[资料]牙齿过敏

handing on the bread of life - first presbyterian church Handing On the Bread of Life I Cor. 11:23-26 I Cor. 15: 3-11 “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received…” When I was a child, growing up in small to medium Southern towns in a Presbyterian minister?s house, “hand me downs” were a fact of life. I was the middle of three brothers, and I had a cousin who was just two years older than me. Almost all my Sunday coats and slacks were “hand me downs,” and many of my winter sweaters, and other durable items. It was not frugal to simply buy new things, when there were perfectly good “hand me downs” waiting in the closet for me to grow into them. I think I resented this at various times. But think of my little brother. He was fourth in line of this progression. But other times, „hand me downs” carry real meaning. They become what we call heirlooms. My first preaching robe was a “hand me down” from my father. It had a frayed collar and slightly faded cloth, and I thought it was Elijah?s mantle. I was so proud to wear that robe, which had already been in the pulpit far more times than I had. Some things become heirlooms. Our daughter Jessica wears a wedding ring made from my grandmother Jessie?s wedding ring. “Hand me downs” can also be a treasure. In two different places in his letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul says “I handed on to you what I received…” You remember that Paul never met Jesus of Nazareth, the man traveling around Galilee. Paul is a second generation Christian. Everything he has in terms of the story of this Jesus comes to him from someone else. Paul spends his life traveling around the Mediterranean, passing this story and this faith on to others. It is the greatest treasure he knows. He wants to place it in the hands of as many people as he can, including the difficult, obstinate, enthusiastic believers at the “first” church of Corinth. In First Corinthians chapter 15 he passes on the earliest example of a Christian creedal statement; something that precedes the Apostles Creed by a hundred years or more. “For I handed on to you…that which I, in turn, had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried , and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” The news that Paul passes on is that Jesus was a real man, not a figure in a play, not a wish fulfillment projected onto the heavens, and not an angel pretending to live among us. Jesus lived, he died, and he was truly dead. Then God raised him from the dead to show that he is the One, the messiah, the savior. There is no other name under heaven or earth by which we must be saved from our guilt, our sin, our despair, and our aimless lives. Paul hands down the core of the tradition that Jesus came here, in person, for us and for our salvation. This is the treasure he wants to entrust to his readers. He does the same thing in chapter 11. “I received from the Lord that which I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, blessed it, broke it, and handed it on to his disciples.” Paul hands on the table manners and the meaning of the Lord?s Supper. The table manners that Paul includes are: that everyone do this together, and that they share the bread and the cup equally. This will help them take time to ponder the meaning of the death of Jesus, so that his life may be at work in them. He wants to help them enter into the experience of the living Christ at the table with them. You know, every family meal is a combination of tradition and present reality. What are your traditions? Who cooks the meal? Who sets the table? Who clears the dishes afterwards? Do you have a prayer of thanks at the beginning of the meal? Do you from time to time read a devotional book, or a verse of Scripture, as a way of recognizing that God gives us our daily bread? Every meal passes on tradition, etiquette and current presence of loved ones together--even when some may not be speaking to others at the moment—even at those times when everyone is talking at once, and the milk gets spilled, and the elbows are on the table. Few things in our world communicate connection more than sitting at a table together, handing the bread around to each other. Christian faith is a hand-me-down affair. You and I got it second hand or second hundred hand from some others, and you and I pass it along. It does not stay with us. Right now we are seeking to hand some of it on to our eight graders who are in confirmation class. We meet weekly to read the Bible together, to share some of our lives and our stories, to play a few games, to do a service project. We pass this story, this faith from hand to hand. Week by week in worship, we gather to hand on this story, this etiquette, this way of living in the presence of God. We have some ways of singing, of praying, of reading the Bible. We have ways of greeting each other, and of welcoming babies and new members. Our lives are shaped and molded by these actions, and by this story that has been handed to us. Week by week we admit that we are sinners in need. Week by week we are assured that God is a forgiving God, and that Jesus died for our sins that we may have a life that will last. Our lives are guided by the living presence of the One we meet in this place. It is an old family tradition handed down to you and me. This story that shapes our lives is not just for us. We are charged with handing it on to others: both as a group and as individuals. As a group we support schools and seminaries, mission workers in other parts of the world, and mission projects at home and abroad. We, as a group, have many ways to hand on the message and meaning we have received. For example, some folk from here went last summer to help lead a summer camp on Church Hill. We were joined by members of the Mount Gilead Church, and we welcomed sixty neighborhood children for a week-long enrichment program. We handed on to those children some of the blessings that God has handed to us. As individuals, we have the privilege of sharing this faith with our friends, our neighbors, those we meet in new places, and with our children and our loved ones. This is not just for us. It gets moldy if we keep it in our own hands too long without sharing it. Someone we know is hungry for this bread, and Christ intends for us to share. Someone around us needs to know that we believe, that we trust God, and that we pray. The Christian faith is always passed hand to hand. This is the heirloom, the treasure entrusted to us so that we may pass it along. Today, it is our privilege to come to this holy table, this holy bread, one more time. As you come forward to receive the bread and the cup, I want you to imagine that here is a long line folk standing behind the table. t In that line are some of your saints: a childhood pastor, a special Sunday school teacher, a grandmother who loved you and read you Bible stories. There are great teachers like Sara Little and E.T. Thompson. Going back a little farther are some we know but never met: their parents, and grandparents and teachers. Going back a little farther in that line stands John Holt Rice, the founding pastor of this church, and Samuel Davies, the first Presbyterian evangelist in Virginia. Behind them stand saints like John Knox and John Calvin. Moving a little farther back, we see Francis of Assisi, Sister Claire, and Teresa of Avila. All the way back at the other end, we find Mary and Martha, Peter and Paul, James and John. And at the very start of the line, stands Jesus, who takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and hands it down the line, from hand to hand, from generation to generation, all the way to me, all the way to you. “I handed on to you what I also received…” an heirloom, a treasure, a living reality that Christ is with us. Let us now take our turn in sharing this bread. Let us make our commitment to hand it on to others. Dr. Charles A. Summers February 7, 2010