John J. Rudin - Communion Meditation (August 5, 1962)

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-	The most important single hour	0:15
	in the Christian calendar	0:18
	is the hour of holy communion.	0:22
	This hour is a memorable one.	0:26
	This hour is an informative one.	0:30
	This is always the hour of Christian fellowship.	0:34
	This is the hour of commemoration.	0:39
	This is the hour of mystery.	0:44
	This is a memorable hour, yes,	0:50
	but not because it continues an ancient rite of the church,	0:55
	dating from days before the documents	1:01
	of the New Testament were written.	1:04
	Nor is it a memorable hour	1:07
	because of its solemnity and its pageantry.	1:09
	This is an informative hour, yes,	1:16
	but not because it offers an object lesson	1:21
	or serves as a powerful aid to learning.	1:26
	This is the hour of Christian fellowship, to be sure,	1:32
	but not because it calls congenial friends	1:37
	to assemble and in the context of sublimity	1:43
	and beauty to join themselves	1:48
	as additional links in a chain	1:51
	that began in an upper room	1:55
	in the first century,	1:59
	and is continued to this hour.	2:01
	This is the hour of commemoration,	2:06
	of remembrance, yes,	2:09
	but not the time for mere memorializing.	2:13
	This is not the hour	2:18
	of mere memorialism,	2:20
	safeguarding Christians from the evil	2:24
	of forgetting the founder of the faith.	2:29
	This is the hour of mystery, yes,	2:34
	but not because of the esoteric symbolism	2:38
	in the table which is spread,	2:44
	in the whiteness of the fair linen cloth,	2:48
	in the brokenness of the bread	2:52
	or in the redness of the wine.	2:56
	The hour of holy communion is truly all	3:02
	that I have suggested.	3:06
	A memorable hour, an informative hour,	3:09
	the hour of Christian fellowship,	3:12
	the hour of commemoration,	3:14
	the hour of mystery.	3:16
	All this but infinitely more.	3:19
	The meaning of it is inexhaustible,	3:27
	transcending every effort you or I may attempt	3:31
	to explain or interpret it.	3:37
	If your experience is as mine as been,	3:42
	after one has had long experience	3:46
	in attending holy sacrament,	3:50
	he finds his sense of wonder increasing.	3:53
	What it means or what it can mean,	4:01
	one can never fully understand or fully explain to another.	4:06
	But a partial answer to the question of meaning	4:12
	may be found in the words of our Lord,	4:17
	who gave his commandment saying,	4:21
	"This do	4:26
	in remembrance of me."	4:30
	These words among the earliest to be spoken	4:36
	by Christians of the first century	4:39
	have been passed on to peoples	4:42
	of all races and classes and conditions of men	4:45
	in all centuries.	4:50
	Today we listen to them again.	4:52
	As we have heard them every time	4:58
	we have attended holy communion,	4:59
	this do in remembrance of me.	5:03
	Let it not be forgotten,	5:10
	let it be said plainly,	5:13
	this is the hour of remembrance.	5:16
	But it is no bare memorial occasion.	5:22
	We have not come to Duke Chapel	5:29
	to pay tribute to a past event.	5:33
	We are not presently in this place of worship	5:38
	to eulogize the dead leader of a great cause.	5:43
	For us, and for all Christians of all time,	5:51
	holy communion is the central event	5:58
	of all days and years and centuries.	6:03
	Through this act,	6:09
	the past becomes present	6:11
	and both past and present	6:14
	are blended into all the tomorrows.	6:17
	We celebrate not as distant spectators	6:21
	of an isolated event	6:26
	but as participants with God	6:29
	in an act so significant	6:33
	that it is literally timeless.	6:37
	As often as worshipers eat of this bread	6:44
	and drink of this cup,	6:51
	they acknowledge the eternal presence of Christ.	6:54
	And participate with him in his sacrifice.	7:03
	This act of remembrance perpetuates	7:10
	both Bethlehem and Calvary	7:15
	as the late Bishop Gore once said.	7:20
	This act of remembrance expresses the whole	7:24
	of what our religion means.	7:30
	To paraphrase a sentence written	7:34
	by the distinguished Professor C.H. Dodd of Cambridge,	7:36
	through the mystery and the power of this sacrament,	7:42
	our Lord accomplishes his purpose	7:49
	to bring all men and women into union with himself	7:52
	and with the father.	8:00
	This is the true meaning	8:03
	of holy communion.	8:07
	This means that men pass beyond mere remembrance	8:11
	and enter into true communion.	8:17
	Just as bread and wine are united with men's body,	8:23
	so in the sacrament, the spirits of man	8:30
	and God are united.	8:35
	This makes the holy communion life's most significant event.	8:39
	It is not a dream,	8:47
	it is not the creation of some literary genius.	8:49
	It is not the invention of a religious specialist.	8:52
	It is not the product of any person's imagination.	8:56
	It is real, it is life's most significant event	9:01
	for individuals or groups or the church.	9:08
	All this must have been in the mind of Thomas à Kempis	9:14
	when he wrote the greatly beloved "Imitation of Christ,"	9:20
	"As often as thou repeatest this mystery	9:25
	of holy communion,	9:31
	and receivest the spiritual nourishment,	9:33
	so often dost thou go over the work	9:38
	of thy redemption."	9:45
	Go over the work of thy redemption.	9:48
	What a striking thought.	9:55
	This is the meaning of holy communion.	9:57
	This tremendous personal encounter takes place	10:00
	at the table of our Lord.	10:04
	As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup,	10:07
	we participate in life's most significant event.	10:10
	We are united with God.	10:16
	We enter into God's purposes for man.	10:19
	My brethren, this is life's supreme truth.	10:26
	A truth that Christians must proclaim,	10:33
	believing at first in their own hearts	10:37
	and declaring it unhesitatingly,	10:39
	unapologetically in every era.	10:42
	Nothing really matters for me or for you save this.	10:46
	Ambition does not matter.	10:53
	Achievement and reward are relatively unimportant.	10:56
	The routines of life are inconsequential.	11:03
	The vicissitudes and the changes	11:08
	of fortune and circumstance are secondary.	11:10
	To be sure, there are concerns in our hearts	11:15
	that we cannot abandon	11:18
	but in the hour of holy communion,	11:21
	we look upon all of them	11:24
	in a new perspective.	11:28
	Sound and silence, light and darkness,	11:31
	movement and rest,	11:39
	thought and action,	11:43
	space and time,	11:46
	childhood and youth	11:49
	and old age.	11:52
	Yesterday and today and all the tomorrows.	11:54
	All these and all else take on new meanings	11:59
	and are to be seen in new relationships.	12:03
	All are to be understood	12:07
	in the context of man's relationship	12:09
	to his Redeemer God.	12:12
	Or in a word, in the hour of holy communion,	12:16
	we declare again	12:23
	when God and man are united,	12:26
	nothing else really matters.	12:33
	Amen.	12:42

Item Info

Title:

John J. Rudin - Communion Meditation (August 5, 1962)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4513zx56

Date:

August 5, 1962

Speaker:

Rudin, John J.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0195
ref5594_ymr
uachapelsermaud
duke:628594
dcrau002206
ark:/87924/r4513zx56
e6f73cd6-463d-44ed-8ec3-7b23abbdecf4

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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In Copyright

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John J. Rudin - Communion Meditation (August 5, 1962)

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