Dr. Rodney Plunket

The following Associated Press story was in newspapers across America this past week.

Day after day for more than three decades, Fred Rogers put on a zip-up cardigan and sneakers and gently invited millions of children to be his neighbor.

He never wavered in his mission—using “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” as a way to persuade young television viewers to love and feel more secure in their world.

Rogers died Thursday after a bout with stomach cancer at his Pittsburgh home, leaving generations of people who grew up watching him in mourning.  He was 74.

His low-key, low-tech public television show refused to follow its louder, more animated competition.  It presented Rogers as one adult in an increasingly busy world who always had time to listen to children.

“What a loss to the world.  He talked to kids at the ages of 4 to 6 about feelings.  That’s the age when they begin to realize they have an effect on their world,” said Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, an author and child development specialist.

An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rogers produced the show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED beginning in 1966, going national two years later. . . .

Rogers opened each episode in a set made to look like a comfortable living room, singing, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”

He composed his own songs for the show.

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He would talk to viewers in a slow, quiet voice . . . .  he would take his audience on a magical trolley ride into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, where puppet creations . . . would interact with each other and adults.

Rogers did much of the puppet work.

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“He was not an actor.  People would ask us, ‘What is Mr. Rogers really like?’  The thing was, he was the same,” said family spokesman David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on the show.

In April 2002, President Bush invited Rogers to help launch a reading program.  When Rogers entered the room with no introduction, spontaneous applause erupted.

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He studied early childhood development at the University of Pittsburgh . . . .

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“Mister Rogers was the father who was available.  He was the unhurried guy who always had time for the kids,” said Alan Hilfer, a child psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center in New York.

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Bill Kelly, a professor who specializes in popular culture and television at Penn State University, said, “Some of the shows today are simply the vehicle to market goods, which is really sinister.  Fred never did that.  He had a clear interest in kids, he was concerned about them and there was no ulterior motive.”

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He came out of broadcasting retirement last year to record public service announcements telling parents how to help children deal with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks (Mister Rogers).

Several things jumped out at me as I read that report.  The first one was the phrase “to persuade young television viewers to love.”  Another statement was this one:  “He talked to kids at the ages of 4 to 6 about feelings.”  This statement regarding his authenticity also struck me:  “He was not an actor.  People would ask us, ‘What is Mr. Rogers really like?’  The thing was, he was the same.”  And this statement regarding his motives is also compelling:  “[Fred] had a clear interest in kids, he was concerned about them and there was no ulterior motive.”  But the statement that I most like is this one:  “[The show] presented Rogers as one adult in an increasingly busy world who always had time to listen to children.”

Mister Rogers created a neighborhood, a community for little kids–– a neighborhood that encouraged them to love, a neighborhood that helped them deal with all kinds of fears.

And Fred Rogers created that neighborhood by taking time.  He took the time to make every child who watched feel loved and supported.  He took the time to teach solid moral values through television, a medium that often dispenses the exact opposite.

Please take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians 11:17ff and follow along as I read.  There the apostle Paul says,

Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.  For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it.  Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.  When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper.  For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.  What!  Do you not have homes to eat and drink in?  Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?  What should I say to you?  Should I commend you?  In this matter I do not commend you!

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.  Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.  For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.  But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.  If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation.  About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

In this passage Paul is highly critical of the way that the Corinthian church was partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  I want to point out only one thing for which Paul criticizes these believers.  The way they were eating of the Supper was very self-centered.  As a result, not only did it not build up the fellowship, the sense of community that existed; it actually damaged community.  As one commentator says regarding this passage, “The Corinthians who are abusing the Lord’s supper have minimized or lost the basic Pauline sense that the life of faith is a life of community.”[1]

But the criticism is not all that is important to note here.  Another noteworthy item is the fact that the Lord’s Supper was eaten as part of a communal meal that all of the Christians were supposed to share in together.  Yes, some had lost the communal purpose of that meal.  They were using it as an opportunity to eat and drink as much as they could.  Those who got there later, to use the words of the commentator again, “find, along with tipsy coworshippers, leftover food at best.”[2]  So Paul instructs them to eat at home before coming if they are so hungry they will be unable to wait for everyone else.

How different our partaking of the meal today.  We eat it in splendid isolation.  John Mark Hicks, of Lipscomb University, has written a book entitled Come to the Table.  It was published just last year.  In the second paragraph of the “Preface” of that book, Hicks writes, “The premise of this book is that our practice of the supper as a silent, solemn, individualistic eating of bread and drinking of wine is radically dissimilar from the joyous communal meal that united Christians in first century house churches.”[3]  Chapter 8 of his book is exclusively devoted to 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.  In that chapter he comments on an expression used by Paul here.  The expression is “discern the body.”  Hicks briefly notes some of the interpretations of this expression but then comes to the one that he and most scholars support.

To “discern the body” means to discern the church as a community.  It is a directive regarding the communal meaning of the Lord’s Supper.  To discern the body is to partake of the supper in a way that bears witness to not only the unity of the body of Christ (church) but also to the koinonia (fellowship) of that body which transcends all social and economic barriers.  Thus, Paul’s statement is directly linked to the specific problem in the Corinthian assembly.  The problem is not that the Corinthians did not think about the cross, but rather the problem was that they did not embody the cross in a communal way at the table.[4]

How does this relate to us?  It should cause us to note what we have done to the Supper.  The eating of the Supper for us is not communal.  We all just happen to be in the same place when we do it.  It the person we are sitting by is unknown to us when the communion is passed, then they are still unknown to us after it is passed.  No fellowship is exchanged.  Community is not created.

If you go to a banquet by yourself and are seated between two people you do not know, would it not be strange if at the end of that meal you still did not know them?  What would be strange at a banquet out in the world ought to be unheard of in church.

Fred Rogers created a much deeper sense of community with children via television than we can possibly create via our standard way of eating the Lord’s Supper.  I do not know what God wants our taking of the Supper to look like here at Broadway, but I am confident that God wants it to be much richer than it is.  I encourage you to read Come to the Table by John Mark Hicks and to pray about this matter.  I encourage you to let an elder or minister know what you believe God would have us do so that the way we partake of the Supper helps us to become an irresistible community that God can use to draw people to the Son.

Mister Rogers took time for kids and built a neighborhood, a community for those kids.  We are going to take time now at the table.  No, we do not have a way in this facility to all be seated physically at tables.  But we are going to take time to make clear the connection between communion and commun . . . ity.  It is going to take a bit longer than usual.  First, we are going to take time to greet one another.  An experience that was such a blessing here at Broadway last Sunday, when Dean noted that we do not greet with a holy kiss anymore but we must still greet.  So I want to give you a greeting that is found word-for-word nine times in the New Testament.  It is, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  [Have everyone say that greeting in unison at least twice].  In just a moment, I am going to ask you to greet the people right behind you, on either side of you, and just in front of you with a handshake or a hug, whichever physical greeting is appropriate.  As you greet with one of those physical gestures, I also want you to look each other in the eye and say, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Before you start that greeting, let’s think now about what we are giving when we give this greeting and what we are receiving when it is given to us.  This greeting expresses the desire that the one greeted might experience the fullness of the grace and peace given by the Father through the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, I need all of those who will be serving the communion this morning to go to the foyer to get the trays and to go ahead and move to their assigned positions.  While they are doing that, let me tell you what we are going to do.  Please be seated.

We are going to station pairs of men at every intersection in this auditorium.  One man will have the bread plate and one will have a tray of cups.  In a moment I will ask you to go together with some of the people whom you have greeted and partake of the bread and the cup in company with them.  Going together as a family unit will be great.  As you stand in line to receive the bread and the cup, I encourage you to join hands, to pray quietly together, and to express your love for one another.

Some of you may be unable physically to go to those who are serving.  We will have men who will be watching just for you.  Please raise your hands and they will bring you the bread and the cup at your seat.

In a moment, I will be praying a prayer of blessing for both the bread and the cup.  If you feel uncomfortable with just one prayer of blessing, I encourage you to say your own prayer or prayers as you are preparing to receive the Supper.  You will not be rushed to take quickly of the cup after taking of the bread.  You will have time to pray your own prayer of blessing in between the two elements.

The men who serve the bread will say something to you as you partake.  They will say, “The body of Christ broken for you.”  The men who serve the cup will say to you, “The blood of Christ poured out for you.”  These statements express biblical truths that are clearly connected in the New Testament to the Lord’s Supper.  This is not a Catholic ritual.  This is not a Presbyterian, Methodist, or Episcopalian ritual.  This is a New Testament communal meal.  These statements are connected to words that were said around communal tables in the life of the earliest Christian churches.  If I am not mistaken, in the Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopalian churches a person has to have been ordained by the church before they can serve communion.  Not everyone in those churches can serve that meal.  We believe in the priesthood of all believers.  So these men are not elite.  They are not conferring something upon us that only they can confer.  They are actually reminding us of the meaning of this meal.  They are reminding us of this meal’s connection to Jesus.  By so doing, they are reminding us also of the work of Jesus that made us into a community of faith and love.

After I lead a prayer, I encourage you to stay seated, bowed in silent prayer for a time.  Then, stand up and connect with the group around you.  And go as a small community to commune with one another and with our God.  Please join hands up and down the rows as we pray.  Please bow.

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