of God. We spend so much of our lives wondering, what do I have to offer? Am I talented enough? Am I holy enough? Have I done enough? But perhaps the question is much simpler. Can you share your belovedness? The love you have received, the wisdom someone gave you, the meal someone once cooked for you, the forgiveness you didn't think you deserved, the story you carry, even the broken places in your life that have taught you how to sit with someone else in their pain.

45:08 God takes all of that, your particular, imperfect, wonderfully ordinary life, and says, I can use that. I can give you to the world. That is what I hear in Jeff's fried rice. It is resurrection because something old is taken and made new, but it's also givenness because something that was received is offered again. A grandmother's love becomes a grandson's memory. A memory becomes a meal. A meal becomes a gift to a husband. And eventually that meal becomes a story that has nourished people that he has never met. This is what happens at Christ's table. We come hungry and we receive. And then having been fed, we are sent back into the world to become food for someone else. family and faith in a few moments we will take communion together you've had your appetizer of candy and the word of god from matthew and soon you will experience the grace at christ table after church we invite you to coffee hour we will sit at a large long table and share a meal our online community will do something similar but when you leave this place i hope you carry these four meals with you. Remember that you are taken. You are chosen by God. Remember that you are blessed. There is always mas pan, always more grace than you think you deserve. Remember that you are broken and that your brokenness does not define your story because God is willing to meet you there. And remember that you are given. Your life, your love, your story, your gifts, your very present can become nourishment for this world. At Christ's table, we receive the grace of God, and then we carry that grace into the world. So come to the table, be nourished, and then go and become bread for the world. At Christ's table, you belong. You are loved, and by the grace of God,

47:21 you are enough. Friends, if you're willing, will you please rise and affirm our faith together as it comes from the Presbyterian Catechism. I will pose the question and together we will answer these questions. Who are you? I am a child of God. What does it mean to be a child of God? That I belong to God who loves me.