{"id":7721,"date":"2022-02-22T06:47:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7721"},"modified":"2022-02-22T06:48:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:48:39","slug":"the-banquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7721","title":{"rendered":"
The Banquet <\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n

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1 Cor 10:16-18, 11:23-29<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transfiguration Sunday<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is a festival Sunday called The Transfiguration. It\u2019s a minor festival. Nevertheless, it is one that is celebrated every year at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Europe where they still perform operas they will perform Wagner\u2019s opera, \u201cParsifal,\u201d which has to do with the rediscovery of the Holy Grail. That, of course, refers to the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the season of Epiphany we have had a series of sermons dealing with how the Word of God works. We come today to the Lord\u2019s Supper. The Lord\u2019s Supper is seriously misunderstood among us. There are three kinds of misunderstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first misunderstanding has to do with thinking it has to do with the one who is celebrating it or presiding at it. We have a lot of thinking that it depends on the minister: We can only celebrate the Lord\u2019s Supper if we have an ordained pastor! That simply isn\u2019t the case. This is an ancient battle and goes back into the Third and Fourth centuries. It was a time of persecution of Christians. During the persecution some pastors and priests fell into denying Christ. Then after the persecution was over and they repented, the question was: Could they once again be clergy? After all, they had denied Christ, and the name for them was \u201ctraditor\u201d or traitor. Could they celebrate Baptisms and the Lord\u2019s Supper?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church thought about this and said, \u201cYes,\u201d because celebrating doesn\u2019t depend on the one doing it. Otherwise we\u2019d never know if the Baptism or if the Lord\u2019s Supper really did what they do, because you don\u2019t know what the celebrant is thinking. He might be a person who is denying Christ. We would never be sure about what God is doing in the sacrament. It doesn\u2019t depend on the minister; it depends on God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet we fall into that trap all the time. It happens among us Lutherans. We let anybody preach, but only the ordained celebrate the Lord\u2019s Supper. It should be the other way around. It\u2019s hard to spoil the Lord\u2019s Supper, but it\u2019s easy to fumble when preaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second way we misunderstand the Lord\u2019s Supper has to do with the person receiving it. We fall into the trap of saying: \u201cYou have to be somebody who is good.\u201d Even though we know very well it doesn\u2019t have to do with our goodness, we think the good people are those who go to church, and only good people can go to the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We misunderstand 1 Cor 11:27 which states: \u201cWhoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.\u201d We mistake what is meant here about being \u201cworthy.\u201d It really means the opposite: Those who go to the Lord\u2019s Supper and receive are not those who are \u201cworthy\u201d and \u201cgood,\u201d but those who come because they have a sense of what this is all about. It\u2019s those outside of the congregation who think they\u2019re good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the third place, the Lord\u2019s Supper also doesn\u2019t depend on how you do it. Probably most of us haven\u2019t seen the opera, Parsifal. It\u2019s six hours long! But with modern lighting and staging you can imagine the drama at the climactic discovery of the Holy Grail: The lights go down, except for a spotlight on the Holy Grail, the cup which glows in a mystical way. It\u2019s quite an experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we make it happen? Just as we can fall into the trap called receptionism, that it depends on us, so we can fall into ritualism: It depends on the ritual. It depends on doing it just exactly right. A pastor, tired at the end of the second service one Sunday, as he was distributing the wine, said: \u201cThe body of Christ broken for you.\u201d The pastor didn\u2019t do it right! Oh, no. But it\u2019s not a crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some say: You have to use a loaf of bread instead of wafers. You have to use real wine. What about grape juice? In the Roman Catholic Church, because they have a problem with the priests and alcohol, they made an inquiry to the company, Concord Grape Juice: Could they produce a grape juice that had just a little bit of wine in it? The company responded: The ordinary grape juice you buy in the grocery store already has a fraction of alcohol, and therefore you can use it for communion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what if the wafer falls on the floor? What if the wine spills on the floor? Is that a crisis? Is that what it\u2019s about? Well, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other extreme is also to be avoided. There are those who have said: \u201cLet\u2019s use coke and hamburgers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is it really about? It comes out most easily in the discussion about how frequently you should go to the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Roman Catholic canon law it says you must go to confession once a year, and then you are to go to Mass every Sunday and on certain Holy Days. If you don\u2019t make that, one of the subjects that comes up at confession is why you didn\u2019t make it those times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over against that kind of legalism, Lutherans have said, No. This is a gift, but that doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s not very serious. In John 6:53 Jesus says: \u201cUnless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life in you.\u201d In 1 Cor 10:18-21, after stating: When you partake of the bread, you participate in the body,\u201d Paul adds: It\u2019s \u201cone loaf, one body.\u201d He goes on to discuss eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols. He writes: \u201cObviously idols are nothing. Therefore meat offered to idols is nothing either. But what happens with those people who sacrifice meat to idols is that they are playing around with demons. And that\u2019s a real danger, just as when we participate in the Lord\u2019s Supper, this is then something real and serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings up a passage in the Large Catechism: In the section on the Lord\u2019s Supper, paragraph 42: \u201cNo one under any circumstances should be coerced or compelled . . . . Nevertheless, let it be understood that those who abstain and absent themselves from the sacrament over a long period of time should not be considered Christian. Christ did not institute it merely to be treated as a spectacle\u201d (Tappert 451; Kolb\/Wengert 471)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Large Catechism is really for pastors. We look at the Small Catechism. The Small Catechism is not very long and is often printed in a small pamphlet. But what the editors leave out is the Preface to the Small Catechism. In the Preface Luther writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe who does not highly esteem the sacrament suggests thereby that he has no sin, no flesh, no devil, no world, no death, no hell. That is to say, he believes in none of these, although he is deeply immersed in them and held captive by the devil. On the other hand, he suggests that he needs no grace, no life, no paradise, no heaven, no Christ, no God, nothing good at all. For if he believed he was involved in so much that is evil, and in need of so much that is good, he would not neglect the sacrament in which aid is afforded against such evil and in which such good is bestowed. It would not be necessary to compel him by any law to receive the sacrament, he would hasten to it of his own accord, he will feel constrained to receive it, he will insist that you administer it to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccordingly you are not to make a law of this, as the Pope has done. All you need to do is clearly to set forth the advantage and the disadvantage, the benefit and the loss, the blessing and the danger, connected with this sacrament. Then the people will come of their own accord, without compulsion. But if they refuse to come, let them be, and tell them that those who do not feel or acknowledge their great need and Gd\u2019s gracious help belong to the devil.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is very serious business. What\u2019s going on here?! What\u2019s going on is: Not in us. Not in the one celebrating. Not the bread and the wine and the water in Baptism. It\u2019s in God\u2019s Word. And the question is whether God\u2019s Word is what we state it to be. God\u2019s Word is effective. You remember the parable of the seed growing secretly (Mark 4:26-29). In Greek the key word for this is the same as we have in English: \u201cautomate\u201d \u2013 automatically (by itself). God is doing it. As a result, we have great confidence and great hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his Word, because of his promise, we have forgiveness and life. It is in the dong of it (the usus<\/em>) that this all takes place. Finally it says in the celebration of the Lord\u2019s Supper: \u201cFor you.\u201d This is the second person singular. Not the second person plural. In English, in contrast to most languages, this distinction has been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for having the Lord\u2019s Supper is that when the Word is proclaimed, of course, God is doing his work, and it is of great comfort to us that it is done directly, as in Baptism the little one is individually baptized, so in the Lord\u2019s Supper each one of us individually receives the forgiveness and the life that he gives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s at stake here is whether Christianity is true at all because if it\u2019s true, this is enormous. If it\u2019s not true, this is just a charade. The promise is true. God\u2019s Word and promises, not our promises. He does what he says. Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> Small Catechism, Preface, \u00b6\u00b6 23 and 24 (Tappert 341; Kolb\/Wengert 350-51).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Transfiguration Sunday<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today is a festival Sunday called The Transfiguration. It\u2019s a minor festival. Nevertheless, it is one that is celebrated every year at this time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Europe where they still perform operas they will perform Wagner\u2019s opera, \u201cParsifal,\u201d which has to do with the rediscovery of the Holy Grail. That, of course, refers to the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the season of Epiphany we have had a series of sermons dealing with how the Word of God works. We come today to the Lord\u2019s Supper. The Lord\u2019s Supper is seriously misunderstood among us. There are three kinds of misunderstanding.<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7721"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7730,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721\/revisions\/7730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}