excerpt from "Finding God in the Common"
Let our focus today be the risen Lord Jesus Christ revealing himself to his friends in the common vocabulary of their daily life. This story is the perfect antidote for those who seek for signs of God only in church, only in the religious, or only in that which is spiritual, dramatic, or glorious. So much of the surprise revealed in Jesus is how God comes to us in that which is common. For years we have used the words up and down to express where God and humans live. God is “up,” and we are “down.” So we look up to seek after God. We believe we have to climb up to meet God. We think it’s not good to be “down,” where we live. Perhaps those words have lost their meaning, and if so, that’s ok. But the message of the gospel in this vocabulary is that God has come down. We don’t have to climb up. Jesus reveals that God has come down to earth, to where we live, and God meets us in that which is common and down to earth.
Look for God’s presence in the common. Jesus came to earth not in the form of royalty, but as a baby. The church celebrates Jesus’ presence in baptismal water, in the bread and juice or wine of communion - simple events a bath and a meal. He told us to become like a child in matters of faith. He is present where two or three are gathered. We are judged on the basis of how we treat “the least of these.” He spoke in the daily jargon of farmers and fishing people, not in the refined vocabulary of scholars.
Where shall we look for God’s presence? In our work, our neighborhood, our family, our friends even our enemies. In things of the earth, in nature. In relationships. Why are you looking up into heaven? Let us not be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good.
Jesus revealed God in a net full of fish, a breakfast on the beach, and maybe we don’t need to be surprised. It is God’s nature to come down to us.
And this morning he comes to us in the offering of these common elements of bread and wine and juice. At Tulare United Church we offer an open communion. An open communion means that if you seek Jesus Christ in your life – there is an empty place at the table – for you to fill. You are welcome here. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gathered with twelve of his closest companions, his disciples. Even Judas was included, whom Jesus called “Friend” when Judas came to the garden a few hours later to betray him. No one is beyond the love of God. Dearly beloveds, treasured by the Most High, join in this remembrance of our Savior and Redeemer. (based on sermon by Paul Lundborg)
Pastor Lorah Houser Jankord 
April 18, 2010
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