Fred Rogers’ died this week.  Whether or not you noted his passing probably had as much to do with whether you were grieving over the death of Emmitt Smith’s Cowboy career more or, perhaps, you were one of many Mr. Rogers welcomed into his neighborhood every week for over thirty years.  Rogers was something of an anomaly, really.  Unlike most television “heroes” who entertain children, he didn’t have super powers, wasn’t crude, sarcastic, edgy or macho.  As one commentator said, he was “not cool.”  But, appreciating what you saw in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood meant having the right set of eyes. 

That’s kind of how the Lord’s Supper is.  That was an amazing scene a while ago, wasn’t it, Jill Pickett serving the Supper to Steve and Louise White?  What did you see?

Through one set of eyes the Supper might appear pagan.  Some of the first Christians were actually accused of being cannibals because they were overhead speaking of eating the flesh of Jesus.  Through the eyes of others this Supper might appear to be nothing more than ritualistic symbol with no meaning to their life.  Looking through another set of eyes, we’ll see something far more significant, the very life of Jesus poured into those who believe.  As Michael W. Smith sings, “This is my daily bread, your holy presence, living in me.”

Recently, I asked a group of young adults, “Has your relationship with Jesus actually made your life look more Christian?”  Steve Huff answered with a question of his own, “Exactly what would that look like?”  His question caught me off guard, left me speechless.  A clear answer didn’t come as quickly as I had thought it might.  Maybe because my own understanding of what it means to be truly Christian is morphing somewhat.  It used to have more to do with running a Sunday churchathon followed by a midweek Wednesday schedule that would make any workaholic proud and then inviting others to join me in the same.  Worse, because my own definition of what it meant to be Christian was so architecturally centered, I also thought of others as truly devoted to Jesus in direct proportion to their faithful attendance Sunday morning, Sunday night Wednesday night.  Anymore, just thinking like that makes me tired.  There’s got to be more to being Christian than punching a holy time clock! 

This past few weeks we’ve been thinking about our Mission Statement, Sharing Christ Through Caring Relationships, and we’ve focused each week on our core values.  This morning, we focus on two of our core values that are similar, “Learning and Sharing Spiritual Gifts” and “Equipping People to Do Christ’s Work.”

If you were to ask an unchurched person to define the church they might do so by describing our architecture, our buildings and such.  “Oh, the church?  It’s that thing down there on that corner at 10^th and Zang.”  But, as Christ transforms our way of seeing things, shouldn’t we see this church, not so much as a physical structure but as a living body, full of Christ’s life, at work in his world?  That’s what it means to have what the scripture calls the “the manifestation of the Spirit” or “spiritual gifts.”  Spiritual gifts are the presence of all that is holy in us, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to do God’s work in God’s world.  This table is one of the most beautiful symbols of that empowerment, what the apostle Paul once called the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3), the very life of God poured into us. 

This whole mystery is at the root of understanding true spirituality.  God created us in order to give something of himself.  To say that we are made in God’s image means that we have been made in the image of generosity.  True spirituality means that God has given us something we didn’t deserve that we, in turn, authentically offer to others in a spirit of generosity (Thanks to John Claypool).

Today’s scripture expands our understanding of true spirituality even more.  It uses the image of body life to describe what it means to be a part of Christ, to look like a Christian.  It is impossible to define all that it means to be Christian apart from our relationship to each other.  We Baptists pride ourselves in our fierce independence.  It is one of our great strengths rooted in our conviction.  It is also one of our great weaknesses.  It is a strength when it helps us emphasize the nature of our individual relationship with God, that each person can relate to God without any human mediator.  It is our greatest weakness when we try to define what it means to be Christian apart from each other.  We are indispensably interrelated to each other. 

Do you remember Tula in My Great Big Fat Greek Wedding?  Tula is a young single woman who is reluctant to step out in new directions with her life and get an education.  In the rigidly hierarchical Greek family structure the father dominates and women are expected to marry and have lots of Greek babies.  Tula is crying to her mother because she knows her father will never allow her to go to college; the man is, after all, the head of the house.  That’s when her mother says, “The man may be the head of the house but the woman is the neck and the neck can turn the head any way it wants.”  Of course, the only time any body would get in serious trouble would be if the head and neck ever got in an argument over which was more important than the other, as though either could exist without the other.  They are indispensably interrelated. 

In the church, that means not asking first, “Who has the power and how come it’s not me?” but asking, instead, how we can help empower each to other to use the gifts God has given.  A question that begins with valuing the gift each person brings to the body.  Of seeing each other in terms of God’s gift in us and not by lesser distinctions.  “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”   In another letter Paul added, “In Christ . . . there is neither . . . male nor female, for you are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:26, 28).”  Looking more Christian begins with how we see each other.  To see each other not merely through human eyes that primarily focus on religious heritage, race, social status or even sex or even position in the hierarchy but as equally important parts of the same body, the body of Christ. 

Cliff Temple has historically taken bold, difficult steps to flesh out that conviction.  Doug Waterson led this church to ordain women in the mid-70’s, before ordaining women in Baptist churches west of the Mississippi was cool.  When Mr. Rogers was just getting started building a virtual neighborhood where children could feel loved and safe for thirty minutes a day, Cliff Temple was cutting across the cultural grain in order to build a real neighborhood where people could discover their real worth as a part of Christ’s body despite social distinctions that divided them.  Some saw that, as liberal; through the eyes of scripture, to me, it looks very Christian.

Our neighborhood isn’t finished.  What steps must we take now to show this world that we really do have a new set of eyes?  Could we integrate our staff so that we could more effectively integrate our church into this community?  Have we done all we can do to affirm the role of women in ministry?  We’ve ordained women both as deacons and to the professional ministry but we have yet to have our first woman chair of Deacons.  When we look at each other through the right set of eyes, how far will it take us?  Eyes that help us see each other not in terms of where we fit in some kind of modern hierarchy but in terms of a very ancient, yet living, community of faith, the body of Christ. 

Fred Rogers wrote the lyrics to all the little songs he sang to children.  To appreciate them, you have to hear them through the right set of ears.  Try this one.  To little children who probably didn’t hear it anywhere else he sang, “I’m proud of you.  I’m proud of you.  I’m proud of you and I hope that you are proud of you, too.”  He wanted to empower children by helping them see their own gift.  The only thing any child ever had to do to hear that blessing was just show up in the neighborhood.  For thirty minutes every day Mr. Rogers gave them a priceless gift, the gift of seeing themselves through the right set of eyes, as valuable and loved. 

We may not like what we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror or when we reflect on our past.  But, what if God meant to give us a priceless gift, the gift of seeing ourselves through the right set of eyes, as someone in whose creation he took pride and someone who is, by divine creation, valuable and loved?  What if that is exactly what this Supper Table means?  And, what if he meant for you to have that gift, even today?  Would you receive it? 

Would you?