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COMMUNION MEDITATION TL Sewn Bie °Ts

May 20, 19/3

I was interested to read an article recently about the status of religion in the
Soviet Union | Officially the government extends freedom of religion to all citizens.) But
unofficially the party lines is stil] that (retigion is the opiate of the nasses" ) Bibles
are hard to cone by:\ rel igtous literature can not be printed, sold ar distributed: |clergygen

are carefully watched for any word or act that might be construed as critical of the govern-
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ment, and generally the Russian people are encouraged to regard the church as an archiac

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relic of the past.

So it was particularly intriguing to read about what happens in the Fiamt Baptist
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Church of Moscow on Sunday norning\ It is a larga, well appointed building with a staff
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of eight ministers.\ There are three services on Sunday, and three more during the week.

Every seat is filled, the aisles and stairways to the balcony are crammed with people

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standing.| The author - who was on assignment by the Center for the Study of Democratic
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Institutions - reported that the service was lusty with great and enthusiastic singing:
but the prayers we the most moving part of alt. \ He couldn't understand the content very

well - but all around him people began shuffling, and sniffing and wiping their eyes:

and he sensed that everyone in the congregation was weeping \ The sane thing happened during

the prayer at the end of the service:|only this time he observed people reaching out to

touch each other - to hold hands.{ And when it was over many of them embraced - in the
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Sanctuary - and afterward out in the street.

Something was going on \ sonething that transcended the barrier of language \ something

mystical was happening between people, something deep and real and fundamental , something

that could be seen in their faces \something very important to them.

The mystical something was the presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of his people:

they had shared it, celebrated it, and were obviously taking it with them as they lett It
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is the same somthing that Christian people have been sharing and celebrating down through the
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centuries in every conceivable kind of circunstance:\in grand cathedrals and tiny country
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churches:\ at birth and at_death:Jat marriage and at a sick bed.

In the Reet Baptist Church of Moscow, the way Jesus Christ is experienced is obviously
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influenced by external circumstances.\ And the vast difference between what h ¢ there

and what happens in a typical Protestant Church on Sunday morning may be explained partially

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in those terns. | SO, also, Cammwe rationalize the difference between what happens on the

pages of the New Testament and our own Christian experience,
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The New Testament was written out of te crisis situation.\ The early Christian
committees that produced the New Testament existed in a Situation quite like that of the

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Baptist Church in Moscow.\" A minority.\distinct from everyone else \atternatingly persecuted

vicously and then ignored - which often turnout to be the most insidious persecution.\ In
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that external situation the mystical union of Jesus Christ and his people ~ and their bond

with each other - becomes importants and so very real that it can be described in organic,
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life - like terms\ Christians in crisis have always been driven back to basics under warhqs
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persecution Christiand and Christian Churches suddenly become heroic\ And the reason is

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that when the alternatives are clear - Christians have always seen that_al] they really
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have is Jesus Christ - and in his name - each other’ ee ; ie ‘ love Mk,

With that in mind, let's look briefly at the two tests which I read thts norning.\ The
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first, from the fourth Gospel, is from a section known as tet 'Fakfwell Discourses." \ the
scene is the Last Supper - the night of the arrest.\ The hapes of the disciples had been
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crvaneé under the brutal reality of Roman Power and religicus Legatism\ The future looked
very ie \ and whatever was going to happen they knew it would not be good.\ The situation,
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then, is every bit as important as what he said.

"I am the vine - and you are the branches". Jit was a familiar image. \ Ezekiel and
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Jeremiah had compared Israel to God's vine - God's vineyard \ Everytine they entered the

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Temple they were reminded of that image by acarving of a vine on the sates.\ (1 am the true

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vine > am the source of your life \r am the strength to hold you up against the rain

and the wind.~ any fruit you bear is a result of your holding on to ne\\ And because I am the

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vine - you are related to each other in a particulgr and vital way \ Apart fron me fT

from the vine ~ and the other branches - you can do nothing.
—_—— ——— power"
Sitting around the table of the Last Supper - those arestrikin words \ they become, f°
because of cur vastly different situation, something less, something weak and hollow when

they are blithely announced by the minister at the Sacrament of Communion in an American

Church in 1973.

The other reading was from First Epistle of John, written later - to people who were
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enduring some very real persectuin:\peopte who had nothing going for them except each other.

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And s® the writer cewtd=sry \"love must not fe a matter of words or talk\it must be

genuine and show itself in action...This is his command:\to give our allegience to his Son

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Jesus Christ and love one another. )

There it is again: clear, sharp, uncluttered, unvarnished - the presence of Jesus Christ

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with his people and their relationship with each other in his name. That's all they had:

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that's ali they needed.\\ That's all we have - really:

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And yet our sityation is so radically different.\ It really gexkxyan didn't cost you
anything to be here this morning - ndtyeatty.\ oh, it would have been pleasant to stay in

bed|\read_the paper \\ play golf g4.\ il] smi
ea € paper.\play golf or cut the gragd.\ But our culture will smile at you for
being here: \you certainly don't have to deal with the possibility #& that the paddy wagon

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just might be outside at]1:45 waiting to pick up you up.
In terms of your relationship with the other branches which together constitute the

congregation of Bethany Church - you don't need them - not reatly.\ at least not all of you -

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anthough some de - some in crisis.\ But for most of us it's a casual thing \ we don't know

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each other too well:\we have other friends - other resources if we get in trouble.\ Tp not
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being critical - because that's just the way it is.

And yet I am more than ordinarily sensitive to this reality this norning\because May

means the hibernation period forthis congregatign:| the prograns come to axdmkk halt -every-

thing gets put on the shelf until fall - and each year I am driven back to the Biblical image

of the churchs| nanely, that when everything else stops, all that is left is people | saa But

particularly today - for me: because I'm leaving - and I look forward to the break from working
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at the programs of the church:\ but I will miss you - the people - the only thing that matters
here - reatly.\ Sonchow, sometimes in spite of ourselves, Jesus Christ is shared and cele-

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brated by this people - and that is what makes this a church.| Apart from Jesus Christ - we

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can do nothing - we are nothing except strangers who vul@ shoulders occassionally on Sunday
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morning.

It's healthy, I think on occassion to deal with our faith in terms ak just as simple as

and-expendabte—iF—Jesus Christi s—

i,-experienced,. ds_henoreda srebrated . . Spee «
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—5 We don't flaunt our piety much. \ But Jet us not forget that we exist as a Church in

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the name of Jesus Christ and for his sake_only. \ Thre is nothing else ultimately on our

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QOMMUNION MEDITATION -4.

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And let us not forget that the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst is just an idea
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in the mind ~ until it is experienced in love between zeopte)\ (not words - but genuine ove")
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that is given flesh and blood by real people.

That js all we have here - that is all we are - people wha belong to Jesus christ -

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and who beiong, in his name, to each other \ And that is all we need. \ AMEN

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FATHER, we come to the Table of our Lord this morning as strangers. Bind us together - and

through each other to you. In therame of Jesus Christ. AMEN