What an odd, odd thing we're about to do.
Odd -- at least if you look at it from the outside.
In a few short moments we'll be taking part in a celebration. And this celebration will have as one of it's central elements an instrument of execution reserved by the Roman authorities for the worst criminals - political rebels. A means of painful, sl ow, humiliating death -- a cross.
You get an idea of how odd that is if you were to try and imagine something similar today. Imagine, say, paging through our hymnal and using these words:"In the Gas Chamber of Christ I Glory" or "Beneath the electric chair of Jesus"
You see?

But so it is. We'll be lifting up and distributing bread, reminding each other of a body shredded and mangled on a cross. We'll take a cup with red liquid and, as it were, drink the very blood of the one dangling on that cross. We'll pray a "Th ank you" prayer. There will be no shame. We won't try to hide this fact. We may even smile. We will close the service with a song of triumph:"Praise God, you angel hosts above!!"
I don't know how it is for you, but sometimes when I've done something for a while it can become routine, almost to the point where I don't think about it anymore.
Like driving to work in the morning, and suddenly realizing that I'm sitting in the van in my parking spot. Don't remember getting there.
Does anyone else suffer from that affliction?

Attending worship can become like that at times. So can celebrating Holy Communion. One of the most ancient and most holy moments in the faith life of the Church and believers. So holy.... that we call it a "sacrament" - a "sa cred act". It's an act from which persecuted Christians draw faith-saving strength. I've celebrated it with dying believers and see them gain renewed hope and divine peace. It's also something that believers sometimes quaff back quickly on t heir commute through church, waking up again at home over a cup of coffee and a piece of danish, wondering how they got there. And they don't realize what an odd, yet powerful thing they've participated in. Earlier John led us in confessing our communal statement of faith. You and I said, "I believe in Jesus Christ... our Lord... who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified...."
We believe that.

In a few moments we are going to pay special attention to that.
To His suffering.
To His condemnation by Pilate.
To His crucifixion.
Odd though it may be, we will celebrate it!

And fellow believers, brothers and sisters in faith -- It is my fervent prayer that none of us will be caught sleeping at the spiritual wheel, so to speak.
Celebrate. Deliberately. Aware.
Aware of it's almost odd, very peculiar character.
May that be our approach today.

To help us focus our attention, I'd like to read with you some words from the central teaching document of Reformed Churches, the Heidelberg Catechism.

That says it pretty clearly, doesn't it?
Humanity, every one of us, has violated God's Holy Justice. He is perfect and pure. We are called to that again and again. But again and again we blow it.
The Bible says:
"Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." (Lev 19.2)
"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5.48)
"As He is holy, so be holy in all you do." (1 Pet 1.15)

And us? Well, we calculated it with my catechism class -- sort of round figures. Thought that if we could pull off a really good day (and we weren't sure how likely that would be) we could get away with three sins a day -- things God told us to do that we didn't, or things He forbids us to do which we do. Three.
In a good year that'd be about 1000 sins.
I'm 38. Thinking overly optimistically, it means I come staggering into God's perfect, pure, holy presence with a wagon load of 38,000 sins. Transgressions against His express will.
And then what?
The Bible is clear --"Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of God's Law." (Gal 3.10)
Cursed --
That's more than being the recipient of a swear word. That means being on the receiving end of God's condemning judgement. His punishment. His holy and righteous anger.
Deserving every bit of it.Condemned to be banished from God's life-giving presence for all eternity, never permitted to enjoy His beauty; left to the ravages of evil hellish darkness.
Till Jesus stepped in; fully innocent; taking my place.
He paid the price.
I can walk into God's presence as one cleansed, pure, perfect.

He suffered on that thing called the cross. Suffered - know how? Oh, there was the visible stuff. The laughing and jeers, the whips, the human judge pronouncing condemnation in a rigged and unfair trial, the nails, the crown of thorns.
But more -- there was the suffering invisible to the human eye:the anger of God, the time when God turned His holy back on Jesus as He hung on the cross and allowed Satan to torment him to the point that Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?".
Dying on a cross. It carried a real stigma in Jesus' time. Hanging in the sky, as it were, crucifixion was understood to represent that a person was being rejected by both heaven and hell -- suspended between both, accepted by neither.

Jesus suffered that fate so that we would not.
He was rejected that we would be accepted.
He was cursed that we would be blessed and adopted into God's Holy family.

Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah; words that paint a picture of what Jesus did for us:

So -- why the celebration?

Well, pardon this comparatively trite analogy but those of you that have had to face an examination of some sort --
I want you to think back to what you felt when you received the news that you had successfully sustained it: You had successfully sustained your thesis defence. You had successfully sustained your driver's license test. You had successfully sustained your final math exam, or that dreaded French quiz.
I still remember walking out of the last exam in my Engineering programme at the University of Toronto -- Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I knew I had done well. Oh it felt so good to get into the subway and head home that day. Prog ramme successfully sustained. I could put this stuff behind me. Good reason for a party. When I graduated from Seminary we had an even bigger party. Finally my wife could have a husband who would make some money instead of constantly spending twice ov er every cent she brought in.

Holy Communion is a weighty event because of the incredible suffering and horrible torture that lays behind it. But it is a marvellous celebration, too.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
I was a condemned sinner. Yes.
But Jesus has taken that away. Yes, yes!
He came to earth to face the test of living a perfect life and carrying the load of humanity's sin --- mine included --- without faltering. And He sustained that test perfectly. Yes, yes, yes!

You could say that Holy Communion celebrates "Mission accomplished."

And so to all who will come, to all
you, mewhatever our past, wherever we've been, no matter how dark communion is the commemoration that everything has been made right by Jesus.

All we need to do is to come. Come in faith. Come openly. Come to Him. Say, "Yes, Jesus. I need your cleansing. I accept your gift of forgiveness. I submit myself fully to your authority. I desire your presence within me. Overwhelm me. T ake me. Flow through me."
The door to heaven stands open. Jesus is the doorman. He has successfully sustained the exam; He has earned the right to be there. And all who submit to Him in this life through an act of faith and trust will be admitted.
For them Hell is closed. Something never to be experienced.

And THAT is something for sure to be celebrated!