Christ’s “new commandment,” from the Gospel of John, is that we love one another as we have been loved.  This morning we’re celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion, which is sometimes referred to as an “Agape Meal” or “Love Feast.”  I grew up hearing it described as “The Last Supper” or “The Lord’s Supper” but, in any case, it has always been a very meaningful act of worship for me.  Somewhere along the line I began using the words, “Feed on him in your heart by faith,” and the symbolism of being nourished and strengthened by the Body of Christ that we may grow into the Body of Christ is a powerful image.

    What I pray for is that “sacramental awareness” transcends a Sunday ritual and becomes a recognition that everything is sacred and that we are always feeding on the Body of Christ. That’s what I think heaven must be like.  William Barclay defines eternal life as "an infinitely high quality of life in living fellowship with God, both now and forever."

    It’s been my experience that, as we begin to even dimly experience this infinitely high quality of life in fellowship with God, then every other relationship in life begins to undergo a transformation. If we really take into ourselves the words of John 3:16 that "God so loved the world . . . that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life " then the process of transformation begins with the realization that God is all of life, is love, and love is eternal. Love is the creative force that continually creates, sustains and redeems the entire universe. God's love finds expression in every rock, leaf and tree. Go for a walk in the park.  Walk in love, looking and listening for God's presence. Look at the glory of God's love being expressed in blooming flowers, budding trees, ducks, turtles, swans, even the sparkling sunlight reflected in the pond and stream. Listen to God's love song in the sound of rushing waters, singing birds and gentle wind.

    God's love is the meaning of life.  Each of us has been given a physical body, as well as a mind and a soul. Each of us is a person of sacred worth, and God is continually seeking to teach us life lessons so that we'll grow into the likeness of Christ. God's greatest gift is that we have free will. We can ignore God and refuse to believe the good news of God's love, or we can open our eyes to look, our ears to listen and our heart to love. As we love, we enter into that "infinitely high quality of life in fellowship with God" and are able to say, with Paul, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

    Not only our own self-image, but also our image of others is transformed because what we begin to understand is that when God loves the world, it's not a private or exclusive love. The lesson we learn through Christ is to love even as we have been loved, to forgive even as we have been forgiven.

    When we share the sacrament of Holy Communion, we’re focusing on the love of God, but we’re also being reminded that divine love, whenever it takes on life in the real world, inevitably takes on the aspect of sacrificial love.  The Body of Christ we are offered is the broken body, which reminds us that life in the real world is hard! We all have our crosses to bear.  Suffering is an inevitable part of life. But suffering is transformed through looking to God, listening to Scripture, and opening our hearts to love. We begin to realize that "all things work together for good, for those who love God." (Romans 8:28).

    Life is not random or meaningless. There is purpose and direction. The best is yet to come, and in the person of Jesus Christ the best is available right here and now. When we take the very Body of Christ into our heart, when we “feed on him in our heart by faith,” what we began to realize is that the Kingdom of Heaven is within. Eternal life, that "infinitely high quality of life in fellowship with God" begins now, for those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to love.

    So, before we share in the sacrament of Holy Communion, I want to offer a list of 10 "Rules For Being Human."

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."

4. A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will, again, look better than "here."

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

Yes, we forget. But the Good News is that God keeps re-minding us with the Mind of Christ. God keeps re-membering us, gathering us together as members of the Body of Christ. That's what the sacrament of Holy Communion is about. It’s about Love.  It’s about Life. Come, be re-minded, re-member who and whose you are - In Christ. Amen.

(1) Brett Blair, on-line Sermon Illustrations, 1999