PEFT for the World

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 6, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.

A couple of years ago on a weekend trip to visit my parents, I had a sudden epiphany about my mother’s Mission in Life. For several weeks previous to our visit, Mom and Dad had been having trouble with a raccoon which had been raiding their trash and garden. The night before we arrived at their home, my father had trapped this huge raccoon in a ‘Have a Heart” cage, intending to drive it far out into the country and drop it off in a new home.

About an hour before Dad and I were to make our little trip into the country, my mother announced that she was taking some cat food out to the raccoon, allowing as it was probably hungry! At that very moment I realized that despite whatever other roles she had played in life: wife, mother, teacher, church member, etc, her REAL Mission in life was “To feed living things”. It mattered not what species – neighborhood dog, stray cat, foraging deer – even fat raccoons – they all fell under my mother’s Divine Mandate to feed living things. At that moment it also became clear to me why she had majored in Home Economics and why I was 20 years old before I realized that breakfast is not necessarily a four-course meal! It was all beause of my mother Mission in Life to feed living things!

Thesis:
Today I would like to suggest to you that Jesus has a similar mission in our lives: To make himself known to us and the world in the breaking of bread.

We could perhaps restate this by saying that Our Worship, Fellowship and Outreach as Christians is based around Companionship – being those who break bread together.

Scriptures:

In our Gospel lesson from Luke 24:13-35, we find Jesus walking with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, talking with them about the recent events, “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” V. 16. After extensive discussion about the Christ being prophecied in Scripture, they all sit down to a meal. And “when he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” vv. 30,31

Here we can see what has been called the Four-Fold Eucharistic action. Jesus:

Took Bread
Blessed it
Broke it
Gave it to them.

Each Sunday we re-enact this pattern in our Worship. If my mom were here today, she’d be very happy, because it’s all about feeding living things!

Basis for Fellowship

In Acts 2:42, 46, we see a similar pattern for something we could call Eucharistic Fellowship: V42 And they devoted themselves to:

the apostles' teaching and
the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and
the prayers.

46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…

So the people were going to church and eating together, receiving their food with thanksgiving, or “Eucharistically” .

I’ve taken the liberty of categorizing the four basic actions in these two passages into an acronym: PEFT. Both in their worship and their fellowship the early Christians did these four actions;

P ray
E at
F ellowship
T each

At the center of it all was eating – either eating the body and blood of Jesus, or having a so-called ‘Agape’ or fellowship meal.

Basis for Evangelism.
The result was Evangelism. The message about Jesus was spread abroad:

“…Then they told [the others]what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Lk. 24: 35.

“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” ACTS 2:47

I grant you that it’s too simple to say that the church grew because people worshipped and ate together. There’s also this amazing testimony from Acts:


43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. …47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

Signs and Wonders and community living also had a huge impact on the spread of the Gospel early on.

But as a local church, if we think about our strategy for reaching out to others, what could be simpler than a four fold plan:

Pray
Eat
Fellowship
Teach

Application:

In other words, invite people to come and eat with you. Go to lunch with them, invite them to your homes for dinner or to your small groups.

Get to know people through the fellowship you have with them over a meal.

Offer to pray for them – for their healing, for their businesses, for their family lives, for their salvation.

Then Teach. Teach through studying the Bible together. Teach what you’ve learned through your life experience: older ones mentor younger ones. Teach new believers how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Help them to know how to order their lives in a way that would be pleasing to God and profitable for them.
In light of all this, I’m thinking about a popular slogan: ‘The Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.

I’m also thinking that maybe my Mom is on to something. Maybe the Gospel is really all about Feeding Living Things.

Based on today’s lessons, I think that might be the case. So I say, “Pass the bread and Eat up!” Let’s Pray:

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.