Dear friends in Christ at Peace and Grue,
A torn fragment of bread or a smooth flat wafer placed in an outstretched hand. A sip of wine from a chalice or a tiny cup reverently consumed. Simple familiar words spoken: “The body of Christ, given for you.” “The blood of Christ, shed for you.” In these small acts and few words, Christians return to the heart of our faith, joining ourselves together with every other believer, not just across the world, but in an age old continuity reaching back to Jesus himself.
The core belief that gives this form of worship its power is that Jesus Christ is himself in it. This is where it becomes anything but simple: How can Jesus have body and blood when we are so far removed in time and space from his physical historical life? How can a risen, ascended Jesus be in two places at once? What kind of “presence” is this? Luther’s description is simple: Jesus gives himself (his true body and blood) in, with, and under the ordinary objects of bread and wine, telling us to eat and drink. Luther is more interested in the fact that Christ is present (because of his promise: “This is my body…”) than how Christ is present (a problem Luther dismisses as a mathematical question).
What is indisputable is that this partaking in and sharing of Jesus’ presence in, with, and under the bread and wine is an important command of Jesus. It has been at the heart of Christian worship from the earliest days of Christianity, and it is still central to us today. Most Christians hold up this sacrament - together with baptism - as essential to the practice of our faith, as we carry out Jesus’ command with seriousness and devotion, experiencing forgiveness and growing in love.
“To receive this sacrament worthily,” Luther says, “we need believing hearts.” He does not say perfect hearts, but hearts like ours: hearts anxious in the face of uncertainty. This seems simple, but it is not. In our humanness, we seek to control our heats and our thoughts. It is hard for us to give ourselves to anyone, even God. It is hard for us to trust a reality that comes from outside of us rather than inside. It is not logic or the power of our faith that makes Jesus present for us, gives us forgiveness, and the strength of his promise, it is the power of God. It is not about marveling at the miracle that happens at the altar, it is about the miracle that God’s promises are true and Christ’s sacrament is always available that brings us together again and again and again to hear the words anew and rejoice in the assurance they contain.
We live in a world full of fear and division. We can face both by showing the world our trust in God. When we receive the bread and wine, knowing what it truly is - the body and blood of Christ, given for us - we defy the world’s skepticism and hardness of heart with a truth deeper than the world can offer.
The world needs to see and know Jesus, and this sacrament is the way we know him most intimately. This sacrament changes the one it touches. It brings us into a closer relationship with God and our neighbor by connecting us personally with a divine reality, so that we can offer ourselves back to the world in service as Jesus did. It invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
During Lent, we have a few of our young people preparing to join us at the table. Their 1st communion is scheduled for Palm Sunday, giving them the opportunity to join us at the table on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, as well as Easter Sunday. I hope you will be there to welcome them to the Lord’s table.
Pastor Dan