Thursday, April 21, 2011

Maundy Thursday

1 Cor. 11:23-32 (ESV)
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, [24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." [25] In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." [26] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[27] Whoever, 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. [28] Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. [29] For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. [30] That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. [31] But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. [32] But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

On the night when he was betrayed, there is a lot there. Jesus celebrates the last Passover meal with his disciples on this night. They eat the Passover according to the law, loins girded, sandles on their feet, staff in hand. When they are finished they recline to have a common supper. The Passover was eaten in haste, but it was normally followed by a second meal consumed at a more leisurely pace, something akin to a Thanksgiving meal. It is at this point Jesus begins to wash the feat of the disciples, and institutes the Lord’s Supper, after the Passover meal had been completed, the Old Testament the Old Covenant had to be completed before the New Testament could be instituted. Simple words really.
This is my body, which is for you, This cup is the New Testament in my blood… Do this often in remembrance of me. The words are recorded four different times, and there are slight variations in each of the recordings, yet they all say essentially the same things. I kind of like the fact that the wording is a bit different in each one. If they were all the exact same people might think this was some magic formula that had to be said just so, and just right. Instead you have a sacrament, a mystery, and the word of God that is more powerful than any magical incantation. It can be translated into every tongue. Yet in all the variants there are these words, This is my body, this is my blood. Some of the places don’t even record the remembrance part so many are so fond of. The important aspect as Paul points out is that we realize that it is his body, his blood and it is for you, for your forgiveness. The Testament he instituted on the night when he was betrayed.
On the night when he was betrayed, a solemn occasion. Jesus is so aware of what is coming. So aware of the struggle that is before him, the trial, the mockery, the beating the crucifixion. He is also not unaware of what is in store for his disciples. He will give them what they need, his body and his blood for the forgiveness of sins. His Testament, his will for them, to be done often.
People are so tempted to dismiss the sacrament as empty symbol. But there is no room for it in the words of Christ. No room for it on the occasion. He doesn’t here speak in metaphor and simile, he speaks the sober and somber words of a testament a will, on the night in which he is betrayed.
It isn’t to be taken lightly. It isn’t to be dismissed. There are so many aspects to it. Paul brings them all out here.
We proclaim his death until he comes! Together we confess our sins and the need for forgiveness, together we confess his righteousness. Together we proclaim his death, until he comes, because it is in his death that we have forgiveness. Forgiveness given to us as we participate in his sacrifice, receiving our inheritance in his Testament, his will for us who are coheirs with him, the forgiveness of sins and life eternal, the death of our old adam and sin the death of death. We proclaim it, Christ crucified, Christ crucified for your sins, for my sins, for the sins of the world.
But already, in Pauls day’s already when he has to write these letters to Corinth in the middle of the first century, the sacrament is being abused and treated as a trinket for anyone. Some get drunk, some go hungry. Some approach without a thought or care as to what it is that they are receiving, and with no concern for whom they receive it with.
Perhaps it is due to Twentieth century existential philosophies, and pop psychology. But today people think they make it the body and blood with their faith, and that they are the only ones who matter here. I read my communion statement over and over again, and yet visitors approach the table, and I find later they are not Lutheran, and do not believe these words, but believe they are entitled to do what they want, and disregard everyone else. It is just me and my savior they say. No. It is not just you and your lord. The Christian faith is not so myopic as to focus on the individual to the expence of the body of believers. The Lord’s supper is given to the church. It is a public confession to be eaten together, it is why it is a communion that it brings us together who partake of the one bread. It is to be shared with those who believe together, who confess together, who together make up the body of Christ. And where there is no unity, where there is disagreement in doctrine, where there is disagreement concerning the very sacrament itself a foundation of the faith, we cannot afford to commune together and say it does not matter. It is unloving to do so.
It is unloving to let your neighbor take this without warning, to take it without discerning that it is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ, because he says it is. It is a double edged sword. You can believe it or not. But it is his body and his blood, and if you take it without discerning this you eat and drink judgment on yourself, eat and drink judgment upon yourself in what is supposed to be a blessing for you. When you make this into your work, something you do for Jesus, your remembrance, or a work of your faith, as if your faith can change the reality of anything, than you profane his body and blood.
Profane, it is the word from which we get profanity. There really isn’t anything wrong with a profanity, all it means is not sacred. It has come to mean course words, that perhaps should be used sparingly, but one will find the prophets and the apostles were not above using a profanity to drive a point home. Of course they are whitewashed so to speak in English translations, words that but hint at their full force in the original. But it is a profanity it is common. But to profane something, that is another matter. To profane something is to take something sacred and defile it. you can’t profane the profane, but you can profane the sacred. God warsn for instande of profaining one’s daughter by turning her into a prostitute in Leviticus. God considers your children holy, he considers your daughters holy! They are to be kept holy, and not taught to whore about and profane themselves. He warns about profaning his name. And this is done when people who are holy to God, sanctified by his word take and worship other Gods. You Profane his holy name when you swear falsely by it. You profane his name when you use it as a profanity. And here he says be careful that you do not profane my body and my blood.
We do not treat it as if it were any meal. We do not treat it as if it were for us and for us only. We do not treat it as if it were nothing. But here in this bread and in this cup, is his body and blood given for you, given for forgiveness, given to unite you with the Lord and with eachother to make us one body. To heal our souls and refresh our faith, to sustain us on our own journey that we be not condemned along with the world but be saved by his death that we proclaim as often as we eat this body and drink this blood.
Now Peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord Amen.

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