Corpus Christi Sunday
The Blessed Sacrament
Heaven’s Hospitality!
Discipleship Questions for Sunday June
10, 2007
Scripture
Readings:
First Reading:
Genesis 14:18-20
Psalm:
110
Second
Reading: 1Corinthians 11:23-26
Gospel:
Luke 9:11-17
Gen. 14:18
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and
wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram,
saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And blessed be God Most High, who
delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of
everything.
Psa. 110:1
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 2 The LORD will extend your mighty
scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. 3 Your troops will be willing on your
day of battle. Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will
receive the dew of your youth. 4
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in
the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The
Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will judge the nations, heaping
up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. 7 He will drink from a brook beside
the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
1Cor. 11:23
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on
to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he
broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance
of me.” 25 In the same way, after
supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do
this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Luke 9:11
but the crowds learned about it and
followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and
healed those who needed healing. 12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve
came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding
villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote
place here.” 13
He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We
have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14
(About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them
sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two
fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them
to the disciples to set before the people.
17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up
twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Melchizedek is a transliteration of two Hebrew words, melek and tsedeq. The Hebrew melek means king and tsedeq means
righteousness. Therefore, the term "melchizedek"
means literally, "king of righteousness."
Josephus, a famous Jewish historian of the first century AD, writes that
Melchizedek "supplied Abram's army in a hospitable manner, and gave them
provisions in abundance… and when Abram gave him the tenth part of his prey, he
accepted the gift" (Ant., I, x, 2).
The silence of Scripture
over this mysterious character called Melchizedek's are noteworthy. He’s referred to only 10 times in the
Bible - once in the Book
of Genesis; once in Psalm 110 and 8 times in the New Testament Book of
Hebrews. This only heightens the mystery
surrounding this rather amazing person.
Melchizedek appears with bread and wine after Abraham’s great
victory and blesses Abraham and in response Abraham gives him one tenth of all
the booty that he had captured from those he had just conquered.
This was all the more remarkable since the priest-king was a
stranger, to whom he was not bound to pay tithes, as were the children of Israel to the priests of the Aaronic line. Abraham, therefore, and
Levi "in the loins of his father" (Heb. vii,
9), by acknowledging his superiority as a type of Christ, thereby confessed the
excellence of Christ's
priesthood.
What we see in this strange
occurrence are two very important things that anticipate the Corpus Christi –
the Blessed Sacrament:
·
The first is the Bread and Wine
as signs of His blessing Abraham
·
and the second was the spirit of hospitality that permeated this
whole occurrence and foreshadowed the infinite hospitality Christ demonstrated
by His self-sacrifice in order to provide us a way into the Kingdom of
God. Christ’s body and blood – bread and
wine - opened the gates of heaven to all who would believe in Him – this is the
ultimate act of hospitality!
Hospitality? Hospitality? It’s such a homely word isn’t it? Not very dynamic at first glance – is
it? Hospitality . . . Hmmmm – God through Melchizedek was extending heavenly
hospitality to Abraham after his great act of faithfulness in pursuing the
enemy with a very small army. God
through the Priest King Melchizedek was blessing Abraham!” The HOSPITABLE act
of the enigmatic priest king Melchizedek is revisited millennia later by Jesus
Himself but this time the Bread and Wine are not being offered to Abraham but
rather to us – but it’s the Bread and Wine of Heaven – the Blessed Sacrament. The key idea in both of these occurrences is “the Hospitality of
Heaven!”
Luke 9:17 They
all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of
broken pieces that were left over.
When Jesus blesses us there’s inevitably a superabundance
left over. He blesses us
superabundantly!
And for this we get to do what Abraham did – return to Him
one tenth of our wealth! And we do this
not out of a sense of compunction but out of a sense of utter
blessedness!” Please discuss.
4. And finally please turn with me to our Second Reading from 1Corinthians 11:23-23. These are the words that the priest says
every Sunday when he consecrate the elements. Listen to them:
1Cor. 11:23
For I received
from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was
betrayed, took bread, 24 and when
he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you;
do this in remembrance of me.” 25
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in
remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
What we see here
is Paul’s recording of the exact words that Jesus Himself used to institute the
Eucharistic Rite – the most sublime act of heavenly hospitality!
In this very brief
statement Paul gives all ownership to this statement to Jesus Himself – Jesus
from the order of Melchizedek.
He said, “This
doesn’t come from me but rather what I received from our Lord I now pass on to
you!” And then Paul proceeded to give
his readers and picture perfect image of what was to be said at all Eucharistic
celebrations at that time.
Jesus took bread,
gave thanks to God for it and then broke it and told us what this meant – “This
is my broken body – which I have sacrificed for all of you. This is my blood which is in fact the cup of
the new covenant. So eat my flesh and
drink my blood and in doing so you will not only remember me and all that I
have done for you but this very Rite will be a most perfect proclamation to the
watching world of the Good News that I loved the world so much that I was
willing to die for it. But remember –
never forget - that I love you so much that I died for you and keep on doing
this until I come again.
In this statement
Jesus is telling us – His Body on earth - how to extend His Heavenly
hospitality to the entire world!
Can you see it
coming?
We, you and I, as
we follow Jesus - become a Holy Priesthood of the order of Melchizedek called
to proclaim the Good News of Heaven’s Open Arms – of Heavens Sublime
Hospitality - to all who would come and believe in Jesus and eat of Him at His
Altar – at His Communion Table!
You and I are
being reminded again this morning of our calling to the Priesthood of all
believers to extend the arms of heaven to all who would come!
Hospitality is to
drive – to describe - to enliven – to invigorate our very existence as
Christians! And that which we have to offer is Jesus Himself not only in His
Words but in His very physical presence in the Blessed Sacrament!
This is the great
heavenly gift – it’s the very font of our existence. Life – streams of living water - flow out
from this altar and we’re being called to bring people to this life giving
font!” Please discuss.