Today is not a Sunday when we celebrate communion. Yet our scripture passage is about communion, so it seems an appropriate time to talk about Holy Communion. I think it's appropriate because many people don't fully understand communion, and while one sermon won't fully inform us, it may raise some awareness as we prepare for the next Communion Sunday in several weeks.

I remember years ago as I went to my first full-time appointment serving 6 rural churches, we had an elderly woman in one of the churches who was in charge of preparing the communion table on communion Sundays. 2
things about her stick in my mind after all these years. The first was that she made her own grape juice. She was in her eighties and had inherited the job from her mother. I suspect this ministry came down
through the family and from a day when people went to the store to buy a jar of grape juice. In fact, I was sure that her families involvement predated Welch's grape juice, which was originally bottled for communion.
In any case, she grew her own grapes, pressed the juice from them, canned the juice and used it for communion. The only problem was, it was unsweetened. Taking the first drink in front of the congregation so
puckered my lips and throat, that I had a little difficulty giving instructions.

The second thing I remember about her was that she refused to take communion herself, and it had nothing to do with the unsweetened grape juice. When I went there, I inherited a student pastor who had been
there through college and was finishing seminary, and he told me she won't participate in communion because she didn't think she was good enough. I responded, "But that's precisely why we take communion; we are
sinners in need of the forgiveness and grace of God. If we were good enough, we wouldn't need to take communion." And then I said, "We need to talk to her." He responded, "I already have, several times. And so
has every other pastor through the years. And nobody's been able to convince here."

This is just one misunderstanding about communion to illustrate that people have many erroneous ideas and questions about communion. We aren't going to talk about all of them this morning, but hopefully as we
look at our scripture passage, we will gain some insights that will help us to understand and appreciate the significance of Holy Communion for our lives.

Our Christian tradition celebrates communion in 3 ways. The first is as the Last Supper. This is when we remember and participate in communion as Jesus did with his disciples on the night before he was crucified.
The most obvious time we celebrate this way is Maunday Thursday, the night before Good Friday, as we intimately and solemnly prepare for the atrocities that will be perpetrated on him as he is tried, beaten, and
crucified. It is reenacting that last meal that the human Jesus had with his friends knowing what is to come next.

The second way we celebrate communion is as the Lord's Supper. Once again we remember Jesus' last meal with his disciples, but we emphasize that his subsequent death had great spiritual and eternal meaning for the
world, that is, that Christ died for our sins, that his death had meaning and purpose for God's involvement and plans for all of creation. Without this forgiveness, we would not be able to be reconciled with our perfect
God. This is what the elderly lady in that rural church didn't understand. While she believed in salvation and Christ's forgiveness and had already claimed it, she would not participate in one of the great
opportunities to celebrate and accept once again Christ's forgiveness that takes away our sins, something that we need to do day by day and become involved in every opportunity that presents itself. The Lord's
Supper helps us to be forgiven and reunited with God.

The third way we celebrate communion is called the Eucharist. Eucharist comes from a Greek word meaning "thanksgiving." Eucharist is a celebration thanking Christ for the forgiveness and grace that came
through his crucifixion and for the new life that comes through the resurrection. This is a joyful time that is usually represented during Easter and the Easter season. We not only joyfully thank God for
Christ's life, death, and resurrection, but we look forward with anticipation to the heavenly banquet that will include us when we leave this earth and go home to be with Christ.

Now it's interesting that all of the post-resurrection accounts of the risen Christ, that is, his appearances between his meeting with Mary Magdalene early on Easter morning and his ascension into heaven before
his disciples, are Eucharistic accounts, or stories about Christ with his disciples sharing Holy Communion. In the first account in the Gospel of John where he appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room recalls the
Last Supper since this was where it was held the night before he died.

Likewise his appearance a week later for the benefit of Thomas occurs in the same room with the same remembrance. The 3rd account of Christ's meeting with Peter and the other fishermen along the seashore ends with them sharing bread and fish, both communion symbols in the early church.

The other post-resurrection account is our scripture passage this morning where the 2 disciples conclude their journey breaking bread with the risen Christ, an obvious communion story. All of these stories are
joyful and filled with thanksgiving that Christ is risen. So let's take a closer look at our Eucharist story from Luke.

As the story begins, much has already happened before these 2 unnamed disciples journey to the town of Emmaus, 7 miles West of Jerusalem. Stories had already begun circulating about an empty tomb and eyewitness
accounts of a risen Jesus. They started the day in despair as they remembered the horrible crucifixion and death of the beloved master, Jesus of Nazareth. All hope had evaporated so that only death reined.
But with these new stories, confusion set in and they wondered whether or not hope was possible or just a puff of smoke. As they discuss these things on their journey, a stranger joins them. We the readers know that
this is the risen Christ, but they don't recognize their teacher Jesus.

As they share with him the rumors, Christ teaches them about the truth of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that it has all been there in their scriptures, if only they would see these holy words with new eyes.
They still don't recognize Jesus, but when they reach their destination and sit down to share a meal with the stranger, their eyes are opened through the action of the breaking of the bread, which they had seen many
times before in the company of Jesus.

What this story tells us is that we too meet Jesus in our services of Holy Communion. It is Christ who is our host, who has invited us. It is Christ who is present through the symbols of bread and juice. The
breaking of the bread reveals once again that Jesus is the stranger in our midst and we finally recognize him. Don't ever think that Holy Communion or Eucharist is some quaint ancient ceremony where we eat some
bread and drink some juice and that's it. It is through the breaking of the bread that our eyes are opened and we realize that Jesus is right here with us, that Jesus is real and invites us to be one of his own.
Holy Communion reminds us that we are empowered to see Jesus at work in the world today and to join him.

The other thing this story tells us is that we need to be careful about strangers. I don't mean that we ought to shy away from strangers, although this is a good rule especially for children. What I mean is
that just as the two disciples didn't recognize the stranger as Jesus, we too might not recognize Jesus in a stranger.

Last Sunday during confirmation class, we were talking about this very thing. I walked around the class and held the heads of each student and asked, "Who do you see?" The other students would name the person -
Danny Warner, Vince Ramish, Matt McGraw, Sarah Messenger - until finally someone said, "I see Jesus." When we look at another person, do we see the face of Christ in that person? Are we able to recognize Christ in
our midst by seeing him in others and in their actions?

Think about this. How do we see and recognize Christ in our world? Obviously in church and in such religious events as Holy Communion. But do we see Christ, not only in our friends and those people who look like
us, but do we see Christ in strangers and in those who don't look like us?

Remember the story of the last judgment in Matthew 25? This was the passage our confirmation class was reading. People asked, "When did we see you hungry and give you food, or thirsty and give you drink, or naked
and clothe you, or sick and in prison and visit you, or a stranger and welcome you?" And Jesus said, "When you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it too me." Those who were not Jesus'
followers and thus did not do these things offered a most interesting response, "Well, if we had known it was you, we would have done it."

My friends, when you see somebody you don't know, when you meet a stranger, when see a street person, when you meet somebody different from you at FaithCentre, be careful. Hebrews 13:2 puts it this way: "Do not
neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it." I would say, "Show hospitality to strangers, you may be meeting Jesus without knowing it.

Holy Communion helps us to see Jesus, not only here in Church, but in our community where we disciples have been called to minister. How and where do you meet Christ in your life? I call upon you to meet Christ this
very day in the face of someone else. And when you do, look for that face when you receive communion in a few weeks. For there you will see the risen Christ.