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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Advent is, as I have noted each of these four weeks, a season of repentant preparation for Jesus’s comings to us, not only for the celebration of His past coming to die for us and for the anticipation of His future coming to judge us, but also for His present comings to forgive us, through His Means of Grace. His “Means of Grace” are, at least primarily, His “Word and Sacraments”, with “Sacraments” understood as God’s Word combined at His command with things that we can feel, see, and taste and by which we receive blessings such as the forgiveness of sins. In our special Midweek Advent sermon series on the Lord’s coming to us now through His Means of Grace, we have previously focused on “The Read and Preached Word”, “The Sacrament of Holy Baptism”, and what can be called “The Sacrament of Holy Absolution”, and tonight we focus on what can be called “The Sacrament of Holy Communion”.
If not for, rightly or wrongly, trying to keep some parallelism in the titles of the sermons these latter three of the four weeks, we might have titled this sermon more properly “The Sacrament of the Altar”, for “The Sacrament of the Altar” is what, for example, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms call what elsewhere is also referred to as “the Lord’s Supper”, “the Breaking of the Bread”, and “the Eucharist”, just to name a few of its other names (confer Explanation © 1991, #285). To be sure, while all three Sacraments forgive sins, they are not all interchangeable, nor arguably are they all equal. “The Sacrament of the Altar” in some sense is “the Sacrament” of the Sacraments, and we arguably can say that Christ comes and is present more‑concretely in the Sacrament of the Altar than in Baptism and Absolution.
As in some sense a fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover meal, the Sacrament of the Altar in some sense begins with that Passover meal, the origin of which we heard about in tonight’s First Reading (Exodus 12:1-28, 43-51). In most cases a single household partook of a lamb without blemish and used the blood to mark the house in which they ate it with what amounted to a cross. The annual memorial day and the longer feast attached to it remembered the Lord’s judgment on both all the false gods of Egypt and their followers among the Egyptians, and so the day and feast remembered also the Lord’s deliverance of His people and those in certain ways associated with them. In time, tonight’s Additional Psalm (Psalm 116:12-19; antiphon v.13) came to be part of the liturgy associated with the Passover, perhaps even sung by our Lord Jesus and His disciples on the night when He was betrayed and instituted His Supper (confer Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26). As we heard in tonight’s Second Reading (1 Corinthians 11:17-34a), in the city of Corinth, the Lord’s Supper was not being observed as the Lord intended for it to be observed, and so Christ’s Body and Blood were being received to the Corinthians’ harm, not to their benefit, such as the eternal life that we heard the Lord Jesus Himself describe in tonight’s Third Reading (John 6:22-69).
In various ways, tonight’s Additional Psalm and all three of tonight’s Readings attest to a necessary division between those who should and should not receive the Sacrament of the Altar. The division is not that between those who are holy and those who are sinful, for by nature we all are sinful and deserving of nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. Rather, the primary division is between those who repent of their sin and believe in Jesus and those who do not repent and believe. And, that faith in Jesus is not a minimal standard but a maximal standard, faith in the Gospel and all its articles, including the right use of the holy sacraments (Formula of Concord, Epitome, X:7, and Solid Declaration, X:31), with St. Paul describing “factions” over such things as necessary in order that those who are genuine may be recognized.
Like faithful messengers of God before and after him, St. Paul called the Corinthians to repent of their sin specifically in regards to the Lord’s Supper and of all of their sin and to believe in Jesus unto forgiveness. The work of God is that we believe in Him Whom He has sent. When, enabled by God, we so repent and believe, then God forgives. God forgives all of our sin and our sinful nature, for Jesus’s sake. Jesus was mis-perceived by those in Capernaum as only an ordinary human being, but Jesus was correctly confessed by St. Peter and the rest of the Twelve as the Holy One of God. Indeed, Jesus was the spotless lamb of God Who on the cross took away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36; confer 1 Corinthians 5:7). He, Who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). And, He rose from the dead and so now stands again (confer, for example, Revelation 5:6). He accomplishes His own “exodus” (Luke 9:31) and with His own meal of His Body and Blood gives life to the world.
As suggested by the Greek word behind its name “Eucharist”, the Sacrament of the Altar is in some sense a sacrifice of thanksgiving, our calling on the Lord’s Name and lifting the cup of salvation in the house of the Lord. As we follow His institution, the Sacrament is not merely a memorial, simply a remembrance, but the once-Crucified and now-Resurrected Christ Himself is here really, physically present with His Body and His Blood, by His power and authority, and so He transforms our lives (confer Behm, TDNT 1:349; Thiselton, 880). We do not adore bread and wine but Christ Himself Who is pleased to be so present and gives hope and peace (Lutheran Service Book 640). In general, as those who were circumcised—or under the headship of a man who was circumcised—ate the Passover meal, so, in general, those who are baptized eat the Sacrament of the Altar. Each individual person has a role in examining him or herself, and the ultimate responsibility lies with the faithful pastor, or steward of the mysteries, translated by the Latin word that gives us “sacrament” (1 Corinthians 4:1)—that pastor instructs and examines in private confession and then privately absolves and then admits to the Altar (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XV:40).
The Sacraments apply the Gospel to us individually (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, XI:37), but, when we are united to Christ, then we also are united to one another. We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread that is a participation, or “communion”, in the Body of Christ, as the cup of blessing that we bless is a participation, or “communion”, in the Blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). The Passover meal is said to have established the nation of Israel, and likewise in some sense the Lord’s Supper establishes us in His Church. We receive His forgiveness in the Sacrament set in the context of the historic liturgy and hymns, which liturgy and hymns also help teach the faith to us. We are not perfect or sinless, but we are forgiven and made holy, as we in faith eat His Body and drink His Blood, and thereby we also have life in us and will be raised up on the Last Day, when we will see and be forever in His unveiled presence.
Our Lord came once to save us; He comes repeatedly now to forgive us; and He will come a final time to judge the living and the dead. With repentance and faith we are prepared to celebrate His coming in the flesh this Christmas season; with repentance and faith we are prepared to receive Him as He comes to us now through His Means of Grace; and with repentance and faith we are prepared to receive Him when He comes in glory. “The Sacrament of Holy Communion” is an important part of that whole process, for by it we not only are forgiven but also as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +