Kevin Makins & Eucharist Church - Setting the Table: Mass for the End of the World

Revelation, 1 Corinthians 15

The final sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

It began in a garden; it ends in a city.

Our journey though the narrative of Scripture has taken us through every human emotion; it has challenged us, comforted us, and rooted us in a story that starts at creation and stretches on into eternity.

What better way to finish our journey than to look ahead to the day when God floods this world with His glory, setting it right again.

But how do you tell the story of Revelation? How do you take a book written in an ancient genre (Apocalyptic) and let it speak as powerfully as it was meant to?

You don’t “preach it” - you perform it.

Which is exactly what we did! Motivated by the dramatic images and story found in Revelation, a group from Eucharist took us on a fully costumed, Johnny Cash inspired, trip through the end of the world as we know it.

Listen through the service online, and anticipate with us the end of this world (as we know it) and the revealing of the world as it was meant to be; pain replaced by joy, death replaced by life, fear replaced by love!

Cast:

Director - Aaron Craig / Costume Design - Catherine Hordyk / Make-up - Ceilidh Milne and Andrea Marini / Four Living Creatures - Aaron Craig, Jeff Wynands, Joel Cumby, Anne Cumby / Twenty-Four Elders - Dan Leythem, Jon Williams, Alex Drumm, Tim Selles, Allison Geleynse, Alana Dykxhoorn, Julia Soderholm / Angel - Paige Louter / Prophetic Voice - Kevin Makins

Sermon starts just after minute 28

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: New Creation

Genesis 1-3, John, 2 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 3, Revelation 21-22

The twenty-second sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

As we near the end we find ourselves back at the beginning. Something new is happening, something amazing is breaking into this world; a new kind of creation that we are invited to partner with.

Leanne Friesen - Setting the Table: The Bride

Matthew 9, John 3, 2 Corinthians 11, Ephesians 5, Revelation 19 & 21

The twenty-first sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

The first Christians used different metaphors to describe the church; family, body, temple.

But perhaps the most beautiful image of all is the church as the Bride of Christ.

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: The Mystery of Christ

Ephesians 2-3, Galatians 6

The twentieth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

The battle is over, the enemy has been defeated, the church has formed, and we are left with unanswered questions: Who is the real family of God? What is the covenant now? How do we partner with God? What, or who, is the church? 

It is at this point, in the dust of the great battle, that the secrets hidden in the mind of God for all eternity can finally be revealed.

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Greetings.

Matthew 26-28, Colossians 1

The nineteenth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

The final days of Jesus’ life are the climax of human history. In the cross sin does it’s worst, and God does His best. The entire story has been leading up to this point, and in it all things come together.

Wendy Gritter - Setting the Table: The Subversive Ethic of Jesus

Matthew 5, 7, 22; Luke 6 & 7

The sixteenth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

Wendy Gritter of New Directions Minsitries shares with us the subversive, dangerous, beautiful and compelling ethic of Jesus!

How did Jesus treat people on the margins of his society? How does this affect the way we treat people the church has often alienated or hurt? Are we really called to live like Jesus (and risk being crucified)? 

Wendy speaks particularly of her own experience working with those who struggle to reconcile their faith and their sexuality, challenging us to understand and recapture the ethic of Jesus. An incredibly important, and timely, message.

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Fresh Manna Tomorrow

Matthew 4, Deuteronomy 6 & 8

The fifthteenth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

Jesus comes out of Egypt, goes through the waters of Baptism, and enters the desert to fast for 40 days. It is at this point, when Jesus is most weak, that the tempter appears. 

What we have in Matthew 4 is a cosmic battle between good and evil, faith and doubt, greed and trust; a battle that will determine the fate of Jesus’ ministry, and of the world itself.

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Advent V - Away in a Manger

Luke 1-2

The thirteenth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

An Angel appears, a virgin is pregnant, no room at the inn, swaddling clothes, manger, star, shepherds, wisemen. 

We all know the Christmas story. And yet sometimes we can hear it so much that we cease to hear it. Sometimes it can become so familiar that it loses it’s teeth. 

The incarnation was anything but cute.

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Advent IV - Home

1 Kings 8, Ezra 6, Nehemiah 9, Haggai 2

The twelfth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

The Israelites had been taken into slavery. Their world was sent into chaos, their boxes smashed; everything they had ever known changed in a moment - and then they are allowed to return to their land. They go back, they build up the city walls, they restore the temple; but it’s just not the same anymore.

Sometimes we return home, only to realize that it’s not really home anymore.

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: By the Rivers of Babylon

Psalm 137 & 2 Kings 25

The eighth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

Tragedy strikes, the walls fall down, Babylon comes, and we find ourselves at the rivers side; sitting, mourning, and wondering ‘where is God?' 

We ask the question 'how can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?' 

Sometimes suffering takes us into exile.

Bill Webb - Holy War and the Christian Conscience

Judges 5 & Deuteronomy 21

The seventh sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

God has rescued Israel, revealed to them how they ought to live, and now has … sent them into war? 

Within the Old Testament there are descriptions of warfare that trouble the soul. 

And they should! There are bloody, brutal, and barbaric texts within our Bible! How can we read these texts? How can we answer question’s about these verses? How can we follow a God who commands such violent acts?

Perhaps the first step is to look at the world in which the Israelites lived, to examine what war looked like then, and to see what God is doing in the midst of a particular time and a particular place.

Is it possible that these troubling texts are actually good news?

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Law, or, Put Flesh And Blood On It

Exodus 19-20, Matthew 5 & Galatians 3

The sixth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

Rescued from slavery, God’s chosen people are led to a mountain where they receive a law they are to live by. 

The idea of “the law” tends to bring to mind lists of rules and regulations; ways we can do “good things” to earn God’s acceptance, and avoid the “bad things” that would make him angry.

But what if this totally misses the point? What if the law is actually far more good and true and beautiful than we think? 

What does the law tell us about humanity, and perhaps more importantly, the God who created us?

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Garden/Field/Tower

Genesis 3-11

The third sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

The garden was a place where all was good and in it’s right place; but it is quickly corrupted.

Sin is on the move: twisting God’s good world into something less than good.

This force moves from a garden, to a field, to a tower. It cheapens, perverts, and destroys everything along the way. 

What does this mean for us? Can we fight back? Can things be set right again?