Sermon-Sunday, August 20th
John 6:51-58
Brothers and sisters,Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.By now you have probably noticed that I tend to speak quite a bit about baptism in my sermons. In baptism we are brought into the blessed community that is the body of Christ. As the body of Christ we are a community living in our baptism, so baptism is at the heart of who we are as people of God, and that is why I talkabout baptism as much as I do. Be that as it may though, today I am going to talk about the other sacrament that we celebrate; Holy Communion.The first thing that I want you to understand about communion is that it is complete foolishness. Think about it, it is said that in communion we are literally eating and drinking the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.I went to a workshop a few months back and the leader of the workshop was saying that what makes communion unique isn’t so much that we believe that Christ is truly present, because we believe that Christ is always present. He said that what makes communion unique is the coming together of God’s people. He said that there is no difference between the presence of Christ that we experience in communion, and the presence of Christ that we experience in our everyday living.Well, he’s wrong. There is a difference. All you have to do is read today’s Gospel lesson to see that. From the opening verse, Jesus calls Himself the living bread from heaven and says that whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and that the bread that He will give for the life of the world is His flesh. Here Jesus is referring to both the Cross, where He gave His flesh for you and His supper where He continues to nourish and sustain you with His body and blood.And then later He says that unless you eat of His flesh and drink of His blood you have no life in you. So there you have it, in it’s complete foolishness. In this thing that you do every first and third and sometimes fifth Sunday where you come forward and drink the tiny little glass of wine and eat this little white wafer which seems to be completely devoid of any flavor except that of maybe cardboard, you are partaking in the body and blood of your Savior Christ Jesus. You are being nourished and sustained in your faith through the physical presence of your Lord and Savior in the meal.I told you it was foolishness. Oh you’ll downplay the foolishness of it. It’s hard for you to think about the foolishness of this with the polished communion vessels and the beautiful setting and the quiet and intimate tone that celebrating the Lord’s Supper often brings about. That’s probably why it’s done that way, to sugarcoat the foolishness of it. That is what the workshop leader who I referred to earlier was doing when He downplayed the presence of Christ in communion. He was sugarcoating the foolishness of this blessed sacrament.Think about it, as Christians we can’t even agree about what communion means. Some will say that Christ truly is present, some will say that communion is merely a memorial with a symbolic presence of Christ, and some say that it is a thanksgiving.But as illogical as it might seem to say that when you come forward and eat the flavorless wafer and drink the whine that you are partaking in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus, you know what, you believe it. You believe the foolishness.Why do you believe it? Is it because you have such an open mind? Is it because through reason and science you have weighed the evidence and come to the scientific conclusion that maybe this isn’t so foolish after all? Is it because through your own efforts, you have been able to muster up your own faith? Sorry, but no.You believe because living in your baptism, as Martin Luther tells us in the small catechism, you have been called by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. You have been enlightened with His gifts and you have been kept in the true faith.You are called to the table in faith and in the very act of doing this, your faith is sustained and nurtured. From the Gospel lesson today you read that when you are called to the Lord’s Supper and you receive the gift of this sacrament you are receiving life itself. When you partake in the Supper you are being given life. As one who partakes of this sacrament in faith, you have eternal life. In the Supper, through the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus calls you to receive new life and on the last day you will be called to eternal life.So what then is the difference between the presence of Christ that you experience in His Supper and the presence of Christ that you experience in other ways, such as preaching? The presence of Christ that you experience in preaching is one of experiencing the voice of Christ. Through the proclaiming of His word, Christ Jesus is speaking to you. This is of course an extremely important, life-changing, and vital way to experience the presence of Christ. But it is also something that you experience primarily in your head and in your heart.The presence of Christ that you experience in the Lord’s Supper is different. Think of what happens when you eat something. When you eat bread and drink whine, or when you eat donuts and drink coffee, or pretzels and beer, or hot dogs and coca-cola, or whatever, the food you eat and drink ends up nourishing your blood which in turn nourishes every cell in your bodies.In His Supper Jesus becomes a part of your every nook and cranny. He flows through every tiny capillary in every cell in your body.The workshop leader who I referred to earlier was not completely wrong. The coming together of God’s people is an extremely important element of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It is vital and necessary. But it does not define the sacrament, instead the sacrament defines the coming together of God’s people. The sacrament is not dependent upon the coming together of God’s people, the coming together is dependent upon the sacrament.It is dependent upon the fulfillment of the promise that Christ Jesus made to be truly present in the celebration of His Supper. This is a promise that has been fulfilled over the years every time God’s people have been called to the table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It’s a promise that will be fulfilled in a few minutes when you are called once again to partake in our Lord’s Supper.So, yes it is true that in baptism you are brought into the body of Christ, but the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is one of the ways that the very faith that you are baptized into is nurtured and sustained. In the Lord’s Supper you receive new and eternal life and our Lord Jesus fills you with His presence in every nook and cranny of your being. To paraphrase the late Gerhard Forde, in the partaking of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus you are able to see, taste, touch, and feel the forgiveness of your sins.What a truly blessed gift this sacrament is. Thankfully our Lord was wise enough to make all of us foolish enough to believe it.Amen
Brothers and sisters,Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.By now you have probably noticed that I tend to speak quite a bit about baptism in my sermons. In baptism we are brought into the blessed community that is the body of Christ. As the body of Christ we are a community living in our baptism, so baptism is at the heart of who we are as people of God, and that is why I talkabout baptism as much as I do. Be that as it may though, today I am going to talk about the other sacrament that we celebrate; Holy Communion.The first thing that I want you to understand about communion is that it is complete foolishness. Think about it, it is said that in communion we are literally eating and drinking the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.I went to a workshop a few months back and the leader of the workshop was saying that what makes communion unique isn’t so much that we believe that Christ is truly present, because we believe that Christ is always present. He said that what makes communion unique is the coming together of God’s people. He said that there is no difference between the presence of Christ that we experience in communion, and the presence of Christ that we experience in our everyday living.Well, he’s wrong. There is a difference. All you have to do is read today’s Gospel lesson to see that. From the opening verse, Jesus calls Himself the living bread from heaven and says that whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and that the bread that He will give for the life of the world is His flesh. Here Jesus is referring to both the Cross, where He gave His flesh for you and His supper where He continues to nourish and sustain you with His body and blood.And then later He says that unless you eat of His flesh and drink of His blood you have no life in you. So there you have it, in it’s complete foolishness. In this thing that you do every first and third and sometimes fifth Sunday where you come forward and drink the tiny little glass of wine and eat this little white wafer which seems to be completely devoid of any flavor except that of maybe cardboard, you are partaking in the body and blood of your Savior Christ Jesus. You are being nourished and sustained in your faith through the physical presence of your Lord and Savior in the meal.I told you it was foolishness. Oh you’ll downplay the foolishness of it. It’s hard for you to think about the foolishness of this with the polished communion vessels and the beautiful setting and the quiet and intimate tone that celebrating the Lord’s Supper often brings about. That’s probably why it’s done that way, to sugarcoat the foolishness of it. That is what the workshop leader who I referred to earlier was doing when He downplayed the presence of Christ in communion. He was sugarcoating the foolishness of this blessed sacrament.Think about it, as Christians we can’t even agree about what communion means. Some will say that Christ truly is present, some will say that communion is merely a memorial with a symbolic presence of Christ, and some say that it is a thanksgiving.But as illogical as it might seem to say that when you come forward and eat the flavorless wafer and drink the whine that you are partaking in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus, you know what, you believe it. You believe the foolishness.Why do you believe it? Is it because you have such an open mind? Is it because through reason and science you have weighed the evidence and come to the scientific conclusion that maybe this isn’t so foolish after all? Is it because through your own efforts, you have been able to muster up your own faith? Sorry, but no.You believe because living in your baptism, as Martin Luther tells us in the small catechism, you have been called by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. You have been enlightened with His gifts and you have been kept in the true faith.You are called to the table in faith and in the very act of doing this, your faith is sustained and nurtured. From the Gospel lesson today you read that when you are called to the Lord’s Supper and you receive the gift of this sacrament you are receiving life itself. When you partake in the Supper you are being given life. As one who partakes of this sacrament in faith, you have eternal life. In the Supper, through the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus calls you to receive new life and on the last day you will be called to eternal life.So what then is the difference between the presence of Christ that you experience in His Supper and the presence of Christ that you experience in other ways, such as preaching? The presence of Christ that you experience in preaching is one of experiencing the voice of Christ. Through the proclaiming of His word, Christ Jesus is speaking to you. This is of course an extremely important, life-changing, and vital way to experience the presence of Christ. But it is also something that you experience primarily in your head and in your heart.The presence of Christ that you experience in the Lord’s Supper is different. Think of what happens when you eat something. When you eat bread and drink whine, or when you eat donuts and drink coffee, or pretzels and beer, or hot dogs and coca-cola, or whatever, the food you eat and drink ends up nourishing your blood which in turn nourishes every cell in your bodies.In His Supper Jesus becomes a part of your every nook and cranny. He flows through every tiny capillary in every cell in your body.The workshop leader who I referred to earlier was not completely wrong. The coming together of God’s people is an extremely important element of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It is vital and necessary. But it does not define the sacrament, instead the sacrament defines the coming together of God’s people. The sacrament is not dependent upon the coming together of God’s people, the coming together is dependent upon the sacrament.It is dependent upon the fulfillment of the promise that Christ Jesus made to be truly present in the celebration of His Supper. This is a promise that has been fulfilled over the years every time God’s people have been called to the table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It’s a promise that will be fulfilled in a few minutes when you are called once again to partake in our Lord’s Supper.So, yes it is true that in baptism you are brought into the body of Christ, but the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is one of the ways that the very faith that you are baptized into is nurtured and sustained. In the Lord’s Supper you receive new and eternal life and our Lord Jesus fills you with His presence in every nook and cranny of your being. To paraphrase the late Gerhard Forde, in the partaking of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus you are able to see, taste, touch, and feel the forgiveness of your sins.What a truly blessed gift this sacrament is. Thankfully our Lord was wise enough to make all of us foolish enough to believe it.Amen
posted by Steve at 8:10 PM
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