It’s Not Your Story "Communion" Tim Mackie (The Bible Project) 1/2/2011

awesome well uh good good to have you guys here as as always uh just one community life thing we want to talk about and then you take whether or not this is symbolic for the new year but um so a lot of us kind of volunteer around here on sundays make things happen there is one volunteer team that every single one of us is a part of here how many of you drove here today we're in a corn field so we all can't have to drive here all right so so we all drove here all of us are members of the parking team are we not at least you're responsible for your little whatever eight by ten uh spot of the parking team in uh in the world around here so uh just some some thoughts and this is not like a task tisk or anything like that but this is like friendly reminders about how to be a good driver and uh because traffic you know this is a pretty big thing for us all getting here and and so on so our our police officer who helps us kind of moderate traffic on a mineral point and our parking team how about these folks holy cow what so so you know they're just they're hardy midwestern folk you know what i'm saying so that they're they're out there especially in the winter uh it's really it's really amazing that they're out there helping us and if you think about it these investors especially for visitors this is the first people that people see when visitors see when they come visit our community gatherings here on sunday so our our friendly police officer and parking team have noticed a rise in the percentage of people texting while driving around the parking lot so you know this isn't like a shame on you but maybe it kind of is i don't know so um but basically just here's the thing is this is a part of being a community of agape being like the most attentive that we can and uh you know whatever there have been a few incidents lately whatever let's just let's be attentive when we're in the parking lot and driving around and so that we're not you guys get what i'm saying here i'm trying to be nice okay all right so i just because i want to be nice about this so another thing is if is you see uh people you know on the parking team like you know be nice to them they're really uh being cold especially this time of year for you if you consider yourself one of those hearty midwestern folk that would love to be on the parking team they're actually operating at a kind of a skeleton crew right now they really uh could use some could use some help super fun you get to wear a vest and a walkie-talkie and look important you know so so so really uh think about it you know the more people they have on the team the fewer times you know that people need to volunteer once a month that kind of thing and so uh consider it to find a way to meet new people be a friendly face for the people around here but for the parking team so they they come in kind of later to the service they may be in here by now so just in case there's one or two in the room there there always are one or two let's give them a hand for uh doing what they do [Applause] awesome did you feel do you feel like i was like like parent disciplining you kind of did no texting it's illegal anyway texting while you're driving i mean come on all right uh happy happy new year happy 2011. one of my favorite things about the the new year when it comes is a little tradition that jessica and i have which is on january 1st we always bundle up and we take a long walk and we just take whatever an hour or two and we just kind of review the entire year month by month even week by week kind of thing and we share highlights from the year we share low lights from the year and we kind of look ahead and pray about the year that's coming and this kind of thing and i realized yesterday as i was kind of looking back through the year that one of my one of my highlights for 2010 was the same as one of my highlights for 2009 which was the same as one of my highlights for 2008 have i peaked your curiosity what on earth okay so this just hit me what a gift this is so i'll show you pictures here mountain goats mountain goats okay now no joke so one of one of my favorites i'm not from your land here i grew up in the northwest and a land of mountains and and we have rivers here too but mountains mostly so one of my favorite things to do is to go backpacking in in the mountains and uh i feel closest to god and most alive not when i'm at church sorry although i really like being here too but i feel most alive and connected to god when i'm in the middle of nowhere in the mountains encountering mountain goats so uh 2008 we took a road trip to glacier national park and we've been to glacier before glacier national park breath taking and we were on a trail uh kind of on the continental divide and ran into a shedding mountain goat and his little baby holy cow 2009 we took a road trip to northern colorado and went hiking in the rockies there and there was like a whole mountain in the maroon bells wilderness area anybody oh my goodness so beautiful beautiful area there's a whole family of mountain goats like half a dozen of they were like playing and also blocking the trail so we had to stop and take a snack and then uh this just this last summer in northern washington where uh jessica's family lives in the north cascade mountains we went hiking and encountered a mountain goat there that kept following jessica around it was really funny so she was kind of scared so i don't uh i don't know i don't know what am i gonna do 2011. i need to encounter a mountain goat no so i don't know if i'm gonna find one here in wisconsin no doubt it doubt it so i'm going to leave the state for that one so so what a gift what for me my favorite place to be is in the mountains days out and just that's that's where i feel most alive now there is one thing about backpacking beautiful scenery you get to encounter wild animals this kind of thing the one downside of going out for a multi-day backpacking trip is right so this heavy thing and the longer that you're out right the heavier your bag has to be right because you need uh you need your food you need your gear and uh i'm not a gear head which means i don't i have like a lot of heavy gear or semi-light gear and uh this thing's heavy right and you're carrying your water with you for the day whatever that you've filtered from a little stream and this thing after day two or three some of you have had this experience it's so amazing how the human body can adapt to carrying you know 25 30 pounds and you after day two you begin to wonder like was there ever a time i didn't have 30 pounds on my back and you it becomes a part of your body and you you walk slowly with alerts this kind of thing how many of you know what i'm talking about you've carried a heavy bag for a long time before so and there is nothing after a long day of hiking there is nothing more satisfying after a long day your feet are sore and you reach your destination right you get to wherever you're supposed to be for that day and you're just like it's all you can do to just get this thing off of me and you you release the baggage it feels so good to take off the baggage you guys know this experience some of you do releasing the baggage okay this is our metaphor for the day there's a lot of people a lot of people in the room uh those are you watching on on video downtown you're like time travelers you're already nine days into 2011 holy cow so um but all of us are you know we're sitting we're sitting in a room with other people and i know for a fact that many of us are carrying baggage i mean you know what i'm talking about all right so almost certainly all of us started 2010 with baggage and i doubt that it got lighter throughout 2010 if you know what i mean this is the baggage this bag is just the junk that we collect and that kind of weighs us down as we we go throughout our journey so baggage uh baggage can take many forms it can be the regrets that we have about some poor decisions that we made over the last year it could be worries and concerns for your circumstances people you love it could be it could be guilt or shame if you don't think you have any baggage your baggage is denial we we all are carrying something in the doors with us today i don't know what yours is you know what it is god knows what it is and so uh today we're gonna we're taking a pause for many teaching series and uh the culmination of our time together today is gonna be in uh communion the lord's supper taking the bread and the cup and my single goal and our single goals as a team as we thought about today was creating a space for us to deal with some of our baggage because the bread and the cups speak a word of grace and hope and new life to people who are burdened with baggage do they not they do once you grab a bible and turn with me to first corinthians chapter 11. you mind if i teach with my backpack on great i'm going to do it anyway so here we go first corinthians chapter 11 it's on page 812. we we've been in first corinthians through you know the entire fall we kind of took a break for december we're going to take a break for the next three weeks chris and i are going to do a series on the gospel and generosity oh yes but today and then we're going to jump back into first corinthians after that and finish out the letter today i want us to camp out in the the second half of first corinthians 11 because i think it has an important word to speak to those of us who are burdened burdened with baggage today so we're just jumping in as always you know it's just completely out of context here we go all right verse 17. in the following directives paul says i have no praise for you this is starting on a good note i have no praise for you for for your meetings do more harm than good in the first place i hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you and to some extent i i believe it all right how many of you remember in september chapters one through four we camped out there for a while divisions tribalism in the church of corinth this is a huge issue you remember this yes if you were here there's a huge issue who's tearing the church apart he's going to highlight another issue of division that has to do with their sunday gatherings there's a division that's evident in their sunday gatherings what's he talking about well actually first he goes on he gets sarcastic here in verse 19 and uh he says no doubt of course there have to be differences in divisions right so so that you can show which of you has god's approval right so i think he's being sarcastic here he's like you guys love to divide yourself up into little tribes right so you can know who god's favorites are come on come on he goes on when you come together it's not the lord's supper that you're eating for as you eat it each of you goes on ahead without waiting for anybody else so that one remains hungry and another is getting drunk i mean come on don't you have homes to eat and drink in do you despise the church of god now remember the word church does it ever refer to a building in the new testament no it's people do you despise the people of god are you going to humiliate those of you who have nothing the poor among you what am i going to say to you here he gets this he gets the jewish rabbi tone of voice here what am i going to say to you i'm going to praise you for this no i'm not certainly not you know this guy he's like what are you talking about what are you talk what are you guys doing okay so remember this first corinthians it's we're hearing one end of the telephone conversation there's a back story here that paul doesn't give us all the details of what's going on but there are enough hints here that we can we actually can know exactly what's what's going on so first first things first paul's upset about how they are celebrating the lord's supper how they're taking the bread and the cup together now the first thing we need to remember is that the way that we celebrate uh the lord's supper in most protestant and actually in catholic traditions too which is as kind of a separate little ritual as a part of sunday sunday worship on our tradition we do it once a month here some traditions do it every week and and so on but the early christians didn't take the bread and the cup just as separate kind of elements separated from the rest of their deal the early christians first of all were there church buildings for the early christians to meet in no they met in people's homes so wealthy people in a given community sane current somebody who has a large house would offer their home to to meet in and this would be anywhere from 10 to like 40 or 50 people and every week when they met on sunday to commemorate the day that jesus rose from the dead they would have a meal a shared meal you read through the book of acts that weekly they're gathering and they have a meal together and the lord's supper the bread and the cup were a part of this meal that they would have in in the homes and how the corinthians are celebrated celebrating it they've totally botched the job there's divisions among them so he says some of them are going ahead of others so that some are going hungry like they're not getting any of the meal while others are totally like celebrating and partying it up you know they just like what so what is going on here so we actually have really good clues of what's going on here in uh in corinth over the last uh two decades in ancient corinth there's been lots of like archaeological digs and this kind of thing and they've dug up the remains of a typical kind of roman house a wealthy upper glass person's house exactly the kind of house that the corinthians would have gathered in for the church gatherings and let's uh let's put a picture up here so roman houses they had the style this is very few people would have a house like this this is the wealthy this is the upper class and there were some wealthy upper class christians in corinth who who invited everyone else into their homes for sunday worship and the way these homes were constructed were they would have a large open center area called atrium or a peristylium and then there would be little rooms kind of off of the main open area the dining room was one of these little rooms off of the main open area it was called the triclinium you should see that highlighted there the triclinium how big is the triclinium compared to the rest of the house it's small it's small so and at least in in this house that was dug up at corinth it's representative of these other kind of large estate homes maybe like 10 to 12 people could fit in the in the triclinium and this is where at least some of the corinthians were having the meal that they were calling the lord's the lord's supper okay this very different cultural setting than than ours here so you have a handful of wealthy upper class corinthians it's sunday sunday it's okay sunday being a day off is this is a christian tradition we do realize this okay pre-christianity there's no such thing as days off especially for slaves or freed people day laborers and so on you work every day and so on sundays the wealthy christians were able to gather early like in the afternoon they would start the meal early and they gather in the triclinion and of course it's the wealthy upper-class people who are able to not have to work that day so they are eating everybody else the people who paul calls those who have nothing in verse 22 the poor the lower class people they have to work all day so they get there at the end of the day and they show up and what do they find well first of all there's nowhere for them to sit for the gathering because like the upper glass people are all in the triclinium and so there's apparently there's like no food left and so they sit in the overflow room like there's not even chairs or furniture in the atrium you know what i'm saying and paul says you caught this is how you're celebrating the lord's supper he said you this is not the lord's supper he says you're humiliating those among you who who don't have the wealth that you have this is this is a challenge he's giving to the wealthy corinthian leaders of the church here and he is ticked he's ticked because this totally contradicts the meaning of of the meal let's keep on reading verse 23 paul says listen he reminds them of what this meal is all about he says i received from the lord what i also passed on to you the lord jesus on the night he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me and paul says whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes this is such such a cool passage here so paul he's he's reminding them of the story so the jesus's jesus's last meal with his followers is what we are remembering and encountering when we have the bread and the cup it was a passover meal the jewish passover meal when jesus wanted to explain the meaning of his death to his followers he did not give them a theology lecture right or a four-point outline sermon he gave them a meal the jewish passover meal which which spoke of of the enslaved and burdened israelites enslaved by the egyptians and they slaughtered a lamb and they the israelites put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their house so that when god visited his justice on the egyptian oppressors the israelites were spared and they were brought into freedom and redemption jesus chose that meal to explain the meaning of his death he was very profound what jesus is doing is very intentional he was saying that he was his death was going to accomplish a new kind of exodus a new a new liberation for those who are burdened with baggage we tell the story of how jesus comes to a broken and burdened humanity and he would become the passover lamb he would die so that others could be spared and and go free and paul says you're taking this beautiful story of how jesus comes to us in in our brokenness in our being burdened with baggage and you've turned this beautiful story of grace that ought to unite you because rich or poor you all stand on level ground before the cross grace does not show favoritism amen amen yes it ought to unite you but instead moses you've turned it into like this little religious ritual like a little social club and he's ticked so he goes on he says therefore 27 whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the lord a person not to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the lord eats and drinks judgment on himself holy cow what that's stiff okay well stop for a second most christians deeply misunderstand what paul is saying here and that misunderstanding feeds into what i think is is actually a deeply distorted view that many of us can tend to have about what the bread and the cup is all about and it's actually it just speaks to our common misunderstanding we have about grace okay what paul is talking about here is not our individual moral status as we come to the bread and the cup and i may feel unworthy because i've blown it in the last year or in the last week right or this morning already and and i don't feel worthy and i don't want to drink judgment and sin against the lord so maybe i shouldn't take the bread in the cup however you know what i'm talking about here and so i'm supposed to examine myself paul says and which means i sit and by myself and i pray and i beat myself up for all the lame stuff i've done and then okay maybe i can take the bread in the cup maybe jesus will have grace on me you guys know what i'm talking about here that is absolutely not what paul is talking about here who's paul writing 2 he's writing to the corinthians does he say therefore if you are unworthy to eat the bread and the cup you're you're eating and drinking judgment on yourself is that what he says now he says those who take the bread and the cup in an unworthy manner what is what's the situation paul's referring to he's talking about this division between the rich and the poor he's talking to the wealthy corinthians and he's saying you you say you're celebrating the lord's supper and in the name of jesus you're humiliating and shaming the poor christ followers in your church community that is an unworthy manner of taking the bread in the cup do you see what he's saying here he's not talking about our moral status as we cut is any of us worthy to take the bread in the cup no that's the whole point right that's precisely why we need to take the bread in the cup to remind us that the bread the cups speak to us a word of grace paul is challenging the wealthy corinthian leaders and he says examine yourselves check yourself about how you're celebrating the lord's supper you're systematically shaming and humiliating the poor people in your in your church community and god does not take kindly to his people humiliating the poor in the name of jesus it's just a bad idea right and so he goes on in the rest of the passage to talk about why that's a bad idea because god will play hardball with church leaders who abuse their authority and their place in the church and of humiliating people and so on this is not good don't do that this meal is about grace this meal is about how jesus comes to to the rich to the poor to the jew to the greek to the roman to the women to the men to the slave and to the free and he meets them in the midst of their brokenness and as they carry their baggage we're all unworthy to take the bread in the cup that's the point that's why we need to take it because this meal is about grace i think very often we can tend to think of communion or taking the bread in the cup we think about it in terms of religion right so we think about it in terms of well i need to get my act together i need to clean clean myself up then i can come to jesus and then maybe he'll look on me with favor and okay okay then i think i can take the bread in the cup okay now all right i'm ready that's religion that puts our behavior at the center the bread and the cup are about gospel and grace the bread and the cup tell the story of how jesus comes to us in the midst of our brokenness as we're burdened with our baggage and he meets us there in our mess and he speaks the word of grace and forgiveness and hope that's the point it puts him at the center not us in our and our behavior this meal is about grace so i don't know where where you're at you know uh i don't think that we have any divisions between the rich and the poor for how we do communion here so we're in a different cultural situation here i think the problem that most of us probably tend to have as we take the bread and the cup is that we think of it in terms of religion and not in terms of grace if you have any any twinge in in your heart that i probably shouldn't man i've totally blown it this week oh you don't know the year that i've had i'm not worthy to take the cup if you don't think you should take the bread in the cup that means that you really really should that's exactly what you need to do right when you feel like you shouldn't because these the bread and the cup they speak grace to you in the midst of that brokenness do you see what i'm saying here this is crucial this is this is why the early christ followers took the bread and the cup every week a physical tactile reminder an experience of god's grace afresh and anew it's crucially important that we take the bread and the cup no matter where you're at it reminds you of grace and of course grace doesn't grace comes to us in the midst of our brokenness so that we can stay broken and messed up no the point is that we begin to change but grace doesn't hinge on our ability to change it comes to us and in our brokenness so man i don't i don't know i don't know where you're at today my guess is is that you have baggage right and remember if you if you think you don't your bag could just denial right i'm really serious about that we've all got stuff we're carrying in the doors here and i don't know what word you need to hear the bread and the cup speak grace to those who know they need forgiveness they speak comfort to those who are full of sorrow they speak challenge to those who are complacent the bread and the cup speak hope to those who have no hope they speak life to people who feel like they cannot go on they speak to those of us who have little voices in our head that say you're not good enough you're worthless and they say you are of an inestimable value you are more loved than you realize we need to take the bread and the cup there's a there's a story of a rabbi who had three students and one day the rabbi was teaching a passage in the torah to his three students and they were deeply moved by the teaching and so as they they went away from their time with the rabbi one of the students said man when when rabbi was teaching today i felt like he was just speaking right to me like right to my circumstances i swear he knows like what's going on in my life and the next student said no no no he was speaking to me as he was teaching i mean it was right aimed right it mean exactly what i needed to hear and then the third student said no you two were both wrong because the rabbi was talking to me and about my life circumstances clearly and so they were quite puzzled by this and so the three students go back to the rabbi and they say rabbi who who were you aiming today's teaching ad and the rabbi said well of course the teaching was aimed at at myself the bread and the cup are like that they speak exactly the word that we each need to hear in our different circumstances so what we're going to do is uh we've created some extra time it's kind of like quiet reflective sunday so we've created some extra time right here and i'm going to invite the music teams to come up in this room and in the other rooms and downtown and what we're going to do is just create some quiet space here for a few minutes before we take the bread and the cup and there's going to be kind of just quiet music kind of vibing in the background and there'll be some questions on the screen so maybe use the questions to think through the year that you have just been through and think through the year that's ahead of you and this is the time this is a time for us to hear the word of the bread in the cup and it's a time to uh to release some baggage now you might have a lot and you may not be able to check it all today but i encourage you to use this time in the space and your experience with jesus through the bread and the cup to at least check some baggage before you leave today you

Channel: Bible Nerds & Tim Mackie Fans

Views: 8,792

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Mackie, Bible Project

Id: 0gTh50ZvuDk

Length: 32min 18sec (1938 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020