Commentary for an Instructed Eucharist,

Presented at St. Mark’s, Honey Brook, PA

by The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, April 6, 2006

Holy Eucharist, Rite I, Fifth Sunday in Lent (year B)

(some of these notes were skipped in worship for the sake of brevity)

Introduction before the opening hymn:

This morning, we will have an instructed Eucharist. As we go through the service today, there will be a running commentary on what we are doing and why we do it.

The word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” The Eucharist is the feast of the church—the principal act of worship among Christians. Each Eucharist is a small Easter celebration. We give thanks to God for all of God’s blessings to us, but especially in the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ—for his life, death and resurrection by which we are forgiven of our sins and given new life, reconciled to God and to each other in Christ.

We derive our worship from two sources of our Jewish heritage. First, there is the primary worship for Jews: the Sabbath meal in the family home. Family worship is the primary context for Jewish worship. The host takes bread and gives thanks to God, saying “Blessed are you Lord GOD, king of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth.” The host takes the cup of wine and gives thanks, saying, “Blessed are you Lord GOD, king of the universe, creating the fruit of the vine.” For Christians, too, the Eucharist is a family meal, where we remember the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples, and where he promised to be with us, taking bread and wine and saying “this is my body….this is my blood.” We share this family meal, but we are a different kind of family. We are a family of brothers and sisters in Christ, all adopted as God’s children, gathered here each week for our family meal and family worship. Thus we gather together to share our presence with each other in God’s presence, to learn from the Holy Spirit together, to pray together, and to proclaim by word and actions, our identity through the sacrament of communion.

The other Jewish source of our worship is the temple worship. People would come to the temple to offer sacrifice in thanksgiving, praise, or in sacrifice for the atonement and forgiveness of sins. Grain offerings were made, wine offerings were poured out, animals were sacrificed for sin. For Christians, we claim Jesus Christ as the final sacrifice for sin, that by his life, death and resurrection we are forgiven for our sins and reunited with each other and with God. Our sacrament of communion gathers us in communion with Jesus and with each other in the body of Christ—the church.

The service is set in two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Table.

In the Liturgy of the Word, we gather for worship, we hear from and reflect on Holy Scriptures, we reaffirm our faith using the creed, and we offer our prayers to God. Thus prepared, we exchange the peace of Christ and gather for the Liturgy of the Table.

One of the distinctive features about Anglican worship is the way in which the congregation participates through movement. For some, this is called “Anglican Aerobics,” since there is a lot of getting up and down and moving about. Traditionally, the pattern is this: we stand to praise God in word or music, to hear the reading from the Gospel, and to recite the creed; we sit to hear scripture or the sermon, and we kneel to pray. In recent decades, we have also recognized standing as an appropriate posture for prayer, and the practice varies from congregation to congregation. During the penitential season of Lent, I invite you to kneel to pray, as you are able. During the season of Easter, however, you are invited to stand, as you are able for all of the prayers, including the Eucharistic prayer. So, let us stand and sing hymn 343.

After the opening hymn: gathering prayers

As we gather, we call our attention to God—in most seasons by addressing God as trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Lent, we remember God as the one who forgives our sins. We then prepare for worship with the Collect for Purity. A collect is a basic form of prayer that “collects” our thoughts together. The Collect for Purity asks God to prepare our hearts and minds for attentive worship of God.

We are then reminded of God’s calls to us to be a Holy People, through the reciting of the Ten Commandments, or in short form, hearing what is called the “Summary of the Law.” This summary was given by Jesus when he was asked what is the greatest commandment. This summary serves to orient us to the basic focus of the Christian life—love of God and love of neighbor, and to call to mind our shortcomings in following that call. In Rite II, the more contemporary form of worship, the Ten Commandments or summary is usually omitted.

We then sing either a hymn of praise or penitence, especially in keeping with the church season. The hymn of praise is called “the Gloria,” and the hymn of penitence is either the “Trisagion” or the “Kyrie Eleison.” “Kyrie eleison” is a Greek phrase which means “Lord, have mercy” and is either sung in Greek or English.

Our gathering is finally summed up in the Collect of the Day which is a prayer that reflects the season and the scripture readings for that day.

Before the readings:

The core part of the Liturgy of the Word is the reading of Holy Scriptures. The lessons are read from the lectern and always include a reading from the Old Testament, and from a New Testament book other than the Gospel accounts. We also follow the ancient practice of the church derived from Jewish worship by saying or singing a psalm together. After the New Testament reading, we stand to hear the Gospel proclaimed in the midst of the people by the Deacon from one of the Gospel accounts. The church sets a three-year calendar for what passages will be read. This calendar is called the Lectionary. In this three-year cycle, the congregation hears a great portion of the Bible. Last year, the Gospel readings were from the Gospel according to Luke, this year, they focus on Matthew, and next year will focus on Mark. Readings from the Gospel according to John come up each year, as in today’s Gospel reading.

Before the Sermon:

After the Gospel reading, a sermon is then preached, usually on one of the scripture readings of the day. The sermon is a response to and a reflection on the scriptures. The sermon should draw meaning from the Biblical text rather than take the preacher’s ideas and put them into the text. Ultimately, the sermon should relate the text to our lives, but more especially to the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ. An old joke tells it well: a good sermon should be about two things: about God and about fifteen minutes…

Before the Creed:

We now stand to affirm our faith with the words of the Nicene Creed. This ancient creed of the united church sets forth the basic statement of who God is. This Creed sets forth what we know to be true: that God is one, that God the Father is God, that Jesus Christ, God the Son, is God, and that God the Holy Spirit is God, but that there are not three gods, but one God. This is a mystery, and the creed sets the basic boundaries of belief and theological language about God in the Christian Faith.

Before the Prayers:

We now offer our prayers to God—both our requests and our thanksgivings. These are the “Prayers of the People” and are usually led by a lay person. The Prayers of the People are designed as a discipline to be sure that we pray for the whole Church, the nation and those in authority, the welfare and peace of the world, the concerns of the local community, those who suffer or are in need, and those who have died. There are several forms for these prayers, including some that are less formal and more interactive with the congregation. There is always time available for individuals to offer prayers either silently or aloud.

Our final prayer is the prayer of confession, where we confess our sins against God and our neighbor. We declare our repentance, our turning away from these sins and toward God, and we ask for God’s forgiveness and grace to lead a new life. The Priest then declares God’s pardon, and in Rite I, recites verses of scripture that remind us of God’s mercy and forgiveness (called “the comfortable words”).

We then remind ourselves of our common life in Christ as we exchange the peace of Jesus Christ.

Before the Liturgy of the Table:

The second half of the service is the Liturgy of the Table. Here, we continue our thanksgiving by remembering the last supper of Jesus with his disciples before his crucifixion. In this meal, we first offer ourselves to God through gifts of money and food for the ministry of the church, gifts of music, and gifts of bread and wine. This continues as we “lift up our hearts” in praise and thanksgiving, including singing an ancient song of praise called the “Sanctus,” or “Holy, Holy, Holy” (this song comes from the prophet Isaiah describing angelic praise of God).

We then continue with the Great Thanksgiving, remembering God’s saving acts in history, especially the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, summed up in his words and actions at the last supper. We remember this meal in our offering of bread and wine, and we remember Jesus’ words that this is his body, this is his blood. This prayer is lead by the priest (who is set apart by the church to preside at the Eucharist), but it is a prayer of the whole congregation, so the response of the people, “AMEN,” is a crucial part of the service. We then pray the Lord’s Prayer and say or sing a fraction anthem at the breaking of the bread. This Lent, we sing the “Agnus Dei” remembering Jesus as the “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” relating Jesus’ death to the death of the Passover lamb that symbolized God’s protection to the children of Israel.

In Rite I, we also recognize that we come to communion not trusting in our own worthiness, or as something that we have earned, but realizing that forgiveness and new life is the free gift of God to us out of God’s love for us. This prayer is called “the prayer of humble access.”

Eucharist is the principle act of worship in the Christian church. In it, we experience the real presence of Jesus Christ. In it, we are knit together with other Christians around the world and from the past (thus we are “in communion” with them). In it we celebrate our baptism and are strengthened to fulfill our baptismal vows.

Thus, all baptized Christians of any age receive the sacrament in this church, coming forward to the table with hands outstretched to receive the bread, and receiving the wine by guiding the chalice to your lips (by gripping the base of the chalice). Some also dip the end of the bread in the wine. We receive either the bread or the wine or both.

Those who are not baptized are welcome to join us at the table and receive a blessing. Please indicate this by crossing your hands across your chest. All are welcome into the body of Christ by preparation and Baptism.

This is the great feast of the church. In this feast, we proclaim our identity as a community joined together by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, serving God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is why we call this feast Eucharist—“thanksgiving,” and why conducting this service is called “celebration!”

Therefore let us keep the feast!