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03/26/2008
WHY SHOULD I COMMUNE?
“ Sad, I have a chance to by Steve’s bike for only 75 dollars! But I don’t have any money. Would you maybe give me a loan if I write you an IOU?”
The teenage youngster was as serious as could be.
“ I guess I can lend you the money, son. But you don’t have to give me an IOU. I trust you.”
Almighty God, in his mercy, has
given his son to die for us and, for his sake, forgives us all our sins. As a called and
ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare you
to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
We trust these words of absolution, don’t we? In one way they are like an IOU, they are God’s promise that we are forgiven for Jesus’ sake-and he, too, is absolutely serious. In another way, of course, the absolution is not an IOU, for God owes us nothing. He gives because he is good and offers grace for Jesus’ sake. Of this grace the Lord’s Supper assures us
Forgiveness
So there is more in the Holy Communion
than an IOU. In it we hear and taste and see and feel forgiveness in a special way.
Jesus’ word says: “ This is my body and blood, given and shed for you.”
Jesus’. Body and blood received in this sacrament is the assurance, and assurance we
receive by faith when we partake of the bread and wine. The sacrament is a seal of the
promise of God. We dare not forget that. Al
Lutherans we say “yea and amen” to what has been stated. Whatever else we might
want to say about the Sacrament of the Altar, we want to say most of all: the body and
blood of Christ won our forgiveness. We trust the word of forgiveness, but it is
important, too, that the word of forgiveness is “nailed down” in the sacrament. But the significance of this holy mean is more
than forgiveness. For forgiveness opens new channels of discovery, Luther tells us in his
Small Catechism that “where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life
and salvation.”
Life
We discover that life (as God means it) rejoices in one’s relationship to God and our life together within the church. We have to think carefully at this point as we realize that the church, which Paul call the body of Christ, shares miraculously and mysteriously in the body of Christ by means of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. Lutherans call this identification of Christ with the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper the “real presence.” We might say also that the process of being joined and knit together” (Ephesians 4:16) as the body of Christ is fortified through this means of grace, the Lord’s Supper. In this meal we link ourselves in fellowship with the whole church. A the Lord’s Table we join all the faithful who share God’s bread and board, who proclaim Christ’s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). Even beyond the faithful at our elbows are all those others who having not seen yet have believed. Within this fellowship, empowered by the sacrament, the faithful recognize one another, forgive each other, and reach out together to reconcile a broken world. This body of Christ (the church), in one sense, is present wherever this holy meal offers the body of Christ (Jesus himself), in another sense, to all who repent and believe. From the finely dressed in grand cathedrals to the newly converted gathered in. humble huts to eat the bread with tears of joy, the Lord’s Supper says: “ We who are many are one body, for we are all partakers of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Each believer’s participation in the sacrament establishes his or her identity as part of the whole, as more than simply on isolated though forgiven sinner. For together, we Christians are the embodiments of Christ in the world- we proclaim Christ broken for the world and people reunited with God and one another through him. Though God gives us renewed life individually through the forgiveness Jesus won for us, he gives life in the context of his body, the church of all times and places and races. When we commune we affirm our unity as we confirm our identity. Likewise we recognize our fellowship with every sister and brother who in this breaking of bread shares our witness to a universal unity among Christians.
Salvation
With the gift of renewed life the sacrament includes the gift of salvation. Salvation is the great and gracious rescue that the cross of Jesus initiates. By the cross God chooses to claim his people for familial relationship with himself forever. As a prelude to that eternal fellowship in the presence of the Lamb, God sets a meal before us to remind us of the future banquet that awaits all his people. We Lutherans have lately discovered another dimension of our hope in Christ in the words our Lutheran Book of Worship uses as an offertory: “Gather the hopes and dreams of all; unite them with the prayers we offer. Grace our table with you presence, and give us a foretaste of the feast to come.” This “Foretaste” of heaven is the manna for our journey through this life as God’s pilgrim people. It is a visible, eatable promise of “the marriage supper of the lamb” (Rev. 19:9) that we will one-day share. This hope of eternal life belongs to our salvation- a hope made sure in the blood of Christ. We are nourished for the journey whose goal is the throne of the lamb that was slain and has already begun his reign. Such nourishment we need frequently, and therefore we should commune often- whenever the church gives us opportunity. Furthermore, Holy Communion is one way of saying “thank you” to God for the richness of his heavenly gifts- forgiveness, life, and salvation. One biblical word for the holy meal is eucharis, a word related to Jesus’ action of thanks as he instituted the supper. The basic meaning of Eucharist is thanksgiving. The clause “let us give thanks to the lord or God” literally means “ let us make Eucharist to the Lord our God
Response of Thanks
Consequently in the Eucharist the church thanks God for the table that is set and the food that is ready even as we praise him for forgiveness, life, and salvation. We together are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes- for everyone to hear and see and believe. We say” Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” That’s the mystery of love at the center of our faith- a mystery beyond words. Why should I commune? For may reasons – as here given. But none may be more important than knowing whose table it is and who is the host. Our lord himself is the one who invites us to eat and to drink to assure us of forgiveness, life, and salvation and to call us into service for the world.