Sermon – Admission to Communion
Sermon Preached by Reverend Tracey Gracey on Sunday, 24 August, 2025
I’d like to share with you one of my favourite wisdom stories.
At the beginning of time, God resolved to hide within creation. As God wondered how best to do this, the angels gathered around. ‘I want to hide within creation,’ God said.
‘I need to find a place that is not too easily discovered, for it is in their search for me that my creatures will grow in spirit and understanding.
‘Why don’t you hide yourself deep in their earth?’
the first angel suggested.
God considered this idea for a while and then replied,
‘No. It will not be long before they learn how to mine the earth and discover me too quickly, and they will not have had enough time to do their growing.’
‘Why don’t you hide yourself on their moon?’
a second angel suggested.
God considered this idea for a while and then replied,
‘No. It will take a little longer, but before too long, they will learn how to fly through space. They will arrive at the moon, explore its secrets, and discover me too soon before they have enough time to grow.’
The angels were at a loss to know what hiding places to suggest.
There was a long silence.
‘I know,’ piped up one angel finally. ‘Why don’t you hide yourself within their own hearts? They will never think of looking there!’
‘That’s it!’ said God, delighted to have found the perfect hiding place.
And so, God hides secretly deep within the heart of every one of God’s creatures until that creature has grown enough in spirit and understanding to risk the great journey into the secret core of their own being.
If God is secretly hidden within us,
- How do we grow in spirit and understanding and how do we allow what is inwardly hidden to become outwardly visible?
Jesus, Faith, Holy Communion, and Love – these are the four ‘churchy’ words that point to our hidden God, waiting to be made visible in our lives.
And the first way that we see God’s hidden love made visible is in Jesus, whose life shows us how the invisible God becomes visible through acts of compassion, welcome, forgiveness, and courage.
Following Jesus teaches us what it looks like when God’s love, hidden in the human heart, is lived outwardly.
The hidden response that prepares us to follow Jesus is faith. The quiet trust that allows God’s presence to shape our hearts and lives. Faith is not simply believing something in our heads. It is allowing God’s presence to move from within us to the way we live, speak, and act.
And we can experience an inward change of heart through the outward partaking of the sacraments, where what is invisible meets the visible.
Holy Communion is one of the seven sacraments.
In communion, bread and wine are the visible signs of this sacrament and when placed in our hands, they reveal something deeper: the invitation to open ourselves to Jesus’ presence, both with us and within us.
When we receive communion, we are not just remembering Jesus in the past. We are recognising that his life is at work in us now.
Holy Communion is a way of saying: “God, I know you are within me — shape me, renew me, forgive me, sustain me, guide me.”
Holy Communion is not just an action and response that happens here at the altar. It is about what happens next. If God is within us, then our lives are meant to reflect that hidden presence of God made real in the world through love — the outward expression of God’s Spirit at work within us.
Love is how God, who is unseen, becomes visible. For “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us.”
And that perfected love has been revealed through Jesus who taught us that love is self-giving and generous but at the same time it is also costly as it often comes at the expense of self-interest, comfort and security. But it is through these acts of love that we experience and reveal God’s hidden love.
Jesus, Faith, Holy Communion, and Love — four “churchy” words that show us how God’s hidden presence can be made visible when we follow and model Jesus’ life, when we inwardly nurture our faith, when we open our hearts during the partaking of communion, and when we allow love to flow outward.
Jesus, Faith, Holy Communion, and Love — four “churchy” words that enable our hidden God to be revealed through all of us.
Amen