What is Lent All About?

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

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!

What is Epiphany?

The 12 Days of Christmas end today.  What's next?  Epiphany!
What is the church season of Epiphany all about?

What is Advent?

What Does Outreach Look Like?

What does outreach leading to evangelism look like in 21st Century America?

Click here for an excellent, practical article written by Ken Chitwood.

The "Gorgeous" Cross

Yesterday, I was in a doctor's office...

I was sitting in the waiting room, waiting, when a woman walks in and stops at the receptionist's desk.  I immediately hear from the receptionist, "Oh, what a gorgeous cross you're wearing!"  And my thoughts immediately turned theological.

Saying "gorgeous" as an adjective modifying the noun "cross" makes as much sense as putting together the words "delightful" and "electric chair."  A cross is an ancient instrument of brutal and grotesque torture and death.  One does not wear a cross around one's neck because it is beautiful.  One wears a cross around one's neck because of the Son of God's brutal death upon it in your place.  Even we Christians have sanitized, cleaned-up, and dressed up an instrument of death - in order to insulate ourselves from the brutal reality of death.

The beauty of the cross is not the material beauty of its structure.  The beauty of the cross is the beauty and glory of the story of the work Jesus of Nazareth did upon that cross for you and me and the whole world - and emerged victoriously living the resurrected life as a first fruits of your resurrection.  It's an incredible, divine irony.  As Paul writes in 1st Corinthians:

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

And

"For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and follow to Gentiles."

Next time you wear a cross around your neck, think not of it's beauty, but of the beautiful irony of the work of God in Christ.

Note: An excellent recent article on this topic by a Seminary professor of mine can be found here.