Our service is a service of Holy Communion when we share the body of Christ.
Some people find the idea of sharing the body of Christ distasteful and strange. If we are literally sharing Christ’s body then it is distasteful. If we are pretending to eat his body it is strange as well as distasteful.
And some people feel they are not able to eat, because they are unworthy.
I want to see whether this passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, opens up the Eucharist in a new way for us tonight.
Paul begins by talking about God’s grace. Each of us are given grace by God because Jesus suffers for us. His suffering is God’s gift of grace to us. His suffering is the sign that our sins are forgiven. God gives us the gift of forgiveness.
And God gives us other gifts. We may be broken people who are in need of forgiveness, but as well as being broken people we are also talented people possessing many gifts given to us by God.
And then Paul talks about the ascension of Jesus. This is why we have this text this evening because Thursday was Ascension Day. But in this text Paul talks about the decent of Jesus as well as the ascension of Jesus.
Paul reminds us that before Jesus ascended into the heavens he descended into the lower parts of the earth. By this Paul means that Jesus descended into hell. You might recognise that phrase ‘descended into hell’ from the Apostles’ Creed. Jesus descended into hell.
I don’t know whether you believe in hell. A famous German theologian, Jürgen Moltmann was once asked whether he believed in hell. He replied that he didn’t know for sure whether hell existed but he did know somebody who had been there. What does this answer mean?
Hell is where dead people are. Why did Jesus descend into hell? He descended into hell to gather those who had died. He gathered those who were held captive by death. He rescued them from hell. He brought them to a new place, a place of safety. He made captivity itself captive, to use Paul’s words. He brought his people with him when he ascended into heaven.
When Jürgen Moltmann says he doesn’t know whether hell exists, he is saying that he doesn’t know if it still exists. If, as Paul says, captivity itself is held captive, how can captivity, ie hell, hold any more captives? Moltmann wonders whether this means that hell has been closed down. If the victory over death is won, if death has lost its sting, then who can possibly be in hell?
This is the gift of the grace of God. We are all liberated from death and from the fear of death. We are all liberated from sin and the consequences of sin. We are all free.
And then there are the other gifts God has bestowed upon us. The gifts that enable us to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, people who care, people who teach, people who love, people who stand up for justice.
Paul likes to make lists of the gifts given to God’s people, the different gifts that the church needs. He likes to remind churches that we need all these gifts like a body needs all its parts. He reminds us of this so that we will respect each other’s gifts and find it easier to love and respect each other.
What are these many and different gifts to be used for? They are to be used to build up the body of Christ. We use our gifts to speak to each other in love, building each other up, building each other up into the body, so that we become the body of Christ and become more and more like Christ.
These verses from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, verses 7 to 16 are made up of six sentences in this English translation. But in the original Greek in which they were written, these words are just one long sentence. One very long sentence! For Paul, these ideas are all part of one idea; they are all linked together.
What links all these ideas is the concept of the body of Christ. It is typical of Paul’s thinking that an idea like the body of Christ assumes several forms as it links several ideas like a thread weaving in and out as it runs through a piece of cloth. The word ‘body’ means one thing in one part of the sentence and another thing in another part of the sentence and yet, because it is the same word, we are invited to think that these separate things are also one and the same thing.
So at the start of this sentence the body is the gift of Christ because he gives his body for us on the cross. And then his body descends into the lower parts of the earth to rescue us all from death and then the body take us far above the heavens. And then the body becomes something that we are all part of; we all form part of the one body of Christ. And each of us builds up this body until we become this body, each of us growing into Jesus who is the body and also the head of the body.
So this body which we share tonight means many things to us and yet it is the same thing.
This body is the gift of grace which means we are all forgiven.
This body rescues all of us from death and liberates us so we may live.
We are all part of this body – it is all of us.
This body unites us with each other - it is what connects us.
This body is what we are becoming; we are becoming the body of Christ; building ourselves up in love; using the gifts we have been given by God’s grace.
So, take; eat. This is why all are invited to share in the body of Christ.