Communion Service Sermon

Bedford, MA December 26, 1999

Rev. Kinga-Reka Zsigmond

Dear Friends,

Transylvanian Unitarians take communion four times a year: at Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Thanksgiving. The bread and the wine are donated by a member of the congregation in memory of a loved one. So when we remember Jesus in our communion we remember our loved ones too. We read the words of the Bible, from Luke: “And he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

The significance of the last supper for us consists of Jesus’ clear statement that he claims a new covenant with God and that he asks his disciples to take communion to honor the community in his memory.

Religious reformers such as Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster, Mohammed, and others all claimed a new covenant. They all realized that the old religion - or at least the way it was practiced - was no longer satisfactory and that it was time to change it. Some claimed that there was no problem with the actual beliefs, but the way the clergy practiced religion was questionable. Some actually said that both beliefs and practices had to be changed.

Jesus’ criticism targeted the clergy. First he pointed out that they were robbing people of God’s word, the scriptures, making them feel ignorant and stupid. Then he pointed out that they were considering laws more important than human lives. Finally he pointed out that they were hypocritical and scornful. I think these charges are more than enough to disqualify clergy. But of course, at that time and many, many other times and in many other situations, a faithful and honest young man just wasn’t able to change the ideology of a whole generation/tradition.

Studying the scriptures Jesus also realized that there were some contradictions. The most obvious one was - that in books related to Moses - at first it said that “You have to love your neighbor as yourself,” and then it is said “And eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth,” which is a call to take revenge or get even. Jesus was convinced that God’s rule was the first one, that people have to love each other - moreover they have to love their enemies. To tell you the truth, we in Transylvania have not gotten so far. Have you? But I am sure that you have realized, too, the truthfulness of Jesus’ teaching that God’s kingdom is in the human heart.

Jesus felt called to witness to God’s love among the people, so he started the reformation of the Jewish church. After preaching and healing for three years, he had a last supper. A last moment of joy and of failure. He was satisfied to see the majority of his disciples redeemed, on the right road of life and happy about it. He also learned that there was at least one of his disciples who had changed his mind about him and that was Judas. But Jesus was determined to stay on the road. He faced his death. He knew he had to become a martyr. Unfortunately he has not been the only one since that time.

Communion is a sacred moment when we look at ourselves in the light of God’s radiant love. We believe that humans are born with the double capacity of being good-hearted or evil. There is a drive in us to become whole to become complete. So we try all kinds of things to achieve wholeness, to feel unbroken. I am convinced that our first instinct is to do good, not to be harmful. I’m convinced that we all have tried to go on in that direction.

But....... there is always a but...... I believe that people who fail to realize themselves in doing good, try their luck in the other direction. Being not responsible, being not compassionate, being not loving is always easier at least in the beginning.

People who believe they were born with a divine spark in their hearts know that human life is a short but wonderful opportunity to experience love and connectedness. In order to do this we need moments of depth. We need to stand in silence for a moment, to look in the mirror of our conscience and in the mirror of our partner’s eyes.

After doing so, if we still believe that our lives are headed in the right direction and we still feel connected to each other, we have to reinforce this feeling. Communion is a sacred opportunity to reinforce our connectedness to each other as individuals in order to reinforce our connectedness to the community we live in.

But.......there is another obstacle. Because it would be just great to find out that everything works absolutely perfectly. That everybody is happy, everybody feels - is convinced - that she is on the right road - going forth in the right direction - doing the right thing in terms of her life and in terms of the lives of the people she lives with. Wouldn’t it be great to believe that our community is the best one in terms of mutuality, interconnectedness, common sense, and a sense of responsibility? Wouldn’t that be great? To say, hey - everything is OK. Let’s have the bread and have that wine, pray a little, then go home, celebrate. Life is Wonderful!

Life is wonderful, but not always. To make short a long story of hope, love, and failure, let me use a simplistic way of “fixing this problem.” I am convinced that life is rooted in two main sentiments: fear and love. When we experience love the world seems to enlarge. There is hope, comfort, and well being, and we feel proud and happy.

But when we experience fear, fear of failure, fear of being misled, then the world shrinks and we see nothing but dangerous enemies coming after us. To fix this problem we need to get rid of our fears.

Communion is a perfect time to practice a little bit of exorcism. It is a perfect time to look inward and say: “Fear, go away. Fear of getting old, fear of getting sick, fear of death, fear to start a new life, fear to be honest, fear to quest for new meaning in life. Go away.”

Communion is an opportunity – an invitation – to focus our lives on love. The love we can give, the love we can receive. You have to believe that there is enough love for everybody - to be convinced that (among many other things) God is love, the Spirit of life is love. So let us chase away the fear, stay with love, have the bread and wine and feel courageous.

I know that “love” is the expression which is most misused in many languages. The men in the Taliban love their women, that’s why they cover every inch on them and punish the ones who cannot receive this love. Our dictator loved us for decades, that’s why he tortured and killed thousands. In the same way we loved him in 1989, and that is why he ended up as he did. Serbs and Albanians love Kosovo, that is why they kill each other and so on.

Jesus’s teaching, his message, his new covenant and it’s practice, taking communion, has nothing to do with these kinds of “understandings.”

There is a very serious problem with the idea and the practice of communion. Why? Because communion is not only a festive hour when we stand in a circle, it is not only the simple act of sharing bread and wine. It is a testimony of our community. We witness each others’ lives, we care for each other, that is why we have communion. Moreover, we have to realize that we witness the fact that we have things in common.

I know this may sound harsh or authoritative, for people who like the individualistic way of life better than they like community life. However, everybody has to realized that in order to have a somewhat balanced life we need both individualistic and communitarian involvements. Tony Kushner, in the appendix of his play “Angels in America” says “One person alone is a fiction. There has to be at least two persons to make art or religion happen.”

But communion is not only a way to prove that we have communitarian involvement. It also has to reveal the fact that people who share communion feel responsible for each other. When Jesus predicted his death, he said to his disciples “I am going to die. You must love each other as I have loved you.” WE know that Jesus was a martyr. That he died because he did not deny his faith and his ideas. Love has to reign he said. In politics, in churches, everywhere in society. Of course he was an idealist. He died because of this, but at least he left something for us too. Taking communion, we remember him and everyone else who taught us to love each other and feel responsible for a community of people.

My father was a Unitarian minister and he saw few good things in his life. His bequest was “Be a little bit more, a little bit better than I was.” I am sure there is someone among your close family or friends who has bequeathed something similar to you. A parent, a friend, a sibling, somebody who loved you as Jesus loved his disciples.

So before you eat this bread and drink this wine, remember those persons and see where you are in the light of their bequests. Remember Jesus, who was a struggling, loving, crying human being, just like us, but who was strong enough to bequeath something universal to all of us.

Honor the bread and the wine as symbols of life. Honor the community of this communion, honor your true self, honor the spirit of life.

Amen