Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The Significance of Symbols - 1 Corinthians 11:26

0:54 Amen. Thank you for blessing us. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 26. I want you to read this with me, giving our attention over to the subject, The Significance of Symbols. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26. We're reading enthusiastically, taking our time. Pausing at the comma, stopping at the period.

1:44 Let's read it together. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. That was a good first run. Let's try it one more time. When you read it, keep in mind that this is your confession. It might change the way that you read it. This is what you believe as a Christian. This is what has been passed down to you when you were baptized.

2:24 And so this is what you have lived by. Let's say it again. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the word of God. You may be seated. There's something about symbols, isn't it? I know you know that.

2:57 That symbols are more than mere symbols. That there are some things that to you are more than a mere ring, a mere flag. a mere cross, a mere diploma. There's something significant behind each of those.

3:23 As a pastor, I've had the opportunity to stand to see hundreds of experiences of affection poured out at the time of death. a husband of 45, 50 years takes the recumbent hand of a loved one and gently takes a ring that he had placed on that finger 40 years prior.

3:54 You'll never say to that man, why are you doing that? It's merely a ring. he would hold that ring and say to you this is 45 years of commitment 45 years of rearing children feeding them in the morning and clothing them and bedding them at night and wiping the sweat from brow and tears from their eyes and walking with them when they're alone, that's 45 years. It's not just a mere ring. Distilled from this ring is a commitment. It's not just a mere diploma, is it? Some of you have a high school diploma Maybe a bachelor's of arts or science Or a master's or some doctorate on your wall And somebody say, well it's just a mere paper paper It's just paper You look at them and say You're looking at hours of reading Years of memorization recitation, writing, recalling interpreting. It's not just merely a piece of paper. When I was a student at Isaac Elementary School, defunct but not forgotten these are the days in the 60's where the morning began with the reciting of I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

6:04 all. A few years ago, when you think it's merely a symbol, Colin Kaepernick knelt down and his kneeling was misunderstood by people who say that they love that flag. it excited an anger in them because they were more interested in the symbol than the significance. You can't say that you love a country. and are not loyal to a particular group of people in that country.

6:54 He was kneeling for two words, liberty and justice for all. And sometimes you can get so caught up in just a symbol that you miss the significance. A swatch sticker is just two sticks crooked twisted around but when seen, it can excite, incite the most reserved person to react because they know all of the hatred that those twisted symbols represent.

7:46 Symbols are not just mere symbols. symbols have significance attached to it. I would go as far to say that there's some of you, you have certain symbols that you hold sacred. And you don't want anybody to tamper with it.

8:12 Last week, I stumbled across some senseless television. I can't even remember the movie. It was something about a group of people in some praise contest. I don't usually look at church music, movies. But I just stopped because there was an interesting conversation between this young man and young woman. And she's an aspiring singer. He's a young, hot rap artist and producer. he has on some beautiful bling he got on a diamond cross and they are talking about and she makes an interesting comment about I can take any music I can take your music and sing it and make it church music he said I don't see how he said I don't know nothing about no church he had on diamonds he had on a diamond cross I don't know nothing about no church He had on diamonds, had on a diamond cross She was saying, I can take your music He said, well my music is talking about weed getting high and getting down in my Lamborghini And she said, those words, he said, well I don't know about none of that About no God and no Jesus He had on bling diamond And he had on a cross Thank you.

9:40 My role for those of you who want to turn me off, I am an interpreter of culture through scripture. It's what I do. I didn't just start that. That is my role. That is like you have been trained to count and do medicine and law. I have been trained. My brain functions that way and when it doesn't, then you ought to get nervous. It is trained to take the scripture. It is trained to look at the world. It is trained to interpret what I see. I chuckled. I said, that's a mighty expensive cross. Not to know nothing about it. Some of you got symbols that you wear that you don't know. Nothing.

10:35 About A lot of bling, diamond cross. I don't know anything about the God that you are talking about. he leads us directly into what has taken place this morning and what has taken place as Christians Baptists in particular I'm not promoting denominationalism it fits into the structure of interpretation this morning they only have two ordinances Unlike Episcopalians or Catholics Or other groups Just two, that's all Baptism and Lord's Supper That's all You don't have a long list Just baptism Lord's Supper They're called the ordinances Of the church There are others who have 10, 11 things To remember Baptists only have two Baptists Baptism And Lord's Supper He had on a lot of bling and on a diamond cross I don't know anything about what you're talking about.

12:09 this directly points to what I ask you to read in verse 26. The apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. He loved this church. And in verse 23, he said, for I received from the Lord what I also passed down to you. That is the word for those of you that like writing notes, tradition. Tradition is, I'm passing something to you. Where did Paul get this from? I'm glad you asked.

12:50 One day Paul was on his way to come to the church without walls and put it out of business. He knew that there were a lot of people that were easy to flip because they wore diamonds and had crosses, but they didn't have an idea what they meant.

13:20 And on his way there to put the church out of business, he was arrested by a spiritual presence the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ stay with me who challenged Paul about what he was going to do and converted him.

13:52 And of all the things that the resurrected Lord on the Damascus road could have taught Paul, he could have talked to him about the Beatitudes, he could have given to him the Sermon on the Mount, he could have passed down to Paul the beautiful parables that had been preserved in the scripture but that's not what the resurrected Lord taught Paul Paul would learn this from the apostles he would read this on the documents in which they had written notes that day on Damascus the resurrected Jesus, Acts chapter 9, for those of you that think I might be making any of this up,

14:39 he was asked, why are you persecuting the church? What have I done to you? I haven't done a thing to you. well why are you kicking against the church you see Paul had been wearing bling but he didn't know what it meant He knew the law backwards and forward, literally. But he didn't know what it meant.

15:17 But that day when Jesus got finished with him, he said, this is what I want you to do. I want you to pass this down to the church. I want you to get them together. And all I want you to do is take bread in one hand and a wine a cup or a cup of wine in the other hand. And I want you to hold it up, bread and wine. I said, as often as you do this, you proclaim my death until I come. I hear you. What's the big deal, man? you asked me to come to your church I want to go back to that church because that dude always talking about relationships how to get hooked up How to meet this and get to know that?

16:21 Well, if you get it right at the table, you can get it right everywhere else. That's the point I'm trying. So we come to the table. The table of the Lord, it's called. At the table of the Lord is where we come to take the Eucharist. Some of you grew up in that tradition. The Thanksgiving meal, the love feast, the agape meal. we come to have communion yeah, commune with God that's not the only communion that takes place because if you keep it at God you can love God and hate your neighbor Jesus said no, if you're going to commune with me you got to commune with others The Lord's Supper, that's what we call it, the Lord's Supper.

17:26 It means God has laid out his table. He says, come and eat from my table. Come and experience peace and come experience justice and come experience love at my table. Come to my table and experience that which only I can give. I can feed you at the table. Tom Long is the retired preaching professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. And I'd invited Tom to come preach, but he said he's not, he can't travel. He's not traveling anymore. But he passed down a story to give to you. At his church in Atlanta, Georgia, a Presbyterian church, their minister would say every Sunday when they would come to the table, come and eat and may we experience God's peace and God's love, God's justice.

18:28 He said, we had heard that so much until it had become rote, come and experience God's peace, love, God's justice. We already knew what was gonna happen. But that day in church, that was somebody who had not been a member of that church. They didn't know the tradition of that church. And when he says, those of you who are hungry. come and experience God's peace. Those of you who are hungry, come and eat of God's justice. Those of you who are hungry, come and eat of God's love. He said, in that day, a woman who was homeless was in church.

19:03 And when the minister said, come, you who are hungry, she didn't know. She just got up and came down the aisle and knelt down with her arms stretched out. Tom said he knew that day That that symbol of significance Was to remind them that day That there are those who are really hungry For peace and justice and love And those of us who have the bread We ought to feed them to satisfy that hunger Blessed are the hungry for they shall be filled. And so what are we to do when we come to the table of the Lord? I'm glad you asked.

19:51 We're to come proclaiming. proclaiming, that's right, preaching. That's right. All of you that talk about my bad sermons, Pastor West can't preach, and I don't like to hear him preach, well, it ain't my fault, you can't preach. If you start preaching, then I'll start preaching. That's what it says. for whenever you eat of this bread and drink of this cup you proclaim that's preaching the Greeks had a word for everything and when they said you proclaim they didn't just say you proclaim they said you thoroughly proclaim time.

21:03 what's the big deal of names on walls because there are people who have proclaimed and too often the church forgets too soon about the people who've been preaching but the big deal with the choir singing because they're proclaiming and too often we forget the people who are preaching.

21:35 But why should I take my children up to? The children's church. You just don't want them inside. My child has grown. They're more mature. They say maybe, maybe, maybe. But not all of them. You want to give them a message that they can proclaim, that they can preach. And it's hard for you to believe that you have been called to preach, isn't it?

22:06 Because that puts a burden on you for every friend, every son, every daughter, every mother, every father, every relative who don't hear the gospel. You can't blame it on me. you got an audience with them. So why don't you preach to them sometime? And you can preach without even saying a word. Proclamation. Proclamation. You ever been to a church service where you didn't understand much, but you got it? One of the habits that we have, and not because I'm a pastor, it's because Ms. West makes us do it. is that she makes us go to church on vacation.

23:04 I don't care where it is. I can remember distinctly one year. I can't remember what country we were in, but I remember going to church and not understanding one single word. Not one word.

23:35 And yet I understood every word. I can't tell you the name of the sermon. I can't tell you. It was a part of the service where the priest stood at the altar. I don't know what he said. I just saw him take bread, a wafer. and he took it and he broke it and he gave it to the people in the church and he took wine and they distributed it and I knew at that moment the sermon that he was preaching that as often as you do this you proclaim my death until I come back there was a proclamation but it's also an exhibition I can take the song that you sing and I can just make it into a church song.

24:39 She was not saying this out of consecration. She was saying this as a mockery of the music of the church. And she did and the people praised As something That she just made up Weed And grinding in the Lamborghini In the Lamborghini I don't know what you're talking about, bling,

25:16 diamond cross, but I don't know what you're talking about. Come here for a minute. If you may turn me off for everything else. If you're going to wear the cross, you ought to at least know what it means. I know we've turned it into just a beautiful piece of jewelry.

25:40 Imagine this morning. Somebody would fashion a gas chamber. or a lethal injection room and tell you to walk around with it? Would you?

26:04 You'd probably give you pause. Well, that's what you're saying when you wear a cross. You're saying this is the vilest, cruelest act in human history to a conscientious person who had come into the world to do good and good took it and evil took good and nailed it to the cross as an exhibition. But I wear it today as a reminder that God so loved me that he gave everything in order for me to have life and have it abundantly. Preach Ralph West.

26:57 Oh, I know you can't shout on it now. He had on bling. It was some pretty bling. Nice diamond cross. I wear. But he said, I don't know what this means. This doesn't mean anything to me. Well, it may not mean nothing to nobody else. But when you look at these crosses, it ought to remind you of one thing. Jesus did it for me. He suffered for me. He died for me. He was nailed for me. His feet were tacked to a pole. For me, a crown on his head.

27:54 For me, buried. for me but it got up It doesn't bother some of you at all, does it?

28:16 I'm going to tell you just one thing. Keep on living. You'll learn what it means. Father, I stretch my hands to thee. No other help I know. I know it's a joke. I know you come to church and you laugh and you say it's a joke, but just keep on living. When the doctor roll in there and said, I can't help you. When an attorney says, I can't help you. When life says, I can't help you. There is somebody who's able. Yeah.

28:55 I'm done now. One last thing. it's a celebration. I don't want you to get mad at me. I'm going to say it again and I close. In the words of Paul, I don't want you to be ignorant. Now you may not love God, you may not want to be here, but you ought to at least know why you're here. You may say I ain't never coming back, but you ought to at least say, but I know why I ain't coming back. Because I don't need nobody dying for me. I don't need nobody talking about saving me. I'm my own woman. I'm my own man. I can save myself. But just keep on living. You get a chance.

29:43 But for the rest of us, it's not just a proclamation or an exhibition. Have a good day. It's a celebration. It's a celebration. Typically we celebrate birthdays. Washington, first president. Lincoln, emancipation proclamation. King, the face of civil rights. Things like that. Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker. You know, we sit around and we say these are faces that we celebrate. Yeah, yeah. You say, but it's a celebration. So when we come to the table, we don't come falling over the table all grim and gloom.

30:38 We fall over the table in excitement because I'm looking back and I'm looking forward. Backwards, I look at what the Lord has done. Forward, I'm looking at what the Lord is doing and I'm celebrating over the fact that God has done it for me. I'm trying to sit down now. And so we celebrate this by looking forward and moving backwards. We see it. And God does this by using a cross, a cross. He had on diamonds, bleamed out cross, but he didn't know what it meant. You see, in this celebration, God could have chosen anything else. He could have chose the manger that we look at at Christmas. He could have chosen a towel that he girded himself when he washed his disciples' feet.

31:33 He could have chosen a tool in his daddy's carpenter's shop. He could have done that, but he didn't. He used the cross. Something that was so vile and shameful, God shined light on it and says, as ugly as this is, I'm going to use it to bring beauty in the world. And those of us who understand our salvation, we say, I'm saved because the Lord died on the cross. My responsibility then is, is to proclaim that message. To raise my voice and proclaim that message by just looking backwards over what God has done. The Bishop of Durham had been sick for many years. God gave his health back to him. He was a prolific writer, a scholar. and he was asked out of his recovery, what did you write?

32:26 He said, I closed my book. I didn't write a thing. I sat back and reflected over what Jesus had done for me on a cross called Calvary. It's something about how God can look at life and take life and turn it into what he wants it to be. You read all of what the scripture says about our Lord, the beauty of his teaching, the splendor of his birth, the resplendence of his transfiguration, and you say, God has done some marvelous things. And yet the ugliest thing in the Christian history is the nailing of Christ to the cross. And yet it is the most beautiful thing. It's more fine than wearing diamonds and having a blinged out cross and not knowing what it means. You see, the reason why people, those of you that don't understand, look and say, why are these people always, and you'd snickle and you'd laugh. It's only because you haven't really encountered the grace of God yet. You know, those of you that come and you make fun of the people around you, it's only because you haven't tasted of grace yet. You're probably healthy and you got a good job. You're making money and you're a big ball of shot calling in your area, but just keep on living. God has a way of putting your back against the wall. Don't worry, you don't get out of life without one day having to call upon the name of the Lord. And didn't you understand, these people are not just clapping and waving their hand out of tradition, emotion, or culture. They are testifying, I know what he's talking about.

34:12 I know what it means to have to depend upon a power greater than yourself. I know what God can do. In the 50-year pastoral ministry, and I'm done, of Morrison, G. Morrison. Morrison had a young lady in his church. She was a beautiful girl. And she was beautiful by sight and vision and figure. and she was so lovely that when she passed in the church, people looked at her. She was a fine person. And yet, at all of that external beauty, her hands had turned in on her. Her daughter, looking at her one day, talked about how beautiful her mother was, her eyes, and how bright they were and how they lighted the room when her mama would walk into it. Say, but mama, your hands, why are they not equally as lovely she had never had a chance to tell her daughter but that day was a time to show her she said when you were a little girl a fire broke out I didn't know where it had come from but I saw that it was menacingly moving toward your crib in the nursery and I took my hands they and I started beating the fire back and beating it back until I could get you out of the crib. In the process, this is the results of what happened to my hand as they shoveled under the heat and the pressure of the flame. Their daughter looked back and said, mama, you got the most pretty hands I have ever seen in my life. When you look at the cross and you see the hands of our Lord and they have been nailed to a cross, you remember these words, there's some pretty hands.