Theophagy

Midweek Lenten Vespers 5

A Reading from the Small Catechism of the Rev’d Dr Martin Luther:

The Sacrament of the Altar, as the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.

What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.

Where is this written? The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St Paul write: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take and eat; this is My body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the New Covenant in My Blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? These words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that, in the Sacrament, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given to us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: “forgiveness of sins.”

Who receives this sacrament worthily? Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.

Here ends the reading.

Sermon:

Lord, we pray for the preacher, for you know his sins are great.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The central mystery, the central promise, the central claim of Christianity is the Incarnation: that perpetually scandalous conviction that, in Jesus Christ, the One True God Almighty has taken on flesh and become truly human, truly one of us. Everything else in our faith flows from this idea, from this encounter with God made Man.

Yet Jesus wasn’t content simply to stop and leave us with this revelation. No, for He wanted us all to be one, just as He and the Father are one. And to that end, we have the Sacraments: the promises of God made tangible, made physical, for all of the world to see. The Sacraments are the continuation of the Incarnation in, with, through, and under you.

Last week we spoke of Baptism, of death and of subsequent rebirth. We spoke of how we drown to our sins, to the Old Adam, the Old Creature within us, thus to rise anew with the life of Christ in our lungs and in our veins. We are given a new name, “Christian,” and the Holy Spirit of God—which is to say, the Life of God, the Breath of God—burning forever within us. For the Spirit of God is God.

Baptism serves as our welcome, our initiation, into the Church, the ἐκκλησία, the assembly of those called forth. And so the baptized gather around the Table, which is also an Altar, here to share in our Lord’s Supper. It goes by many names, including the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. And it is nothing less than the Passover of Our Lord.

Think back to the Exodus, that foundational story of the Jewish people, Jesus’ people. For generations, they had suffered under the yoke and lash of Pharaoh. Then God sent Moses—born a Hebrew slave, raised a Prince of Egypt—in order to set His people free. When their enslavers refused to let them go, God executed judgment upon the gods of Egypt in a series of 10 terrible Plagues, culminating in the death of the firstborn; for under primogeniture, the firstborn stood to inherit the wealth and the slaves of the empire.

But as for the Hebrews, and any others in the land of Egypt who trusted in the Lord, Moses instructed them to eat a special meal of lamb, daubing the blood of the lamb on the posts and lintels of their doorways overnight. They were to eat it with their loins girded and their staves in the hands, for liberation would come so quickly that the dough they’d prepared for their bread would have not the time to arise. So it did occur. When the Destroyer came to Egypt, if it saw the blood of the lamb on the door, it would pass over that house, leaving any occupants unharmed.

For the thousand years between Moses and Jesus, the Jewish people kept, as they continue to do to this day, an annual Passover meal, at which they would share specific foods—lamb, wine, flatbread—and remember how God had liberated them from slavery and exile. This ritual and religious form of remembrance, ἀνάμνησις in Greek, did not simply recall stale facts, but symbolically and mystically connected the participants to the original event. Those who share in the Passover are, in a very real sense, back in Egypt with Moses and with God.

Jesus’ Last Supper before His Crucifixion was a Passover meal, shared with His disciples, as they had known through their entire lives. Yet on this last night, Jesus flips the script. Now He stands as the Passover Lamb, the wine as His Blood, the bread as His Body. Now, He tells us, the New Covenant is come, and we are to share this meal in memory not of Moses but of Him. Nor does Jesus ritually close this Passover until the next day, when He hangs upon the Cross. Then, “it is finished.”

Whenever we share in this Holy Communion, by our Lord’s command, then we are there with Jesus, with His Mother and His Apostles; there at the Last Supper; there at the foot of the Cross. The Blood of this Lamb saves not one people from slavery unto Egypt, but all peoples from slavery unto sin and death and Hell. And when we eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood, then truly we consume the living Bread from Heaven, and take the life of Christ inside of us.

For when we have the Spirit of Christ, the Name of Christ, the Body and the Blood of Christ—then we, together, as the Church, are Christ for all the world. We eat Him, we drink Him, we breathe Him, and so we become Him. Christians adore the Sacrament because we eat our God! This is how He makes us both His Body and His Bride. The Eucharist, as Luther wrote, is indeed forgiveness, salvation, and life, for the Eucharist is Christ. And when we are one in Him, then we are one with God.

This is the sacred Mystery, the Sacrament of the Church. And God the Holy Spirit makes it so, for She is the Spirit of Christ alive among us and within us. The Spirit alone makes us worthy to receive His Incarnation, for the Spirit gives us faith that the promise of Jesus is true: this truly is the Blood of Christ, and is truly shed for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Pertinent Links

RDG Stout

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St Peter’s Lutheran

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Nidaros Lutheran

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