Homemade Bread and Creative Sermons

I got creative today and I was so proud of myself. It was Worldwide Communion today and I wanted to do something to help people remember it without having them sing in a foreign language and feel kind of awkward. And so, there were two "themes" of this worship service. The first was the Lord's Prayer, with the hope that by the end of the service people would feel and remember that they were praying with people around the world in multiple languages. The second was Bread.

My organist is also a foreign language teacher and an amazing linguist, so he agreed to pray the Lord's Prayer in French and in Russian. I rustled up those years in college devoted to Koine Greek and prayed the Lord's Prayer in Greek and also in Spanish. The prayers were interspersed throughout the service, but always, we told people what we were praying so that, even in other languages, we could pray together. I wasn't quite sure how it would come together, but it was obvious that God was there, in the midst of our unity and in the midst of cultural diversity as we realized we were not alone in our prayers or in our claim to Christianity.

I had also found a resource that encouraged people to remember the many cultures with which we were celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper by utilizing breads from around the world. A church member made Spicy Tea bread from Ethiopia. Another brought in honey wheat bread and we remembered another culture. Another brought in pita bread and we remembered the war going on in the middle east. Another brought in peasant bread and we remembered the poor who are among us. Another brought in unleavened bread and we remembered those in Syria. Then we all started naming bread that wasn't there and extending our memory to those who we should share in our celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. Tortillas, Cuban bread, Hawaiian bread, and others were named and suddenly, we, who were many, realized we were one in Christ. All of the breads were on the communion table. I wish I had a picture of it because it truly was beautiful.

The last thing I did was set up a card table with two bowls of dough -- one with yeast and one without. I also woke up really early this morning and baked two loaves of dough -- one with yeast and one without. All of this sat on the table and I donned my apron as I began the sermon, talking about disciples not wanting to forgive each other but rather wanting to have their faith grow. Jesus said, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can do great things. I preached on having faith the size of a little yeast -- enough to change the dough, to make it into something gloriously different -- lighter. And I explained that Jesus was telling them that they DID have the faith of a mustard seed and because of that, they couldn't use a lack of faith as an excuse for forgiving those who repeatedly sinned against them. I told my congregation that I believed that they did actually have the faith of a little yeast and that they could forgive - that they didn't need any excuses. And then I finished the Luke 17 pericope telling them that when they did what they were supposed to (forgiving sins, using the faith that had been given to them) they/we don't need to run back to God and ask for a little acknowledgment. We are rather to realize that it is our duty to forgive the annoying and unforgivable; it is our duty to love the unlovable; it is our duty to commune with those who are different from us. It is our duty to be the body of Christ. One bread -- many parts -- flour, water, sugar, oil, yeast -- without the yeast there is something lacking. Just as we are one body -- the body of Christ -- many parts held together by faith.

It was a wonderful Sunday!