Homily for Trinity 20

"The Lord loves a banquet. He is happiest when His people are gathered at the table with Him." That's how Dr. Norman Nagel began his 1996 sermon on Luke 14:15-24 at Zion Academy. It's also a line I was happy to adopt for my 2010 homily for Trinity 20 based on Matthew 22:1-14. Under the title and theme of "R.S.V.P." we heard how God loves a banquet, invites the bad and the good, and wants our R.S.V.P. for attending His feast of forgiveness, life, and salvation given through His Son.

To listen to the audio file of this homily, click this link and then download the audio file.

Homily for Trinity 2

Today's homily for the Second Sunday after Trinity came from Luke 14:15-24 and is titled "Where IS Everyone?" How truly amazing that our Lord nails it regarding the excuses people make for missing out on the great banquet of His Gospel and Sacraments. It's also amazing how this reading is so well suited for this time of year, when so many of those invited to the Eucharistic banquet make so many excuses for why they just cannot attend (sports events aplenty, weekends away at the lake, sleeping in after traveling, etc.).

To listen to the audio file of today's homily, just click here and download the file.

Homily for Holy Thursday

The Holy Triduum is absolutely my favorite time of the Church Year, and even of all time. After all, it does usher in our Passover from sin and death to forgiveness and life in Christ Jesus.

This year's homily for Holy Thursday focused on Christ our Passover under the title "Memorial Meal of Receiving Rescue & Living in Love."

Click on this link to download and listen to the audio file. The Lord bless you and keep you!

Fatherly Wisdom-Proclaiming the Lord's Cry

From Gregory the Great, in his "Moral Reflections on Job," speaking of Job's words in Job 13:21-23 as a type of Christ:

Earth has not hidden away [Christ's] blood, for holy Church has preached in every corner of the world the mystery of its redemption.

Notice what follows: "Do not let my cry find a hiding place in you." The blood that is drunk, the blood of redemption, is itself the cry of our Redeemer. Paul speaks of "the sprinkled blood that calls out more eloquently than Abel's." Of Abel's blood Scripture had written: "The voice of your brother's blood cries our to me from the earth." The blood of Jesus calls out more eloquently than Abel's, for the blood of Abel asked for the death of Cain the fratricide, while the blood of the Lord has asked for, and obtained, life for his persecutors.

If the sacrament of the Lord's passion is to work its effect in us, we must imitate what we receive and proclaim to humanity what we revere. The cry of our Lord finds a hiding place in us if our lips fail to speak of this, though our hearts believe in it. So that his cry may not lie concealed in us it remains for us all, each in our own measure, to make known to those around us the mystery of our new life in Christ.

Homily - Holy Thursday

Here's tonight's homily for Holy Thursday ... and I absolutely love this icon (never seen it before; just now found it) that brings out the Calvary on the Altar theme that von Schenk drives home!

“Calvary Brought Down to Today”
Holy (Maundy) Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; John 13:1-15, 34-35

We have left the season of Lent, and now we enter the “Holy Triduum” – the Holy Three Days. The season of Lent has prepared us for this most sacred time by drawing us to our Baptism and by reminding us of the real, spiritual battles we wage against our own sin, our own fallen flesh, the fallen world, and the devil himself. Lent has prepared us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Now we stand at Calvary’s holy mountain to do just that.

Our first reading reminds us of the Passover sacrifice and meal. For any other people, it looked like any other kind of meal. But for Israel, the people of God, it was their meal of deliverance. Sacrifice a lamb, smear its blood on the doorposts, roast and eat that lamb, and off they went – out of slavery and into freedom. Talk about a colossal “eat and run”! But it was God’s way of delivering His people. It was God’s way of preparing them for the greater Lamb who would take on human flesh and blood and take away the sin of the world.

In our second reading we hear how the Old Testament Passover becomes our New Testament Passover. We too have a sacrifice and a meal that sets us free. To folks outside the Church, it looks like a pretty poor meal indeed – only a little bite of bread and a small sip of wine. But to God’s redeemed people, to us, it is our Lord’s Meal of deliverance – freeing us from our own sin, our own fallen flesh, our fallen world, and even from Satan himself. And all of this because of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You see, He was sacrificed and roasted on the Cross; His blood was smeared on the doorposts of the Cross. And off we go, out of slavery in our sin and death and into the freedom of forgiveness and the light of God’s life.

Then, in our Gospel reading, we hear of the great love of our Savior Jesus Christ. It happened in the hustle and bustle of celebrating the Passover meal. Jesus took off His outer garment and wrapped Himself with a towel. He poured water into a basin and got down on His hands and knees to wash His disciples’ calloused, sweaty, dirt encrusted feet. What great love! What great sacrifice! And then our Lord gave His new commandment: “that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

All three of these things converge into one in these Holy Three Days. The Passover sacrifice and deliverance; our Lord’s Meal of Body and Blood for forgiveness and life; and our Lord’s command to love one another with the sacrifice of oneself: they all combine into what one pastor once called “the Calvary Love.” Let’s listen to Pastor Berthold von Schenk (The Presence, pp. 88-92).

Mark well this amazing situation. Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Altar in the city of Jerusalem at the time of the great feast. What was uppermost in the mind of the people in Jerusalem? Was it not fundamentally the idea of sacrifice? That is the word which echoed and re-echoed through the streets.

It is before the final sacrifice, the culmination of all sacrifices, that Jesus says: “This is My Body, given for you.” Then He speaks these important words: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Sacrificial words in a sacrificial setting, at a sacrificial moment. There can be no doubt that when Jesus instituted the Sacrament He associated it with the sacrifice of the Cross.

Now listen to Paul again, “As often as ye do this, ye do show forth the Lords death till He come.” Holy Communion and Calvary are always linked together. We cannot add to Calvary. We cannot repeat it. How then, is our Communion related to the Sacrifice of the Cross? We can get some help by taking note of the Jewish sacrifice. There were three parts. As in the Jewish Temple sacrifices there was the presentation of the victim, the slaying of the victim, and the taking of blood into the Holy of Holies, so in Christ these all were fulfilled.

At Bethlehem the Lamb was presented
At Calvary the Lamb was slain.
At the Ascension the Lamb ascended into the veil and now has our High Priest and Advocate presents forever the sacrifice once offered upon the Cross.

Calvary, then, is now in Heaven, an eternal fact, where the Master Himself, in His risen and glorified Body, with His wounds shining more brilliant than all created light, obtains mercy for you and for me. And the Altar?—Here we have under the veils of bread and wine, the same Body once crucified, now risen and glorified. And in Communion, as nowhere else, the believer is caught up in this great continual act, this timeless offering of the one sacrifice on the Cross.

The Church on earth and the Church in heaven is one Church. It cannot be broken up. The Body of Christ cannot be torn asunder. On the Cross the sacrifice was perfectly offered. Now our Lord continually pleads this sacrifice. At the Altar the Christian Church pleads the same offering which our Lord is continually offering in heaven, only now under the veils of bread and wine.

Remember, there are not two sacrifices. There is one sacrifice, the same sacrifice, in one Church, presented and pleaded before the Father. The sacrifice of Christ cannot be divided into two parts. Therefore, at the Altar we touch Calvary. The same Body which was offered then is present at the Altar; and every time I communicate I show forth His death, the same death. I link myself to it, and Calvary becomes a reality. At Communion we are actually on the mount called Calvary. We see it all. Some of us stand, as did John, in mystified wonder; others, like Mary, in love and tears; some, like the soldiers; and others, still, like the Centurian [sic], and say: “Surely, this is the Son of God.” The Lord’s Supper is not the symbol of the death of Christ, but it is the personal appropriation of the person of Christ in His death. The Communicant takes the crucified Saviour into Himself as the bread and wine serve as carriers…. This is what Paul meant when he said: “Is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10).

The whole sacrifice of Calvary is focused to a point at the Altar. It is brought home and made a reality as I kneel to receive the true Body and Blood given and shed for me. Then it was offered on the Cross, now, in heaven triumphant—through the bread and wine. Here I truly touch Calvary, which is now being pleaded by my High Priest. Here I find the secret whereby I can touch my God, the secret whereby divine love can also be born in me and thus radiate through me into the lives of my fellow-men.

Here at the Altar I find love. Here, as I touch Calvary and the pure love of Golgotha radiates in and through me, I can say, “Take me, Lord Jesus. Take also my body, which I am willing to break for Thee; take also my blood which I am willing to shed for Thee. I offer my whole life to Thee through Thy dear life by which alone I can be saved, by which alone I can help bring to salvation my wife, my children, my home, my friends.”

At the Altar is the cresset where we get our fire of the Calvary Love. How this love is needed! We have lost much of it. We have to invent all kinds of methods to attract the people. We must advertise, we must entertain. Why? Because the Church has lost its way to the Altar it has also lost its way into the heart of the world. For the pure love of Calvary alone can save the world. It is that love for which the world is aching. But we must first recapture it ourselves.

Let us find the reality of Calvary, of love, by the way of the Altar. There we can again touch the wounds of Christ; and by touching the wounds of Christ, we shall touch the wounds of the world.

May God grant us a joyous celebration of these Holy Three Days as we find Calvary brought down to today at the Altar. In the name of the Father, and of the X Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"The A-B-Cs of Lent - Communion II"

Here's the final installment from our Lent Evening Prayer sermon series, "The A-B-Cs of Lent."

“The A-B-Cs of Lent” – Communion II
Acts 2:42-47
John 6:47-57
Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, 3-4

Eating and drinking with God is the highest form of fellowship we can have. We come into His presence with thanksgiving. As guests in His house, we are welcomed to His table to eat His food and drink His wine. People pay hundreds or thousands of dollars just to have a Danish and a cup of coffee with the President or a round of golf with a high-ranking congressman. But table fellowship with God is free, a gift of His grace, purchased with the blood of God’s Lamb, His Son Jesus, poured out on the cross.

The Lord’s Supper is the Lamb’s High Feast. In this meal our Lord Jesus is cook, servant, and meal all in one. Roasted on the cross in the fire of God’s wrath against our sin and His burning love for us sinners, this Lamb of God is our very food and drink. With His very words, spoken through His minister, He gives us His very Body and Blood: “given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus is speaking to you. Jesus is feeding you. Jesus is your food. This is table fellowship with God in the most complete way.

The Lord’s Supper completes and fulfills the great feasts of the Old Testament. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 elders went up on Mt. Sinai, and “they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Ex. 24:11). The Israelites ate the annual Passover meal of roasted lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread. They also ate the heavenly gifts of manna and quail in the wilderness.

The Lord’s Supper also completes and fulfills the great New Testament feasts. One time Jesus fed 4000 people, and another time He fed over 5000. Our Lord loved to eat and drink with tax collectors and Pharisees, prostitutes and religious. It seems He never turned down a dinner invitation. (Must be why some called Him “a glutton and a drunkard”! ☺ [Mt. 11:19]). And the day when He rose from the dead, Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus with two disciples, preached a sermon from the Scriptures, and then revealed Himself in the breaking of the bread.

So, from the beginning the Church has devoted herself “to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Word and Meal, Sermon and Sacrament—they’re the ongoing rhythm of the Church’s life. For over 1500 years it was unheard of to have the Lord’s Day without the Lord’s Supper. Sermon and Supper, Word and Meal, were one whole thing, not to be divided. It was not the Lutheran Reformation, but the Radical Reformation that broke table fellowship with the Lord. Radical Reformers made the ongoing feast with God an occasional extra, three or four times a year, instead of the weekly, even daily, gift that it had been since Pentecost.

The ongoing feast of Christ’s Body and Blood, given with His words, continues through the centuries, and it remains one unchanging meal—one loaf, one cup. Oh, outward forms may change now and then. They had a cup; we’ve added little glasses. They had a single flat loaf; we have little stamped wafers. Some kneel at a rail; others walk through a line. But for all the outward differences, we still eat the same Lamb as the Twelve did on that night when He was betrayed. We drink the same Blood as they did—one Christ, one Sacrifice, one Supper. So, when we kneel at the altar, we eat and drink the very same Meal as did St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, Ignatius, Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Luther, Chemnitz, and Gerhard, just to name a few. A countless crowd has dined at the Lord’s Table and still dines with the whole company of heaven.

We receive two great comforts from this. The first comfort is that so many have preceded us at this Supper of the Lord. They were sinners just as we are. They felt the grief and shame of what they had done and not done, just as we do. They felt the sting of death, just as we do. They wanted relief from sin and death. They relied on the Lord of life to raise them and give them eternal life. That comfort came in the Supper, and they direct us there as well. We’re in great company at this table.

The second comfort is this. Even though many things change—and changes come at warp speed in our computer-driven world—two things never change: our sin and our Savior’s meal. Our Lord continues to give His Body and Blood that forgives our sins and gives us life with Him. “We daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” Every day, even every hour, we do all sorts of things against God and against our neighbor. We might think of it as “just another day at the office,” but words are said that should never be said. Deeds are done that should never be done. Thoughts and desires well up within us that only prove we love to dethrone God and put ourselves in His seat. We are the same kinds of sinners as those in the first, fourth, or fifteenth centuries.

And the solution to our sin is the same as it’s always been, even from the Garden of Eden. What’s that solution? The Word made flesh and nailed to the tree; Jesus Christ crucified and risen. He’s the only solution to our sin. His Body broken for us is real Food, filled with life. His Blood shed for us is real Drink, filled with forgiveness. His words deliver these things and their saving benefits to faith, “for the words ‘for you’ require all hearts to believe.”

Last week I mentioned our need to revive our hunger and thirst for our Lord’s Holy Communion. This is really God’s answer to our “lukewarmness” in the Church these days. Perhaps you remember the church of the Laodiceans in the book of Revelation. They had grown complacent and lukewarm. They were neither refreshingly cold nor energetically hot. Sounds a lot like us in our personal faith or like many churches these days. And how did our Lord propose to wake up this sleeping giant of the Laodicean church? No, not by putting it on ice or setting it ablaze! Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). Jesus reenergizes us and re-enlivens us by eating and drinking with us sinners.

The Lutheran historian and theologian Herman Sasse said that whenever the Church takes seriously the Lord’s Supper, the Church is renewed and grows. Sermon, Supper, and prayer—they’re the three pillars on which the Church was built from Pentecost onward. Apostolic teaching, table fellowship in the Breaking of the Bread, and corporate prayers—where these things are practiced, where they are our very heart and soul, there we can be sure we have the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” There we can be sure Christ is present with us and that His gifts of salvation are being given out. Numbers large or small are irrelevant; Christ’s presence is everything.

Before we wrap up our sermon series on “The A-B-Cs of Lent”, let’s consider personal preparation for Jesus’ ongoing feast. In Luther’s day, people tended to stay away from the Sacrament out of fear, even though they came to church to hear the Gospel. Today, though, people tend to “belly up to the bar” with hardly a thought about their need for the Lord’s gifts or what those gifts truly are. The Small Catechism reminds us that “fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training.” Luther spoke to people who were overly concerned with the outward things of fasting and bodily discipline. We have quite the opposite problem. We think we dare not fast and we frown on disciplining our bodies as a way to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

We live in a culture that trumpets feasting without fasting. Many see Holy Communion as an individual right rather than a corporate privilege. We think everything should be “my way” or no way, or even “majority rules” in matters of faith and life with God. We tend to treat the Church catholic as a religious McDonald’s franchise, and the local congregation as the place where we can rush through the drive-thru to get a little snack on the way to our other, more pressing commitments. We have lost the days when pastor and communicants would sit down and talk about their souls, their sins, and Jesus’ forgiveness. Today, if a pastor suggests that an unrepentant member refrain from the Lord’s Supper, that person simply runs off to another congregation nearby and is received no questions asked. This, dear friends, is far from healthy! Actually, it’s quite shameful.

Yes, the Catechism says that “that person is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’” However, casual communion undermines the words of our Lord. So, let me propose three ways to improve our preparations and our communing in faith. And with these three ways, we can set a most excellent example for our sister saints and brother believers around us.

First, commune prayerfully and preparedly. Take some time on Saturday night or Sunday morning before church to meditate on the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Supper section of the Catechism, and even Luther’s “Christian Questions and Answers” in the Catechism. If your health permits, try fasting—that is, not eating anything for 3-4 hours before coming to church. Remind your belly that you do not live by bread alone, but by the true and living Bread, our Lord Jesus Christ. I offer this as a suggestion, not a rule. And if you do it, don’t judge others who may not do it.

Second, commune at the congregation where you are committed, where your membership is, where your pastor is. When you travel and visit other congregations, remember that you are an ambassador of Hope. You represent the teaching and practice of this congregation. If that congregation is not in full fellowship with us in teaching and practice, do not commune there. That would imply a unity that does not truthfully exist. We are called to bear witness publicly to what we believe, not to blend into the background like Christian chameleons.

If the congregation you visit is in full fellowship with us in both teaching and practice, then please have the courtesy of introducing yourself to the pastor. Tell him that you are a member of Hope Lutheran Church in St. Louis, and request his permission to commune. If he says, “No, not today,” don’t be offended, but thank God that he is a responsible, faithful shepherd of souls. If he says, “Yes, by all means,” then thank him and ask him to communicate that with your pastor. If you don’t have a chance to talk with the pastor ahead of time, then simply don’t commune that day, even if the usher wants to take you by the arm and shove you down the aisle. ☺ After all, we’d never just barge into a stranger’s house at supper time, sit down at the table, and proudly say, “Please pass the potatoes” without at least mentioning our name.

Third, commune confessing your sins. Spend quality time with the Ten Commandments and their Catechism meanings. Examine your place in life—who you are and what you’ve done. Make use of your pastor’s offer of Private Absolution, either on Wednesday evenings before the service or by appointment. Come to the Lord’s Supper with broken hearts and bent knees. Don’t come proud and arrogant—It’s not a right—but come humble and hungry—After all, it’s a divine privilege. Come with empty hearts and hands, ready to receive our Lord’s blood-bought forgiveness, life, and salvation.

We at Hope certainly are not big, and we are far from flashy, but we do have the Lord’s gifts in His Sacraments. They are the best medicine against the godless church growth-ism and reinventing of the Church in our day. The Sacraments keep us from turning the Church into a business and the Gospel into cheap entertainment. And we can be an example to the whole church. We can show other people that we are saved by God’s grace in Christ crucified and risen. We can show that we live only by His mercy given in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. These Sacraments are our best medicine against the cancer we inherit from Adam. They are the best weapons we have against the forces of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. Our Lord has washed us and given us new birth in Baptism. He authorizes us to speak His forgiveness in the Absolution. And He gives us His ongoing feast of forgiveness, life, and salvation in His Supper.

If someone were to hand out free $100 bills each and every Sunday, I doubt many people would stay away, especially once word got out that they’re free. Dear friends, we have something much more precious than $100 bills. We have the Lord of Life who comes among us and gives us His gifts—His “A-B-Cs of Lent.” The gifts are here. You can receive them, believe in them, and live. “In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.” Amen.

"The A-B-Cs of Lent - Communion I"

“The A-B-Cs of Lent” – Communion I
1 Corinthians 10:14-17; Matthew 26:26-28; Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, 1-2

In our “A-B-Cs of Lent” we’ve covered the “B” – Baptism, and last week we looked at the “A” – Absolution. Tonight we move on to the “C” – Communion.

We’ve heard how Holy Baptism is our daily garment. It clothes us on our journey from the Red Sea of our Baptism to the promised land of Resurrection. Holy Communion, then, is our daily food, our daily manna, along the journey. Baptism gives us new life in the Word-Made-Flesh. Absolution is our constant return to our Baptismal life. And Communion is our daily bread that sustains our life in the Lord of Life. We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from our Lord’s mouth. Jesus is our daily food. He’s our bread of life. Eat of this bread, and you’ll never go hungry. Trust Him and His goodness, and you’ll never go thirsty. As manna came down from heaven for the Israelites, Jesus comes down from heaven to be our Living Bread. Eat of this living, heavenly Manna, believing His words, and you have what those words promise: eternal life, even now.

Jesus said: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (Jn. 6:54-55). He said these words after feeding over 5000 people and after walking on the water. But people wondered what sort of nonsense it was! Eating flesh and drinking blood? Yuck! The Jews were offended. People left Him and would not follow Him anymore. He must be crazy … or a blasphemer. Even His closest disciples were deeply disturbed by such words. What on earth could He possibly mean?

Then came that fateful night, the night of Passover, the night Jesus would be betrayed into death. An upper room had been prepared, the unleavened bread baked, the Passover Lamb sacrificed and roasted. Jesus sat at the head of the table, together with His Twelve, His family. He took the first unleavened flat bread and signaled the opening of the Passover meal. He gave thanks to His Father. He broke the bread and handed small pieces to His disciples. So far, it was just like any other Passover, recalling God’s grace to Israel when He brought them out of slavery, when He freed them through the doorposts covered with lambs’ blood.

But then, unexpectedly, Jesus spoke. And what He said had never been said before in the Passover liturgy. “Take, eat, this is My Body.” Then, after the supper, Jesus took the third chalice of wine—the one called “the cup of blessing.” Again, He gave thanks. And again, He said something never before heard in the Passover liturgy. “This is My blood of the covenant.” Jesus was treating the Passover meal as if it were His own! And it was! Since He is the Lord, it’s His Passover. When Jesus spoke these new words, He actually put Himself into the Passover meal.

With the bread, He gives His Body as food—the same Body conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, the same Body wrapped in diaper cloths and laid in a manger, the same Body that was whipped and beaten, spit on and slapped, the same Body that was nailed to a cross, laid in the tomb, and raised from the dead on the third day. “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Of course it is. Jesus’ own words say it is, and His words are true. Jesus gives His Body as bread to eat.

Also, with the wine, He gives His Blood as drink—the Blood of God’s Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world. His cross is the doorpost of the world, and His Blood is the blood of our eternal Passover Lamb. Through the centuries artists have understood the force of Jesus’ words as they depict a chalice at the foot of the cross and a stream of blood flowing out of Jesus’ pierced side and into that chalice. That Blood shed on Calvary’s cross is now our drink of blessing, our cup of thanksgiving, our Eucharistic cup. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?” Of course it is. Jesus’ own words say it is, and His words are true. Jesus gives His Blood as wine to drink.

When we eat and drink, we incorporate and absorb all the blessings and benefits of food and drink. Our bodies absorb the vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in the food. When we eat and drink, we incorporate into our bodies the energy of the sunshine, the nutrients of the soil, the blessings of the rain. When we eat bread, we release and incorporate the energies and nutrients of the wheat. When we drink wine, we release and incorporate the energies and nutrients of the grape.

So, when God’s people of old ate and drank the Passover, they incorporated all the blessings and benefits of God’s grace in the Exodus. When they ate and drank the meal and heard the story of the Exodus, all the blessings of that first night were brought home to them. They could not go back in time to Egypt on that night when Israel walked through the blood of lambs to freedom, but the benefits of the Exodus were delivered to them through the Passover meal. By eating and drinking the Passover, they were united with all of Israel and participated in Israel’s life and freedom. They couldn’t go back to the Exodus, but the gifts of the Exodus could come to them in the Passover.

The same holds true for the Holy Communion. By eating and drinking the Communion meal, you participate in the life and freedom of Christ’s death and resurrection. “Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.” (1 Cor. 5:7). He was offered up for our sins. Jesus walked His own exodus by being baptized, by suffering, and by dying and rising from the dead. Now He gives His death and life for our food and drink. His broken body is our living Bread. His spilled blood is our Wine of gladness. We cannot go back to Calvary, but the blessings of Calvary can and do come to us. On the cross forgiveness of sins and life eternal were won for the whole world. In the Supper, Jesus’ Body and Blood, once offered on the cross for our sins, are now delivered and given to us as a Meal. Here the Son of God gives His life to you.

You’ve heard the phrase: “You are what you eat.” Normally, it’s not true. People who eat carrots do not become carrots. People who eat pork do not become pigs. People who eat chickens do not become chickens. Actually, what you eat becomes what you are. The food you eat becomes your own muscles and skin, blood and bones. However, the Lord’s food in His Supper is different. It’s a heavenly and miraculous food. With this Meal, you actually do become what you eat. “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” We eat the Body of Christ, we drink His Blood, we hear His words, “Given and shed for you,” and we do become what we eat—the body of Christ! And there’s no greater union we can have with Christ and with our fellow believers in Christ! We kneel together at His Table, we eat His Supper, and He makes us one in Himself.

In Jesus’ Supper there is forgiveness, life, and salvation. When we eat and drink His Body and Blood, trusting His words, these things are released—forgiveness for our many sins, life eternal even now, and salvation from sin and death. We like to search for the perfect foods to cure our ills, the foods that give us energy, vitality, and health. We run after the latest food kicks. We pop the vitamins and minerals. We down the latest health potions and energy drinks. We shell out hard-earned money for the latest diet fads. Why? Because we hope to reverse the ravages of death in us, or at least stall them for a while. However, in the Lord’s Supper, our gracious Savior gives us the very food we’ve been looking for. It costs us nothing, and it’s food for eternal life. In the Large Catechism Luther called it, “a pure, wholesome, soothing medicine which aids and quickens us in both soul and body.” Christ Jesus puts His very Body and Blood into us. Think of what that means. It means He goes with us, in all of life, even to the grave, because He will never abandon His own Body and Blood.

You know, it’s a strange thing. Most people would never think of skipping a meal, or neglecting their daily dose of vitamin supplements. But for some strange reason those same people will go weeks, months, even years at a time without eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ. Luther was truly amazed to see that when people were no longer forced to go to the Lord’s Supper, they no longer did go. He would be even more amazed today. We let silly, foolish, and trivial things stand between us and the Lord’s life-giving food—the music, the length of the service, the style of the worship, the building, personality conflicts, etc. If I told you that this food could cure cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, AIDS, or whatever else ails you, would it matter much if we served it on fine china with classical music or on paper plates with hip hop? If you believed that this Supper delivered resurrection from the dead and eternal life, would you let anything get in the way of your eating and drinking?

Many of our problems in church life today come because we do not wholeheartedly believe our Lord when He says, “My Body, given for you; My Blood shed for you.” Everything else pales by comparison. Just think of what many people will endure for great food prepared by a world-class chef—long lines, bad parking, crowded seating, surly waiters, bad lighting, noisy rooms. But if the food is really good, hey, it’s worth it, right? Ah, but if we gave as many excuses for not eating our daily food as we give for not eating the Lord’s Supper, we’d starve to death inside a month.

We need to revive our appetite for the fruits of the cross, our hunger and thirst for Jesus’ righteousness that comes to us in the Lord’s Supper.

That’s why Luther gave us three appetite stimulants in the Small Catechism. First, if you don’t think you need the Sacrament, touch your body to see if you still have flesh and blood. When you discover that you do, then believe words like this: “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Rom. 7:18-19). Also believe words like this: “The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-20). Second, if you think you don’t need the Sacrament, look around you a bit, and see if you’re still in the world. If you have any doubts, ask your neighbors; they’ll tell you. Remember that in the world you’ll have no shortage of sins, temptations, and troubles to trip you up. The world will hate you and persecute you. It will give you false teachers and try to persuade you that you’re simply nuts for believing in Jesus and living in His life. Third, if you think you don’t need the Sacrament, know that you certainly have the devil hanging around your neck, putting you in a lethal full nelson and not allowing you to have peace with God or within. He truly does prowl around “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

So, see if you still have flesh and blood, look around to see if you’re still in the world, and know that the devil is always on the prowl. But even more, recall the great price that the Son of God paid to make you His own. He gave His very Body and Blood on the cross. Also recall the words with which He gives His benefits and blessing to you: “Take, eat, this is My Body given for you; take, drink, this is My Blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” It’s the Lord’s Passover, and it’s your Communion with Him. Amen.

The Communion of Saints - a la von Schenk

I continue to be amazed by how Pr. Berthold von Schenk directs all of Christ's saving work and all of the Church's life to the Communion at the Altar! Here's a little section on the Communion of Saints, part of which I just typed up for my congregation's November newsletter. What a great preparation it is for celebrating All Saints' Day (November 1), which my congregation will do this Sunday in the Divine Services!

To countless Christians the reality of the Communion of Saints has been an unfailing source of love and joy in the face of otherwise heartbreaking bereavement. We must find our way into this reality. The Risen Saviour, the new found Resurrection Presence, was more to the disciples than their old companionship in Galilee. We must discover with the disciples this life-transforming secret. Then we will begin to realize the joy of the Communion of Saints.

The living Christ creates and guarantees this joyful fact. It is Christ, and not just our wistful hoping, Who assures us that nothing can pluck out of His hand those who loved Him and trusted Him. Our faith here rests not in any idea of the mere prolonging of existence. It is found in these words, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” We cannot declare exactly what details of our life here below our beloved departed share with us; whether they see, as we see, every item of daily life, our little cares and successes, our problems and tears, our laughter and joys. They may be like elders working upstairs at some greater task, simply confident that for the time we are working at ours in the world below, serene in the same keeping. The great thing is that we are one and not separated, that the one great Love [Jesus Christ] is the center of all our lives.

When we are bereft of dear ones, it is a tremendous shock. For a time we are stunned. Not everyone can feel at once their continuing companionship. We should not for that reason despair. An adjustment must take place in our lives, reaching deep into our habits, emotions and thoughts. Some souls may make this adjustment quickly. For most of us it comes slowly and hard; many an hour is filled with loneliness and agonizing doubt.

By ourselves we can never make this adjustment. We must come to a sense of the continuing presence of our loved ones, and we can do this if we realize the presence of our Living Lord. As we seek and find our Risen Lord we shall find our dear departed. They are with Him, and we find the reality of their continued life through Him. The saints are part of the Church. We worship with them. They worship the Risen Christ face to face, while we worship the same Risen Christ under the veil of bread and wine at the Altar. At the Communion of Saints we are linked with Heaven, with the Communion of Saints, with our loved ones. Here at the Altar, focused to a point, we find our communion with the dead; for the Altar is the closest meeting place between us and our Lord. That place must be the place of closest meeting with our dead who are in His keeping. The Altar is the trysting place where we meet our beloved Lord. It must, therefore, also be the trysting place where we meet our loved ones, for they are with the Lord. How pathetic it is to see men and women going out to the cemetery, kneeling at the mound, placing little sprays of flowers and wiping their tears from their eyes, and knowing nothing else. How hopeless they look. Oh, that we could take them by the hand, away from the grave, out through the cemetery gate, in through the door of the church, and up to the nave to the very Altar itself, and there put them in touch, not with the dead body of their loved one, but with the living soul who is with Christ at the Altar. Our human nature needs more than the assurance that some day and in some way we shall again meet our loved ones "in heaven". that is all gloriously true. But how does that help us now?

When we, then, view death in the light of the Communion of Saints and Holy Communion, there is no helpless bereavement. My loved one has just left me and has gone on a long journey. But I am in touch with her. I know that there is a place where we can meet. It is at the Altar. How it thrills me when I hear the words of the Liturgy, "Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven," for I know that she is there with that company of Heaven, the Communion of Saints, with the Lord. The nearer I come to my Lord in Holy Communion, the nearer I come to the saints, to my own loved ones. I am a member of the Body of Christ, I am a living cell in that spiritual organism, partaking of the life of the other cells, and sharing in the Body of Christ Himself.

There is nothing fanciful or unreal about this. Indeed, it is the most real thing in my life. Of course, I miss my loved one. I should miss her if she took a long holiday trip. But now, since she is what some people call dead, she is closer to me than ever. Of course, I miss her physical presence bitterly. I miss her voice and the sound of approaching footsteps. But I have not lost her. And when my sense of loss becomes too great, I can always go to our meeting place at the Altar where I receive the Body and Blood of my Lord that preserves my body and soul just as it has preserved her unto everlasting life. Do learn to love the Altar as the meeting place with your beloved who have passed within the veil. Here again the Sacrament is the heart of our religion. The Blessed Sacrament links us not merely to Bethlehem and Calvary, but to the whole world beyond the grave as well, for at the Altar the infinite is shrined in the finite; Heaven stoops down to earth; and the seen and the unseen meet (The Presence, pp. 129-132).

More Growth in Grace

So there I was, minding my own business, wrapping up another Bible study for next Spring's Growing in Christ Adult Sunday School materials (CPH), and it hits me yet again, without warning or provocation. More growth in God's grace. More talk of progressing in the life in Christ...by Luther himself...(later Luther for those who keep tabs on such things)...and in our Confessions no less! Luther says that the new life in Christ "continually increases and progresses." In a previous post, I noted how Luther talks this way while teaching on Baptism. This time I caught him talking this way as he teaches us to treasure the Sacrament of the Altar:

Therefore, the Sacrament is given as a daily pasture and sustenance, that faith may refresh and strengthen itself so that it will not fall back in such a battle [against the devil’s temptations], but become ever stronger and stronger. The new life must be guided so that it continually increases and progresses. But it must suffer much opposition. For the devil is such a furious enemy. When he sees that we oppose him and attack the old man, and that he cannot topple us over by force, he prowls and moves about on all sides. He tries every trick and does not stop until he finally wears us out, so that we either renounce our faith or throw up our hands and put up our feet, becoming indifferent or impatient. Now to this purpose the comfort of the Sacrament is given when the heart feels that the burden is becoming too heavy, so that it may gain here new power and refreshment (Large Catechism, V:24-27; Concordia, p. 434-435, emphasis added).

Not only has our loving heavenly Father restored us to His image through the incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and not only has He begun our life of living and growing in that restoration via Holy Baptism, but He so graciously gives us the Sacrament in order that we may continue to grow in His grace. Or, to use Luther's words, He gives us the blessed Eucharist so that faith may "become stronger and stronger," and so that "the new life" may continually increase and progress.

What a Gift!

One of my greatest joys in being a pastor is celebrating the Eucharist with the people of God - at two Sunday morning services and a Wednesday evening service each week in my parish. Just celebrating the Eucharist has sustained me through many a dark time through the years. Actually, I should say, the Lord's great gift of Himself in the Holy Meal has sustained me! What else comes delivered in that gift? As Dr. A. C. Piepkorn might say, forgiveness and a whole lot more. Here's what Piepkorn said:

The Catechism's emphasis upon the forgiveness of sins that we receive in the Holy Sacrament - a necessary emphasis in the days when the Mass was regarded as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead - has, in one of the amazing perversions that popular thinking sometimes undergoes, made Holy Communion for many Lutheran Christians nothing more than the last act in a periodic orgy of repentance and contrition and remorse. But the Sacrament is more than a seal of absolution, pardon, and remission. It is a Eucharist - a giving of thanks, the most perfect oblation of gratitude that we can offer. It is a Commission - the most intimate fellowship and union with our Saviour into which sinful man can enter. It is a Medicine of Immortality - the immortal body of the conquering Christ fortifying and strengthening us with all virtue and power and strength and grace. It is Christ coming to men - more than that, it is Christ coming to me, to become mine and to make me His ("The Lutheran Church - A Sacramental Church," in *The Church,* p. 85).

What a gift indeed!