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In\nthe name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Good\nmorning, I’d like to add my own welcome to you all today, but also\nmy thanks for your invitation to stand up and speak with you. It’s\nonly been a few months since I came into this parish and your welcome\nand support of me has been a truly wonderful experience. \n
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I\nam both humbled, and nervous, to be able to share my first sermon\nwith all of you who have made me feel so welcome. And by first\nsermon, I do mean very first – ever – anywhere.
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But\nwhat a day to be asked to preach, Corpus Christi, a day set aside for\nus to Give Thanks for the Gift of the Holy Communion.
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All\nof us here, I would think, hold Communion in a very special regard,\nand many of us could no doubt recall particular times when the\nEucharist has particularly touched our lives and our understanding of\nwhat it means to be a part of this community of Faith which we call\nChrist’s body, the church.
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We\nmay remember our own first communion. I do, having watched others\nthroughout the years approaching the altar rail while I remained in\nmy seat alongside others my age. That first time that I could take\nthose steps myself, full of excitement and nervousness and joy.\nStanding alongside my friends, and waiting to receive the most holy\nbody and blood. Try telling a seven year old that what happened that\nday wasn’t a great and awesome gift.
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What\ndo you do with a gift like that? \n
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Paul\nsays “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.”\nPaul received this gift, a gift of grace from Christ and his response\nwas to hand it on. Shortly, we will also receive that same gift from\nChrist, a gift of grace expressed in the form of the Holy Communion.\nWhat do we do with it?
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Grace…such\nan incredibly deep thing, at its most inadequate could be described\nas God’s freely given love for us. It is a love that strengthens us\nto live as Children of God. What does it mean to live\nas a child of God?
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We\nare here, today, as on many other occasions, doing what Christ called\nus to do, we are becoming a part of God’s story that gathers up all\nof past and present and future into an offering of thanks that\nradiates outward with the certain knowledge of God’s love for us\nand for all people.
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That\nradiating action, that call to respond is so central to the\nEucharist. As Jesus tells us in John “Those who eat my flesh and\ndrink my blood have eternal life.” We have eternal life. In John’s\ngospel Eternal Life isn’t something that begins at some unknowable\nfuture time, Eternal Life has already begun. We have received eternal\nlife, now we have to live into that life. And we have to ask how are\nwe going to do that day by day?
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As\nI was putting this homily together I kept trying to end my thoughts\nwith clear statements. Instead I just ended up with a barrage of\nquestions. But what it showed me is that we’re here today, to give\nthanks for a gift that demands a response. This is not an unimportant\nor an unwanted or an unnecessary gift. It’s not a gift that can be\nthrown away or passively accepted with barely a nod of the head. This\nis a gift that makes demands. It makes demands because it gives us a\nglimpse of the true reality, the eternal life in which we live and\nparticipate. We are nourished to be able to live out that true life\nforever.
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Response\nis crucial. We are called to respond as individuals and as a\ncommunity, a people in Christ. We are called to do our best, both\nindividually but also together. To strive to love as God loves. To\ngive as God gives. And to give thanks to God for our freedom to do\nthat.
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Thinking\nso much about bread and wine, sustenance, neighbourliness. Thinking\nabout what the true life of Christ looks like. I found myself\nthinking about our present world. The other week I was out late and\nfound myself walking down Queen Street after dark. It was my first\ntime since coming up to Auckland. And I couldn’t get over how many\npeople I saw huddling in doorways. Alone…hungry. Those images\nstayed with me through the week, but they also made me aware of all\nof the times that I heard of people reaching out, responding to that\nneed at all levels. International Aid being sent to Nepal. The work\nof the various City Mission’s, including our own, to provide\nshelter and food as Winter approaches. A young girl in the U.S. who\nturned her family’s backyard into a vegetable garden for the\nhomeless.
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\nIn big ways and in small,\npeople choose to respond to the needs of the world. And in the\nprocess we also live into that eternal life that Christ has given us.\nWe transform and transfigure.
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“Those\nwho eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me….abide in me.”
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To\nabide is to continue in a place. To continue without yielding. To\nlive.
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Abide\nin Christ. Continue in the Eternal Life he has given you. Do not\nyield, but live.
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How\nyou choose to do that…how do WE choose to do that, as members of\nthis Parish, this Diocese, this denomination, as members of this One,\nHoly, Catholic and Apostolic family in Christ? \n
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That\nis never going to be an easy question. There’s never going to be\none answer, or one focus, or one plan. But at least we can be assured\nthat whenever we feel lost, whenever we feel that we aren’t living\ninto the life that Christ has given to us, we can once again come\nbefore the altar of grace, to eat this bread and drink the cup…until\nhe comes again.
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And\nas a final thought for this morning…I wanted to shift slightly to\nmention to you a word that has fascinated me, a word that I enjoy\nspending time with, a word that wouldn’t leave me alone as I was\napproaching this Sunday. \n
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It’s\na common word that many churches use, we use it here, we print it on\nour service sheets. Many of us would use it as the common term. \n
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As\nI’m leaving for St Albans in the morning and someone sees me and\nasks where I’m going, I could say I’m going to Holy Communion –\nTo be in community and communion with Christ and with the people.
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I\ncould say, I’m going to the eucharist, I’m going to give thanks\nto God. \n
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I\ncould say, I’m going to The Lord’s Supper, I’m going to the\nbanquet of my lord and saviour.
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And\nall of those expressions would be true and all of those would be\nright. \n
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But\nmore often than not the words that spill out are…”I am going to\nMass.”
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Mass…such\nan innocuous wee word. Many people would write it off, many do. It\nhas a fuzzy meaning that changes depending on who you’re talking\nto. But it is a word that I love to wrestle with, after all, if I’m\ngoing to use it, then I should be able to define it. \n
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Mass\nis just an Anglicisation, a turning into English, of a latin word,\nMissa, \n
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And\nMissa, in and of itself, is also just another innocuous wee word. So\nwhy did this little latin word, for so many people, become synonymous\nwith other terms like Communion, Eucharist, The Lord’s Supper. \n
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In\nthe old latin rite, Missa is part of a phrase, a line of text. Ite,\nmissa est. Go, It is sent.
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It\nis part of the dismissal. In our liturgy we would say, The Mass is\nended, Go Now to love… and Serve the Lord. \n
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A\nword that we use to refer to the Holy Communion, to our participation\nin it, doesn’t come from the start of the service, it doesn’t\ncome from the middle of the service, it comes from the end, after all\nis said and done, after the Holy Spirit has descended and after all\nthe bread and the wine, the body and the blood, has been consumed. It\ncomes as we are being sent out into the world. It comes to us,\nbegging for a response, asking us “What Next”
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We\nhave received from Christ, what now are we going to do, what now are\nwe going to hand on in thanksgiving for the gift.
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Lord\nJesus Christ
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we\nthank you that in this wonderful sacrament
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you\nhave given to us the memorial of your passion:
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grant\nus so to reverence the sacred mysteries of your body and blood
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that\nwe may know within ourselves and show forth in our lives
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the\nfruits of your redemption;
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for\nyou are alive and reign with the Father
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in\nthe unity of the Holy Spirit,
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one\nGod, now and for ever.
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Amen.