Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The 10th Sunday after Pentecost
One of the few specific memories I have of my elementary school days is the first day back after summer vacation. I used to dread that day, because I knew the teacher was going to ask us to write about what we did over summer vacation, and I hated writing. It was almost as if the vacation wasn’t worth it if you had to come back and write about it! I could never think of what to say!
Aren’t the ironies of life funny sometimes? In the 27 years I have been a priest, I imagine that more often than not, when I have gotten back from vacation I have written my sermon around what I did on my summer vacation.
And what a vacation I have had! I had not one but several mountaintop experiences. You see, I have really gotten into hiking, I climbed to the top of the Continental Divide. In Flagstaff, Arizona, I climbed to the top of the San Francisco Mountain. I also did the reverse in hiking from the top of the Grand Canyon to the bottom and then back again. I did all of my hiking by myself, because hiking isn’t Linda’s “cup of tea,” many of my hikes being around 2o to 25 miles in length, and it was a fantastic experience. I enjoyed the solitude, most often not seeing any other people most of the time, and sometimes never seeing a soul.
The scenery was magnificent. I also saw several deer in the wild, and I also came fairly close to a black bear in the hills of Virginia, where we had gone at the end of our vacation in order for me to officiate at a wedding near Roanoke. And while I was in the Grand Canyon at first I heard the rattle, and then I saw the snake, about a four-foot rattlesnake only a couple of feet away from me. Luckily, both the bear and the snake seemed as frightened of me as I was of them. Seeing those creatures in the wild was probably the highlight of my vacation. What a thrill!
Right after vacation I went immediately to West Hartford, Connecticut, where I joined several of our senior highs and young adults for the St. Michael’s Conference, where I am the Assistant Director for the week. We had 86 participants this year, 25 or so being from Redeemer. During the week we had a solemn high mass as well as Evensong every day. We had courses on the Holy Eucharist, Confession, Faith and Doubt, the science-fiction trilogy of C.S. Lewis, and Dante’s Inferno, just to mention a few. In the evenings we had such things as a talent show, a square dance, a game night, a scavenger hunt, and at the very end of the week a pageant about the Christian faith and life.
One of the major emphases of the conference is encouraging everyone to make a sacramental confession, including clergy and staff. You’ve heard the adage, “Confession is good for the soul.” Our young people learn first-hand the truth of that statement. The St. Michael’s Conference is a mountaintop experience for everyone who participates. And I want to say, also, that I couldn’t be more proud of our young people, who make such a tremendous contribution to the conference.
So, I’ve been to the mountaintop, both literally and figuratively, and I am so very grateful that I have had the opportunity to do everything that I have done this summer while away from Redeemer. But as good as it is to go away, it is always wonderful to return, for the Church of the Redeemer is a mountaintop parish. Linda and I always try to attend church on Sunday whenever we are away, and although Christians are always welcoming and we always enjoy our experiences, we just haven’t found any place like Redeemer, and that’s because of you. You are a very special group of people, with so many gifts, and with a great spirit. I don’t say that enough to you, and I don’t think you really realize how special you are.
It’s interesting that on my first Sunday back, after I have had these mountaintop experiences, both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel appointed for today can be seen as mountaintop experiences. In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the Hebrew people of the law which God gave to him on the mountaintop—Mt. Sinai. Then he recalls how, during the 40 years they spent in the wilderness, God miraculously fed them with manna. To have their basic necessities met the entire time they were in the wilderness was a mountaintop experience. God was with them every step of the way.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of the way in which the believer is continually given the food of immortality. He refers to the miracle of the manna in the wilderness, but then he says that he gives us bread from heaven, and that the one who eats of this bread will live for ever. Jesus says, “The bread I will give…is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.” Our Lord is, of course, referring to the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament through which earth is joined to heaven and heaven to earth. The mass has been celebrated from the very beginning of the Church, to re-present the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the world, to renew the covenant made at our baptism, and to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, mystically present in the bread and the wine. Jesus put it very graphically, so we couldn’t miss his meaning: “The bread I will give…is my flesh.”
I find it puzzling that Protestantism has largely rejected the idea that the bread and wine in communion become the Body and Blood of Christ. Granted, some strange things were believed in medieval society about the mass, which led to an extreme reaction by some of the reformers. But to maintain that Christ himself is not present in the elements of bread and wine at communion is to reject the plain words of Jesus and to risk the condemnation of God.
Every now and then someone will say to me, “I don’t believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament.” My response will always include something like this, “Then you believe that Christ is truly absent from the Sacrament?” The person usually backs up a bit then. “Well, I didn’t mean that, exactly.” Well, Jesus is either present or he isn’t, and if he isn’t, then a good deal of scripture is just not true, and countless Christians have believed in vain. I think we’re better off believing what Holy Scripture says that Jesus himself said, and if we believe it, then it follows that we should avail ourselves of the food of immortality as frequently as possible, and at the very least, every Sunday.
I have had some terrific mountaintop experiences, both literally and metaphorically. But we don’t have to go away in order to go the mountaintop. Every time we celebrate mass we are as close to God as we can get in this lifetime. “O food to pilgrims given, O bread of life from heaven, O Manna from on high! We hunger, Lord, supply us, nor thy delights deny us, whose hearts to thee draw nigh.”