Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Collective Effervescence - The Rev. Carol Duncan
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Collective Effervescence - The Rev. Carol Duncan
Sermon by the Rev. Carol Duncan for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12.
Today's readings are:
2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-19
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
Readings may be found at https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost...
Transcript:
This morning let us rejoice and pray using Paul's words: May we be rooted and grounded in love. May we comprehend, in the company of all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of holy joy. May we know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. May we be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.
I am still so delighted to be together with you in person. Only a few weeks ago we came back to the altar to receive communion after a long bitter year without it. As I put the wafer in your hands, I saw tears in many eyes. My own eyes blurred, and my throat tightened. I had to stop a minute and breathe. The joy in your faces I'm sure was mirrored in my own.
At about that time Stephen ministers, our one-on-one ministry of pastoral listening and care for people going through difficult times, learned about collective effervescence. This concept describes the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. ... That joy had been missing during the pandemic. It came back at Easter on the football field as we praised God, celebrated Eucharist, and reveled in the company of our beloved St. Martin's. Eucharist brings me collective effervescence every week with you all. Today's lessons are all about Eucharist.
Eucharist is old, older than the church. Eucharist is the sign that God feeds us and sustains us unceasingly. I love today's story from the Elisha cycle. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, derided the possibility of feeding a hundred people with 20 loaves. But Elisha prophesied "thus says the Lord, 'They shall eat and have some left.'" He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord." Elisha prophesied that God wants people to be fed, and through faith it happened. Jesus was intimately aware of Elisha's act of faith. Jesus told and lived the stories of the ancestors. So, just like Elisha, but greater than Elisha, with five loaves Jesus fed 5,000 and had 12 basketfuls left over.
Jesus feeds us as surely as he fed his followers on the mountain. He feeds us with the ancient sacrament of the Eucharist, which means "thanksgiving". You know this of course. But I want to share with you what enthralls me every time I experience it.
The original last supper was a Passover meal. In the Passover meal, participants pray saying "In every generation we must look upon ourselves as if we personally had come out from Egypt". When Jesus took bread and wine he said "This is My Body; this is My Blood" as part of the Passover prayer. In the original Greek texts, Jesus went on to say, "Do this is in Anamnesis of Me." Anamnesis is translated as remembrance. But it is more than remembering. Anamnesis means to actively participate in the power and presence of that past event here and now in our own lives. It means that the salvation provided for us in Jesus' life, death and resurrection changes us and makes us holy. When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we do it in eternal time. We do it with Jesus' disciples, at Jesus' eternal table. We become the Body of Christ in this world.
I like Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Friar, priest and author. He describes Eucharist in this powerful meditation. "Mutual desiring and indwelling is the intended impact of the Eucharist... The Eucharist is an encounter of the heart, knowing Jesus' Presence through our own offered presence. In the Eucharist, we move beyond mere words or rational thought and go to that place where we don't talk about the Mystery anymore; we begin to chew on it. Jesus did not say, "Think about this" or "Stare at this" or even "Worship this." Instead he said, "Eat this!" We must move our knowing to the bodily, cellular, participative level. We must keep eating and drinking the Mystery, until one day it dawns on us, in an undefended moment, "My God, I really am what I eat! I also am the Body of Christ." A body awareness of this sort is enough to steer and empower our entire faith life. Merely assenting to or saying the words will never give us the jolt we need to absorb the divine desire for us."
I remember receiving my own jolt when I truly realized the immensity of the act of Eucharist. I was about to distribute the Eucharistic wafers on a Sunday to people I knew well. I knew everyone's name at St. Paul's in Canton OH where I had attended for decades and had served as Deacon for several years. Suddenly as I looked into the face of the person to whom I handed the wafer, it became the face of Jesus. It didn't physically change, exactly. My comprehension of what Jesus looks like changed. Radically. Here was now a holy face, a portrait of potential. I began smiling, and the person - a man who worked for Jet Blue, younger than me, slightly overweight, with a shaved head - smiled back. A bit dazed, I moved to the next person. A woman my age, a nurse, reddish hair losing its fire, lovely complexion - returned my smile of recognition. She also showed me the face of Jesus. Each face that day metamorphosed into a glimpse of the divine countenance. Like the sun appearing from behind a cloud.
Now it doesn't always happen. But when someone feels the mystery, looks up and smiles, it may happen between us. You have become Jesus for me. We are immersed together in the wonder of the indwelling of Christ. I am grateful to worship with you. We are invited and accepted into the eternal supper at Jesus' table. It is happening now, always, in the mystical core of eternal presence. I'll meet you there.
Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org
View all episodes
By St. Martin-in-the-FieldsSermon by the Rev. Carol Duncan for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 12.
Today's readings are:
2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-19
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
Readings may be found at https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost...
Transcript:
This morning let us rejoice and pray using Paul's words: May we be rooted and grounded in love. May we comprehend, in the company of all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of holy joy. May we know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. May we be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.
I am still so delighted to be together with you in person. Only a few weeks ago we came back to the altar to receive communion after a long bitter year without it. As I put the wafer in your hands, I saw tears in many eyes. My own eyes blurred, and my throat tightened. I had to stop a minute and breathe. The joy in your faces I'm sure was mirrored in my own.
At about that time Stephen ministers, our one-on-one ministry of pastoral listening and care for people going through difficult times, learned about collective effervescence. This concept describes the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. ... That joy had been missing during the pandemic. It came back at Easter on the football field as we praised God, celebrated Eucharist, and reveled in the company of our beloved St. Martin's. Eucharist brings me collective effervescence every week with you all. Today's lessons are all about Eucharist.
Eucharist is old, older than the church. Eucharist is the sign that God feeds us and sustains us unceasingly. I love today's story from the Elisha cycle. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, derided the possibility of feeding a hundred people with 20 loaves. But Elisha prophesied "thus says the Lord, 'They shall eat and have some left.'" He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord." Elisha prophesied that God wants people to be fed, and through faith it happened. Jesus was intimately aware of Elisha's act of faith. Jesus told and lived the stories of the ancestors. So, just like Elisha, but greater than Elisha, with five loaves Jesus fed 5,000 and had 12 basketfuls left over.
Jesus feeds us as surely as he fed his followers on the mountain. He feeds us with the ancient sacrament of the Eucharist, which means "thanksgiving". You know this of course. But I want to share with you what enthralls me every time I experience it.
The original last supper was a Passover meal. In the Passover meal, participants pray saying "In every generation we must look upon ourselves as if we personally had come out from Egypt". When Jesus took bread and wine he said "This is My Body; this is My Blood" as part of the Passover prayer. In the original Greek texts, Jesus went on to say, "Do this is in Anamnesis of Me." Anamnesis is translated as remembrance. But it is more than remembering. Anamnesis means to actively participate in the power and presence of that past event here and now in our own lives. It means that the salvation provided for us in Jesus' life, death and resurrection changes us and makes us holy. When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we do it in eternal time. We do it with Jesus' disciples, at Jesus' eternal table. We become the Body of Christ in this world.
I like Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Friar, priest and author. He describes Eucharist in this powerful meditation. "Mutual desiring and indwelling is the intended impact of the Eucharist... The Eucharist is an encounter of the heart, knowing Jesus' Presence through our own offered presence. In the Eucharist, we move beyond mere words or rational thought and go to that place where we don't talk about the Mystery anymore; we begin to chew on it. Jesus did not say, "Think about this" or "Stare at this" or even "Worship this." Instead he said, "Eat this!" We must move our knowing to the bodily, cellular, participative level. We must keep eating and drinking the Mystery, until one day it dawns on us, in an undefended moment, "My God, I really am what I eat! I also am the Body of Christ." A body awareness of this sort is enough to steer and empower our entire faith life. Merely assenting to or saying the words will never give us the jolt we need to absorb the divine desire for us."
I remember receiving my own jolt when I truly realized the immensity of the act of Eucharist. I was about to distribute the Eucharistic wafers on a Sunday to people I knew well. I knew everyone's name at St. Paul's in Canton OH where I had attended for decades and had served as Deacon for several years. Suddenly as I looked into the face of the person to whom I handed the wafer, it became the face of Jesus. It didn't physically change, exactly. My comprehension of what Jesus looks like changed. Radically. Here was now a holy face, a portrait of potential. I began smiling, and the person - a man who worked for Jet Blue, younger than me, slightly overweight, with a shaved head - smiled back. A bit dazed, I moved to the next person. A woman my age, a nurse, reddish hair losing its fire, lovely complexion - returned my smile of recognition. She also showed me the face of Jesus. Each face that day metamorphosed into a glimpse of the divine countenance. Like the sun appearing from behind a cloud.
Now it doesn't always happen. But when someone feels the mystery, looks up and smiles, it may happen between us. You have become Jesus for me. We are immersed together in the wonder of the indwelling of Christ. I am grateful to worship with you. We are invited and accepted into the eternal supper at Jesus' table. It is happening now, always, in the mystical core of eternal presence. I'll meet you there.
Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org