Monday, February 16, 2015

What is Lent All About?

A great video from Concordia Publishing House that helps us understand the purpose of the season of Lent:




Monday, February 2, 2015

A Joyous Feast


"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ."
1 Corinthians 10:16

When I was a child, I remember watching people coming back from communion with expressionless faces.  They weren't sad.  But they didn't really look happy either.  I didn't understand then, but, thinking on it today, I believe they were just being reverent.  They were being respectful of the context of worship and the reality of God's presence.  They were also being very German!

I still see it today.  I now see it from a different perspective.  As I now stand behind the rail as one distributing the Sacrament, I see our members approach the altar in a pious, reverent manner.  I do believe that is a proper approach to the altar of our Lord.  We are coming forward as ones recognizing the ominous reality of our sin.  We truly are sinners. But we are sinners coming to our Lord for mercy.  Like a child coming to a parent to confess a wrongdoing, we come with the burden of our sin written on our faces.

But what about when we return from the altar?  I often still see the same face.  Reverent of course.  But why is their not joy?  Should their not be joy?  

What just happened here?

Think about it: you just received the body and blood of your Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in with and under the bread and wine you just ate and drank.  In the mysterious paradox of the Sacrament, you just consumed Jesus as he has promised: "Take and eat, this is my body given for you.  Take and drink, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin."  

You just consumed the body of blood of the very same Jesus you heard about in the readings from Scripture today.  You just consumed the body and blood of the very same Jesus you just heard proclaimed in the sermon.  This is the very same Jesus who rose from the dead some 2000 years ago and has promised to be right here, right now, for you and everyone else at this altar.  Your Lord promises to strengthen your faith with this meal - helping you to live your new-creation life out in a world groaning for its Lord to return and make all things right and new.  You just shared this meal with your fellow members of the body of Christ in this place - joining you to them in a closer reality than to your own biological brothers and sisters.  You just ate a foretaste of the feast to come - a foretaste of the post-resurrection life into eternity that is yours right now in Christ.  All of this and much more than we can fathom has just happened in this few brief moments of eating and drinking!

I think, that, after receiving the Lord's Supper, it is quite okay, good right, and salutary to crack a smile on your way back to the pew.  I think it would be quite alright to give a fellow child of God a hug or even a handshake.  Because an amazing, divine thing of pure good news and joy has just happened - changing your life forever.   

And you get to do this every week!