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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Dining with God</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>When Seymour passed away, God greeted him at the Pearly Gates. "Thou be hungry, Seymour?" said God.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"I could eat," Seymour replied.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>So God opened a can
of tuna and reached for a chunk of rye bread and they shared it. While
eating this humble meal, Seymour glanced down into Hell and saw the
inhabitants devouring huge steaks, lobsters, pheasants, pastries, and
fine wines. Curious, but deeply trusting, Seymour remained quiet.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The next day God
again invited Seymour for another meal. Again, it was tuna and rye
bread. Once again looking down, Seymour could see the denizens of Hell
enjoying caviar, champagne, lamb, truffles, and chocolates. Still
Seymour said nothing.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The following day,
mealtime arrived and God opened another can of tuna. Seymour could
contain himself no longer. Meekly, he said: "God, I am grateful to be in
heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But
here in heaven all I get to eat is tuna and a piece of rye bread and in
the Other Place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but
I just don't understand."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>God sighed: "Let's be honest, Seymour. For just two people does it pay to cook?"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Donel McClellan, The Imaginary God</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Meeting God</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Barbara Brokhoff
says in her book, Faith Alive, "The Happy Hour for the Christian should
be the hour of worship on Sunday morning, but how do you honestly feel
when you are awakened by the alarm on the Lord's Day and you realize it
is another "Church Day"? Can you hardly wait for the service time to
roll around or do you roll over in bed, moan and groan and cover your
head, and wish that once, once again maybe once more like last Sunday
the one before, you would, or could sleep in and forget the whole
boring, time consuming thing?? Is the thought of worship agony or
ecstasy? I think we are coming to meet God--not just anybody, but God!!
Shouldn't the delightful suspense of worship make our breath short and
our hearts beat faster?" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Barbara Brokhoff, Faith Alive, quoted by Tim Zingale, Wisdom = Being in Christ</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_____________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Bread from Home</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I'm reminded of a
true story of a soldier who was severely wounded. When he was out of
surgery, the doctors said that there was a good chance for recovery,
except that the soldier wouldn't eat anything. The nurses and nuns tried
everything, but he refused all food-drinking only water and juice.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>One of his buddies
knew why the soldier wouldn't eat-he was homesick. So, his friend, since
the hospital wasn't too far from the soldier's home, offered to bring
the young man's father to visit him. The commanding officer approved and
the friend went to the parents' home. As the father was about to leave
for the hospital, the mother wrapped up a loaf of fresh bread for her
son.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Well, the patient
was very happy to see his father but he still wouldn't eat-that is,
until the father said; "Son, this bread was made by your mother,
especially for you". The boy brightened and began to eat.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I think that you
can guess where I'm going with that story. You and I are that boy. We
are the ones who have been wounded in the battle of life. We are the
ones who've been wounded by sin, by trials and pains, by loss and by our
forgetfulness of God.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>We lose our taste
for the food that will strengthen our souls. Holy Communion gives us
life, spiritual life, God's life. It gives us spiritual healing and
spiritual strength. There was nothing 'magic' about the mother's bread
unless, that is, one feels that 'love' is magic--which, of course, it
is.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Author unknown</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Communion of Empty Hands</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>There's a beautiful
incident recorded by Thomas Pettepiece, a Methodist pastor, who was a
political prisoner, a prisoner of conscience. Pettepiece writes of his
first Easter Sunday spent in prison. He was among 10,000 prisoners. Most
of the men had lost everything: their homes, their jobs, their
furniture, their contact with their families. It was Easter Sunday, and
they wanted to celebrate Communion. But, they had no cup for Communion.
They had no wine for Communion. They didn't even have water for
Communion. Nor did they have any bread for the Sacrament.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>So, they practiced
the Communion of Empty Hands. "This meal in which we take part,"
Pettepeice said, "reminds us of the imprisonment, the torture, the death
and final victory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The bread is the
body which he gave for humanity. The fact that we have none represents
very well the lack of bread in the hunger of so many millions of human
beings. The wine, which we don't have today, is his blood, and
represents our dream of a united humanity, of a just society, without
difference of race or class."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Then Pettepiece,
the pastor, held out his empty hand to the next person on his right, and
passed on the imaginary loaf. Each one took a piece and passed it on.
Then he said, "Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do
this in remembrance of me." And together they ate the imaginary bread,
trying to imagine tasting it.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>After a moment they
passed around the non-existent chalice, each imagining he was drinking
from it. "Take, drink, this is the blood of Christ which was shed for
you ... Let us give thanks, sure that Christ is here with us,
strengthening us."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>They gave thanks to
God and then stood up and embraced each other. And a while later, one
of the non-Christian prisoners came up to them and said, "You people
have something special, which I would like to have." And the father of a
girl who had died came up to Pettepiece and said, "Pastor, this was a
real experience. I believe that today I discovered what faith is ..."
(from Visions of a World Hungry, quoted in A Guide To Prayer, Rueben P.
Job and Norman Shawchuck, editors, The Upper Room, p. 143).</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Alex Gondola, Jr., Come As You Are, CSS Publishing Company.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Togetherness in the Eucharist</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Bread suggests togetherness, care and love, hopes and dreams, fun and adventure. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Let's say some new
friends invite you to their house for a meal. When you are a guest in
their home, they are sharing their intimacy with you. They are sharing
with you some of the privacy of that place where they live every day,
eat every day, love every day, work on their problems, argue from time
to time, sleep and depart for work and pleasure and return for rest,
every day. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>After graciously
receiving you, they show you around their home in which they take deep
pride. Then you go to the dining room for the meal. You find the table
set with care, the food exceptionally delicious, and the conversation
flows easily. Simply put, it becomes a lovely evening and you leave
feeling full in every way. You enjoy bread from the kitchen, but much
more. You enjoy the bread of being graciously received, the bread of
informed and lively conversation, and the bread of being in beautiful
surroundings.. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Magnify that
thousands of times and you begin to have a glimmer of what the church
perceives the Holy Eucharist to be. In the Eucharist Jesus and "Bread of
Life" are one. In the Eucharist bread and wine are the elements that
nurture faith in God.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, CSS Publishing Company </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_____________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Christ in Me and I in Him</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>There is an story
about minister walking along the ocean with his small son. The boy
questioned his father about Sunday's sermon. The boy said, "Dad, I
cannot understand how Christ can live in us and we live in him at the
same time." Further down the beach, the father noticed an empty bottle
with a cork in it. Taking the bottle, he half filled it with water,
re-corked it and flung it out into the ocean.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>As they watched the bottle bob up and down he said...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1450654041__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001c8TGK9lTua-EoF07zKIt1DH0s3AR3E3CIiWMyUj2-9Xz6gJTM0wq063mzQH7CczT3cqkNGcGn7ns3ewGPx4uOFToYkX4gb7T2MY_nQQspc0=">www.Sermons.com</a>. <br>
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