08/10/2026
Here is the transcript from today’s sermon. Kim was gone and our sound might have been iffy with the JV team (Andi)
Sermon is copyrighted and cannot be used to train AI 😊
1
Hold, Lift, Drink the Cup
The room was deep underground . . . in a cave. Its treasure was carefully guarded from any who might dare to enter. Guarded not only by the lone figure dressed in armor, but also hidden among a collection, a myriad of chalices - gold and silver, jeweled, beautiful . . . gleaming in the candlelight.
The chalice was believed to have been used by Jesus. It was a cup filled with the nectar of eternal life and it was somewhere among this collection. Anyone who drank from this cup would have life!
There were so many cups to choose from. Imagine with me the glitter, the opulence, the richness of this collection of cups . . . and one - only one - contained the life-giving essence. And Indy had only moments to choose which cup was the REAL chalice - the cup used by Jesus . . . the Holy Grail!
His father, Henry Jones, had been injured by the enemy and the only way to save his life was for Indy to pick the life-giving chalice and help him drink from it. So many cups . . . so many cups . . .
Indian Jones and the Last Crusade . . . do you remember the movie? It was made in 1989. It is one of several Indiana Jones movies. I loved these movies. I only saw each one once. So I’m working here with a 76 year old brain that sometimes has trouble remembering where I put my glasses! If you’ve seen this movie more than once, if you are a greater fan of Indy’s than I am, you’ll know if I’m getting this storyline confused. This is the way I remember this scene: a key point for me was Indy looking over the vast array of beautiful bejeweled cups . . . and he picked a plain, wooden, unadorned chalice for his choice. He believed THAT would be the cup used by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings . . . a lowly wooden, plainly carved chalice. In the storyline, here’s a spoiler for those of you who don’t remember or never saw the movie - Indy chose well and his father lived
I looked up the word “Cup” in a concordance - a book that lists all the words in the Bible - Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Old and New Testament. It gives where the words are located and the meaning of the words in their particular context. As I’ve said before, I love words and I was interested in how many times the word “cup’ is found in the OT and NT.
I discovered the Hebrew word for “cup” was also often used figuratively and meant “a lot” - as in “portion.” “What I have is a lot.” In Psalm 23 when we read “my cup overfloweth,” it’s almost a redundant statement as in “I have a lot and the "a lot" of my portion overflows!”
The word “cup” in the NT is the literal word for an actual cup, and the word is often found in a metaphorical setting, as well. When Jesus asked his friends, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, “Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” He was talking about much more than just sipping tea or coffee or water from a cup. He was asking if they could empty the cup of life Jesus was given to the dregs, tasting all the sorrows and joys. Could they live life to the fullest, whatever it might bring?
Henri Nouwen, in his book “Can you Drink the Cup?” talks of his ordination in 1957. It fulfilled his life-long dream of becoming a priest. He was given an elaborately decorated chalice by his uncle, also a priest, who had been given the chalice by Henri’s grandmother years earlier.
The chalice was made by a famous Dutch goldsmith and was adorned with Henri’s grandmother’s diamonds. The foot was decorated with a crucifix shaped as the tree of life from which golden grapes and grape leaves grew to cover the stem and the bowl. Henri was deeply moved to receive this as a young priest. He was full of ideas and ideals, life was rich with promises and he was ready to drink from this cup!
When he wrote his book “Can you Drink the Cup?” the chalice still belonged to him. It sat in the Daybreak Chapel in Toronto, Canada where he often showed it to friends and visitors. So much had happened to him in his life, in his spiritual growing that the diamond adorned golden chalice, touched and used only by an ordained priest, no longer expressed the life he was living at Daybreak.
Daybreak is a ministry serving the disabled. Nouwen became enmeshed in their lives, eating with them, playing with them, working with them and learning from them. Nouwen ended up staying in a home with six disabled people and he was assigned the task of caring for Adam, a twenty-five year old man who suffered epileptic seizures, who could not speak and seldom smiled. Slowly in Adam, Nouwen saw the living Christ and Adam became Nouwen’s mentor and friend.
Caring for Adam, Nouwen became aware of the value of a person irrespective of accomplishments. In living and working with the handicapped, Nouwen discovered his own deepest handicap.
It had been difficult for him at first, Nouwen admits. Physical touch, affection, and the messiness of caring for an uncoordinated person did not come easily. He learned to truly love Adam, though.
In the process he learned what it must be like for God to love us – spiritually uncoordinated, disabled, capable of responding only with what seems like inarticulate grunts and groans. The time he spent caring for Adam became an indispensable time of meditation.
The bejeweled chalice no longer made sense to Nouwen. Cups used for Eucharist were now large cups where the wine could be seen and from which many could drink.
One day after hearing the question “Can you drink the cup?” in chapel, Henri’s heart was pierced. He realized that if we all took this question seriously, it would radically change our lives - cracking open hardened hearts. Spontaneously, he lifted one of the large cups full of wine from the table and, looking at those around him - some who could hardly walk, speak, hear or see - he asked, “Can we hold the cup of life in our hands? Can we lift it for others to see and can we drink it to the full?” He knew, at least for himself, that he wanted and needed to start living with those questions. In receiving the Eucharist, he did more than gulp the wine down. He began consciously to hold the cup, lift the cup, and then drink the cup.
• He believed that before we drink from the cup, we must hold it. (Hold cup)
Holding the cup means to look at life critically, to see how we are living. Is it worth it? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it old? Is it new? What is it all about? The greatest joy, as well as the greatest pain of living, comes not only from what we live, but even more from how we THINK and FEEL about what we are doing and how we are living life. Reflection is essential for growth, development, and change. It is the unique power of the human person - to reflect.
It can be hard and scary at times. Questions might come up we can’t answer. Doubts may arise about things we thought we were certain of.
Sometimes doubts creep in . . . Then it’s important to stop, hold the cup and think, “What’s in my cup? Is it safe to drink? It is healthy for my soul? Then we dare to say, “This is my life to live. I will live it as well as I can. My life is unique. Others can help me on my journey, but it is my life to live. I make my own choices about how to live.” (Pause)
• Then we are called to lift our cup. (Lift cup)
So often we are inclined to keep our lives hidden from others. Shame and guilt prevent us from letting others know how we are living our lives.
We might think, “If my family and friends knew the dark cravings of my heart and my strange mental wanderings, they would push me away and exclude me from their company.” But, you know, the opposite is true more often than not. When we dare to lift our cups and let others know what’s in them, they are encouraged to lift their cups in return and share with us their own anxiously hidden stories.
I’ve seen this happen again and again and again. As I allow myself the freedom to share who I really am with folks, I see them open up and share things they’ve never shared before.
The greatest healing often comes when we no longer feel isolated by our shame and guilt and discover that others often feel what we feel and think what we think and have the fears, apprehensions and preoccupations we have.
To lift our cup means to share our lives so we can celebrate it! And when we dare to lift our cups in community and say “to life,” (La chaim) we start talking about all of life - real life - the hard, painful, sorrowful times and the joy of life that can bring us to a place of spontaneous celebration of life together - in community. (Pause)
• The cup we hold and lift, we also drink from.
Some folks avoid or reject drinking the cup - they reject accepting and living their own lives fully.
Some folks say they didn’t choose their parents or they don’t like the color of their skin. Some don’t like their character, their intelligence, physical appearance, or mannerisms. Some do everything possible to change their circumstances or wish they were in another body or had a different mind.
We cry from our depths, “Why do I have to be this person? I didn’t ask for this and I don’t want it!”
One thing I continue to learn both from the Enneagram and from trauma informed books I’m reading is that often times – more often than not – we humans change who we are because of childhood experiences. Our parents, teachers, yes, even preachers, teach us that who we are and how we are is not acceptable. We need to sit quietly. We’re not supposed to run. We get laughed at after doing a math problem wrong in front of the class or a teacher makes fun of the way we read or pronounce a word – and we change – to fit in. Our true self gets tucked away, hidden, ignored to fit it with the world round us.
As we intentionally hold and lift our cups, we can gradually come to befriend our own reality, to look with compassion at our own sorrows and joys and we can discover the unique potential of our way of being in the world. We can move beyond questions, doubts, and protests and put the cup of our life up to our lips and drink it slowly, carefully, and fully
Isn’t that what many of us want - a FULL life? God didn’t promise us happiness. We are promised an abundant life - we live in abundance by fully living all of life - the joy and the sorrow of it - all of it, everyday.
Drinking our cup is not just “making the best of it.” It’s not merely adapting ourselves to a bad situation and getting through it. Drinking our cup is a hopeful, hope-filled, courageous and self-confident way of living. It is standing in the world with head held high, solidly rooted in the knowledge of who we are, facing the reality that surrounds us and responding to life from our hearts. (Pause)
I’ve been speaking of the cup metaphorically, of course - the cup as a symbol of our lives, how we live our lives, how we hold the cup, lift it and drink it to fully live out our lives. I want to take a few moments now to suggest ways we might use a literal cup to help us experience, envision, and deepen our own spiritual lives.
Joyce Rupp, in her book “The Cup of Our Life,” tells about a mid-week prayer time with 2 of her colleagues. They were invited to bring their ordinary, empty coffee cups with them. After settling in, they were told to hold their cups, to look into them, and to think about their spiritual lives. Immediately, tears formed in Joyce’s eyes.
A deep sadness washed over her as she realized she felt much more spiritually drained than she thought or knew. Looking into the empty cup was like looking into her hollow self.
Since that experience, Joyce has found her cup to be a powerful teacher, regarding her inner life. She writes that the ordinariness of the cup reminds her that her personal transformation occurs in the common crevices of each day. The cup has been a reminder of her spiritual thirst. As she held it, filled it, drank from it, emptied it, and washed it, she’s learned that it is through her ordinary human experience that her thirst for God is quenched. In the cup she sees life with its emptiness, fullness, brokenness, flaws and blessings.
I invite you to find a cup - or buy a new one - that has special meaning to you. Then live with that cup. As you drink from it, let that be a time to be aware of what’s going on inside you, how life is happening around you - really happening. Be aware of holding the cup, of lifting the cup and of drinking from it. Be intentional. Do you feel full? Are you empty? Is your cup overflowing? Is it half full or half empty? Are you hollow?
A cup is continuously filled and emptied. That makes it useful! The same happens with our spiritual lives. We are filled and emptied. We die and rise again. We accept and we let go.
We can imagine the cup full of our sorrows - and full of our joys - all at the same time. Macrina Wiederkehr says, “. . . right in the midst of my sorrows, there is always room for joy. Joy and sorrow are sisters; they live in the same house. We live with both joy and sorrow - both are a part of the process of living and growth.
We can hold our cups and put one hand over the open part and reflect on our resistance to allowing new thoughts, ideas, experiences into our lives. The cup can teach us that it only receives when the path is open and clear. Taking our hand away from the opening, we can pour something into the cup. Be aware that you can put new things into your cup.
Shortly we will be receiving communion. Hear the question from Jesus - Can you drink the cup? Remember Nouwen’s admonition to hold the cup, lift the cup and drink from the cup.
Also remember, please, that it is in living and sharing, loving and caring in community where we most fully live out our lives as Christians. Together, we CAN drink the cup!
