Encore Post: [Sixty-Sixth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism] This is the more uncomfortable part of the worthiness question. As we discussed in the last post, worthiness is receiving with faith in Jesus’s words and promise.
Again, the Small Catechism helps us identify some answers. When are we unworthy and unprepared? We are unworthy and unprepared when we do not believe Christ’s words, or doubt them, since the words “for you” require all hearts to believe (Small Catechism 6.6).
Without faith, that is “unworthily,” what does a person receive? Again, let’s look at the catechism. Why should we be concerned about receiving the Sacrament worthily? The Sacrament of the Altar is not our supper, but the Lord’s Supper, where He gives us His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. To eat and drink the Lord’s body and blood without trust in His words, however, is to eat and drink judgement on oneself (Small Catechism 6.6)
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 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. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. (1 Corinthians 11:26-29)
Without faith, that is “unworthily,” what does a person receive? Judgement. That should cause us to shudder a bit. As stewards of the mysteries of God, we can harm our neighbor by inviting them to unworthily receive Jesus’s cup of blessing.
Encore Post: [Sixty-Fifth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism] That’s a great question. As a young boy in Kansas and Missouri, my pastors would commune last by the hand of an elder or assistant. The first time I saw a pastor commune himself before serving the assistants, I was shocked. Since I was even more quiet and reserved in those days, I waited until the handshake line to ask why.
Pastor was always kind and offered this explanation. “The pastor serves in the stead and by the command of Christ Jesus and is a sinner in need of forgiveness, just like the people he serves. When he hears the confession and absolution, he both delivers and receives those words. The pastor preaches to edify the people of which he is one. Similarly, the pastor serves the body and blood of Christ under bread and wine to the people for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. It follows that he also receives this blessing from the hand of the pastor.” This restored practice replaces the innovation of pastor refraining until after someone else communes.
Having heard that, I was quickly convinced.
Digging deeper later on, I found that Dr. Luther, Dr. Chemnitz, and C. F. W. Walther (fathers of the Lutheran church) all instructed pastors to commune themselves first, and then the assistants, followed by the congregation. It is further supported by our rubrics in the Lutheran Service Book pew edition, which clearly instructs the pastor and assistants to commune first. (LSB p. 164, 181, 199, 210, and 217)
Similarly, the practices of purifying the people of Israel in the wilderness on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, were also ordered this way. Aaron, the high priest, offered a sacrifice first for himself and his household. Then, he sacrificed for the holy place and the Levites. Then, the Levites would purify the people. We should not be confused about whose work these sacrifices were. Hebrews chapter 10 and 11 disabuse us of any notion that the work of the priests and/or the people earned them anything. Faith in the promises of God delivers the gifts of God to the people of God.
This is not a sign that the pastor has a special character in himself, or that the mass is a sacrifice. Rather, his office is the one that serves. And the Lord delivers Himself in, with, and under the elements. The assistants, even when they are ordained men, receive from the celebrant just as he does. Then, they bring the body and blood of Jesus to you in their own freshly forgiven hands. Each person receives immediately in order of proximity to the Lord’s work attaching His promised gifts to the Body and Blood, bread and wine, forgiveness from the Lord, until all have communed.
May we all confidently receive God’s loving gifts: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
Encore Post: [Sixty-Fourth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism] Worthily receiving refers our state before God in receiving the Sacrament of the Altar. We are concerned about their own state before the Lord and that of others in the Lord’s Supper because all who come to the altar receive the true body and true blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Our first stop should be the Small Catechism. “Who receives the 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.” (Small Catechism 6.5 )
In Luther’s day, the requirements of fasting and penance before receiving the Sacrament were quite onerous. Sadly, those demands also directed our attention away from the center of God’s promise to us. His promise is the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Those gifts are received worthily by faith. Trust in the words of Jesus, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” For those words bring the Body and Blood to us for the forgiveness of sins.
The Roman system of law was not much different from ours, kind of a cross between our Grand Jury, Indictment and trial system and a general court-supreme court model. A local court would take on most of the infractions, would look at the evidence when it comes to serious matters and return a charge for the Roman court where necessary. The gathering at the High Priest’s home was much like a grand jury, the Sanhedrin, meeting in the outer courts of the temple, the lower court that brought the formal charges and Pilate’s court the high tribunal.
Pilate was an able, competent and experienced Prefect — a military governor — who had ruled Palestine mostly successfully for over thirty years. The Jewish people were notoriously unruly, requiring occasionally violent suppression from time to time. There were a few incidents where the leaders of the Jews set traps for him, resulting in reprimands from Rome.
When the Sanhedrin came with Jesus, he knew immediately that it was for envy that they charged him. He first tried to shift it back to them, only to be told that only he could judge Jesus, because Jesus was worthy of death. He next sent him to Herod, who was hoping Jesus would entertain him, but Jesus didn’t play along. So, it was back to Pilate.
After questioning Jesus, and hearing from his wife that she had been warned in a dream, Pilate was convinced that Jesus was innocent. So, Pilate offered to release a revolutionary, Barabbas, to them or Jesus. They shouted for Barabbas.
Pilate was still ready to release Jesus, repeating he found Jesus innocent. When, however, the Sanhedrin threatened to report him to Caesar, he gave in and allowed Jesus to be crucified.
He washed his hands, saying he would have nothing to do with it. That really did not work. Every Sunday, we confess Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
We are tempted to blame him, seeing he killed a man he knew to be innocent to save his skin. We are tempted to blame the Jewish leaders, for it was they who accused Jesus and assumed responsibility for his death.
But in the end, it was not Pilate, not the Jewish leaders, but Jesus, who is responsible for his death. He told Pilate as much when he said Pilate would have no authority if it wasn’t given to him. It is why he became a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary in the first place. It was he who bowed to his Father’s will, knowing full well he would bear the sins of the whole world to the cross.
Why would Jesus be condemned to die, then? It is because of my sins, because of your sins and the sins of all God’s children. He loved us before the creation of the world, was not willing to be parted from us for all eternity. Someone had to die and only God was innocent enough and man mortal enough to do it. So, he came, the Lamb of God, to take away the sins of the world. He set his face towards Jerusalem and went to his death, for you and for me. So, in this Lent, and always, when we are tempted to downplay our sins, God invites us to consider the cost, repent of them and receive from Jesus the forgiveness he earned for us that first Good Friday.
Encore Post: Our evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ are all about making a decision for Christ. They will often ask, “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?” Such a question sounds strange to Lutherans, along with the similar question, “are you born again?” The reason is Lutherans believe these are really the wrong questions. Why? Because Jesus sought us, found us, saved us by his suffering and death, accepted us in baptism and gave new birth in it by water and the Holy Spirit. So, yes, thank you, I am born again, but no, I did not accept Jesus as my personal Savior. He accepted me and made me God’s child and his brother. There is nothing more personal than that.
I once was asked by someone if I could study all the Bible passages with him that talk about accepting Jesus as Savior. My answer was no, because there are no such passages. In fact, if you go through the Bible looking for people who were lost and sought God, you will find very few. Think about it for a moment: God made Adam and Eve. When they sinned, he came and found them. He went to Noah and told him to build the ark. He found Abraham and told him to leave home, promising to give him a son. He came to Jacob when the patriarch ran away and wrestled with him. He called to Samuel in the night. He sent Samuel to find and anoint David. Almost every book of the words of the prophets begins with: “and the word of God came to…” We don’t seek God, he seeks us out.
Why is this? We were dead in our sins. (Ephesians 2:1-3) As the saying goes, “Dead men tell no tales.” As Martin Luther says it, “I cannot by my own reason or strength, believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him.” (Small Catechism 2.3) Because he loved us, he is gracious to us. He was moved in Christ Jesus to become one of us, live a perfect life for us, take our sins upon himself and die on the cross for us. It is by this grace we are saved, through his gift to us of faith.
In a sense, we can talk about decision theology, then. God decided to save us. He is our personal savior, because he made it so. We will live with him forever because of this. We can rest in the peace this brings, confident that he will remove every sin from us one day, the day he calls us forth from our graves and dries every tear in our eyes.
Encore Post: Moving out of the Christmas Season on January sixth, we enter the season of Epiphany. These seasons all adjust around the moveable date of Easter. Epiphany means “revealing.” In this season we celebrate the revealing of Jesus beyond the Christmas activities. The day of Epiphany brings the magi into the picture. This is a kind of Gentile Christmas.
The season then moves through moments where Jesus and His ministry are revealed. It contains several major feasts/festivals. The Epiphany of our Lord, the Baptism of our Lord, the Transfiguration of our Lord, and a handful of minor festivals can all be within the season. Epiphany can be between 13 days, with only one Sunday, and 59 days, with seven Sundays! The common Sundays use green and the festivals use white paraments.
The three “gesima” or pre-Lent Sundays separate Transfiguration from Ash Wednesday. The Sundays are gently moving us from the mountaintop into the penitential season. Their strange names keep us counting towards Easter. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima simply mean about seventy, sixty, and fifty. Those are the estimations of days until Easter.
There is irregular historical and current practice regarding the paraments and liturgy in the -gesimas. Liturgical practices range from green paraments and unrestricted liturgy to violet paraments and Lenten austerity, and all points in between. At Mt. Calvary, we observe them with green and no restrictions. Other churches may use violet, veiled crucifixes, austere liturgy, and excluded Alleluia. In Christian freedom, all of these things are good practices.
(Using the Vatican II inspired three-year lectionary, The Season of Epiphany keeps the three Sundays of pre-Lent).
“O Lord throughout These Forty (six) Days“
The penitential season of Lent runs from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, covering six Sundays. Ash Wednesday can fall anywhere between February fifth and March ninth. It is always 46 days before Easter. The color of Ash Wednesday paraments are black or violet.
Generally, we say that the Sundays in Lent are not of Lent. That is to say that pious practice of Lenten fasting may exclude the Sundays. Lent is marked by austerity. The color is violet, which suggests sorrow and royalty. We exclude the Gloria in Excelsis (or hymn of praise) and alleluia throughout the season. Like the third Sunday of Advent, the fourth Sunday of Lent sees a softening of our penitence. It is called Laetare, meaning rejoice. The color may shift to rose, reflecting this lighter mood.
Holy Week begins with Palm or Passion Sunday. The color is Scarlet from Sunday through Maundy or Holy Thursday. Often the altar and sanctuary are stripped at the conclusion of the Thursday service. This prepares the space for the great austerity of Good Friday. The altar remains bare and clergy may wear black. Holy Saturday remains black as well. But, the Saturday Easter Vigil begins with a bare altar and continues with white after the Easter proclamation.
The day of Easter is the moving target around which these other seasons adjust. Easter is fixed to the Sunday, after the first full moon, following the vernal equinox. This means Easter can fall anywhere from March 22nd to April 25th. This 33 day window was a solution between dissenting Early Christians celebrating on Passover, regardless of the day of the week, and those celebrating Easter on a fixed Sunday. This moveable schedule keeps us close to Passover and always on a Sunday.
The Easter Season is 40 days long, concluding with The Ascension of our Lord on the 40th day. It’s always a Thursday. We generally treat the eight days after ascension as part of Easter, though they could also be considered the days of Ascension. White is the parament color and all of our liturgical celebration returns.
The 49th day is the Eve of Pentecost. That moves us into Trinity, the season of the church.
[Seventh is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism] Everything that we do as Christians ought to in some way relate to the Ten Commandments. It is through the Ten Commandments that we learn how to worship God and how to love our neighbors.
As you know, laws change each and every day. And that is especially true during times of transitions of power, even in our country. And we ought to be careful in our church too that we do not constantly change the rules, whether they are rules of membership or church meeting time or admission to the Sacrament or some other things that come up.
But I remind you that God’s Law never changes and the laws that He established apply to all people in all times and places. There is definitely an attitude today that the Ten Commandments are old and outdated or that I know what to do and how to be a good person without the Ten Commandments. But that is not how God sees it and neither do we. For each one of us wants to follow Jesus.
So to get started, let’s take a look at the 1st Commandment: You shall have no other gods. That’s simple enough. God is your God. But He shall not be shared. We cannot believe in God and believe in Buddha. And that might not be so difficult for us here in our community.
But it is this commandment that is the foundation of all the others. It is meet, right, and salutary that we obey our parents, but do we put our trust in them more than we put our trust in God? Do we put our trust in our teachers or our employers more than we put our trust in our God?
What about the political leaders? Is our President our Savior? Of course not. It does not matter who he is. Remember the words of the Psalm. Put not your trust in princes. Rather, let us remember God is the Lord of Lords and the Kings of Kings.
God is God, and we are not. And we fear, love, and trust in Him above all things. Remember the temptation of Eve in the Garden, when the devil says, “You shall be like God.” Eve believed that lie and everybody fell into sin that day. We are not God.
Encore Post: [Twenty-Fifth post in a series on the Divine Service] Upon the completion of the beautiful Nunc Dimittis, the pastor or the assistant chants, “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good,” and the congregation respond with the rest of verse one of Psalm 107, “and His mercy (ESV translates: steadfast love; the Hebrew is חֶסֶד transliterated CHESED) endureth forever.” However, the hymnal committee could have easily put Psalm 136, 2 Chronicles 20:21, or even Jeremiah 33:11 as the biblical reference. These later two bible references, 2 Chronicles and Jeremiah 33, both imply worship taking place with the singing of this verse.
And in the same manner of the worship of the people of God in the Old Testament and those whom Jeremiah prophesies, we sing our thanks to our Lord who has manifested his mercy and steadfast love toward us in this Sacrament which we just received. It is as if each time we receive the Sacrament, we are participating in the fulfillment of the Lord’s word to Jeremiah: “For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first.” If you keep reading Jeremiah, you learn the fortunes are restored by the Righteous Branch, whose name is: The Lord is our righteousness.
The typical prayer said is Luther’s collect, which he penned for his German Mass. This prayer is beautiful in its simplicity as it gets to the point of the Sacrament we just received from Christ. However, it might serve the congregation well if the pastor expand the prayer for catechetical purposes, or if he takes time in bible or confirmation class to explain the petitions embedded in this simple prayer.
The salutary gift for which we give thanks is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Then we literally ask the Lord that having received into our bodies the body and blood of Christ, we be made to trust in the Triune God. In other words, we are praying that we be made holy, sanctified by the eating and the drinking of Christ’s body and blood. We do not just ask that we fulfill the first table of the Law in this prayer but we also pray that by the same body and blood, we also love our neighbor in ways that are pleasing to our Lord.
Encore Post: [Twenty-Third post in a series on the Divine Service] As the congregation sings the beautiful Agnus Dei, the pastor likely takes his place at the rail or near the altar to welcome up members of the congregation to take part in the foretaste of the feast to come. But before that, it is customary for the pastor and his assistants (if he has any), to receive the body and blood of our Lord before distributing to the congregation. There is some debate whether the pastor can “commune” himself or if an elder of the congregation should “commune” him. Generally, this is best left up to each individual congregation. In the days of Covid-19, you might actually see the pastor wait until the very end of the distribution to commune, since he might be wearing a mask, etc.
In some congregations, there is a communion rail where congregation members kneel to receive the body and blood of their Lord. In others, members come forward and stand in a semi-circle “table”. In others, you might see a more continuous flow of people and less of a “table” experience.
However, the church “does” distribution, the pastor is given the direction (rubric) to speak very specific words concerning the body and blood. Likely, some pastors conflate the two and maybe say a bit more. LSB recommends two options: “Take, eat, this the true body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, given into death for your sins.” “Take, drink, this is the true blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, shed for the forgiveness of your sins.”
There also has been debate from time to time about how one should receive the Body of the Lord. Should one hold out their hand and take the host to their own mouth? Should the recipient allow the pastor to place the Body of Christ into their mouth? Both are fine ways to receive the Body of Christ. Some early church fathers actually wrote rather long theological treatises on how one is preferred over the other. Some said that it was better for the pastor or priest to place the Host on the tongue, as this was the best picture of pure reception. For the other side, some argued your hands became the throne on which the Lord Jesus sat and so they offered directions on how to make your hands ready to receive such a gift.
The same can be said concerning receiving the Blood of Christ. In today’s age, many people use the individual cup rather than taking a drink from the common cup. However, the reasons for using individual cups seem less theologically based. Some churches actually have a chalice in which there is a spout to allow for a person to receive into an individual cup the blood from the “common” cup.
However, one receives the Body and Blood of the Lord, may it be done in all reverence, acknowledging the fact that the Lamb of God, Who Comes to Save, is what we receive in the bread and wine given to us by the Pastor at the Distribution.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp Christ Lutheran Church Noblesville, Indiana
Encore Post: [Eighteenth post in a series on the Divine Service] The Lutheran Service Book has the heading of “The Words of our Lord” but I imagine many of you also have heard them called either “The Words of Institution” or “The Words of Consecration,” or just the “Verba”. In all cases they the titles refer to the same thing: The words our Lord said on the night when He was betrayed, concerning the bread and then the cup. With this we have reached the climax of the Service of the Sacrament.
The pastor has removed the veil from over the chalice and moved the hosts to the paten (liturgical name for the plate which holds the bread), if they were not there already and either will speak the Words or will chant them. Unfortunately, fewer congregations hear the Words chanted. During the time of the Reformation, chanting the Verba was the way many people distinguished the Lutheran Church from the Catholic Church. In my congregation, the altar is set up and attached to the wall, so the words of our Lord are chanted over the elements facing away from the congregation. In some churches, you will see a free standing table/altar, where the pastor can go to the other side and say the words toward the people.
Every Sunday, we rehearse the night of Jesus “being handed over.” That word for being handed over or betrayed is παραδιδωμι which also means tradition/hand down. Jesus says to do these things in remembrance of Him, so the Church has always done it and continues to “hand it down to the next generation of the faithful” just as Paul says when he gives his account of the night in 1 Corinthians 11. By participating in the Sacrament, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
But who do we hear when those words are spoken? You hear Christ’s living voice. Just like the Gospel reading being the “high point” of the Service of the Word, so also the Words of Christ concerning His Supper are the high point of the Service of the Sacrament. So you actually hear the living voice of Jesus in these words, for they are not the Pastor’s words but Christ’s words.
Next time, we will dive into the words themselves but we can know for certain that they are Christ’s words for us, bidding us to come to eat and drink the very things through which He redeemed us and now through gives us life everlasting.
