God gives his grace to us through the means of grace — the Gospel, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Absolution. The Lord’s Supper is unique in that it is known by several names. Each emphasizes a different aspect of this great gift to us.
The name the Lord’s Supper reminds us that this sacrament belongs to our Lord Jesus, who instituted it and whose Body and Blood we eat with its bread and wine. The Lord’s Supper is both very simple and yet completely beyond our understanding. We trust the Lord who gives it to us and so call it his supper.
When we call the Lord’s Supper the Sacrament of the Altar, we focus on the sacrifice of Jesus. Following his command, we remember that he offered up the body that we eat and the blood that we drink as a sacrifice for our sins. The blessings this sacrament gives — forgiveness of sins, life and salvation — are ours because of this sacrifice.
We speak of Holy Communion because the Lord unites us with himself and with our brothers and sister in Christ in this meal. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17) The Lord’s Supper brings together bread with his body given for us and wine with his blood shed for us. When we eat it, we are united with him in the same way that Baptism unites us with his death and resurrection. We are also brought together as one body with Christians of all times and places and are united with them.
We call the service of worship in which the Lord’s Supper is offered the Eucharist, which is from the Greek word εὐχαριστήσας which means thanksgiving. It refers to our thankfulness for the gift of this precious sacrament. It is sometimes called the Mass (yes, even by Lutherans!), which comes from that Latin words that conclude the liturgy: “Ite, missa est” (“Go, you are sent”) It reminds us that we are sent by God into the world. Most frequently, however, Lutherans prefer the term Divine Service (from the German word Gottesdienst). This term reminds us that two things happen in worship. God serves us, giving us his gifts of his word and sacraments and we serve God, returning to him our thanks and praise for his mercy.
Encore Post: Upon chanting the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ over the bread and wine on the altar, your pastor if not already facing the congregation will pick up both the chalice and the body of our Lord, turn towards the congregation and chant, “Peace of the Lord be with you always.” The congregation responds, “Amen.”
The peace which our Lord Jesus Christ gives is a tangible peace when thinking of the Sacrament of the Altar. You actually get to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” The body and blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins brings you true, tangible peace. And remembering the Lord Jesus Christ and his teaching is “refreshment to your bones.” In other words it brings you peace!
In the days of Covid-19, there is nothing more rock solid to hold onto than the body and blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, which Christ gives to his people freely. All this is done in order that we might receive His Peace. Peace with God and with one another for the sake of Jesus, who died to reconcile us to our heavenly Father in Heaven and to one another.
There are some amazing photos of bombed out church buildings in which the Sacrament is still being received. Those pictures convey the truth that no matter what is happening in this world, by Christ’s presence in his body and blood for you, He grants you peace. You do not need to live in fear, but be at peace. The Lord knows and remembers you in all your afflictions and anxiety and grants you his peace, knowing that Christ goes with you because Christ is literally about to go inside you by your eating and drinking of his body and blood with the bread and the wine.
Be at peace knowing that for Christ’s sake your sins are forgiven. Be at peace, knowing that in this beautiful Sacrament that Jesus gives you that forgiveness. Taste and see the Lord is indeed good and is faithful to His Word. His peace is with you for He is with you to endure the unknowns of this world, pressing ever onward to the feast which is to come in His Kingdom forever.
With the singing of the Amen, “Yes, yes, it shall be so,” we confess our belief in the promise Jesus gives to us in giving us his body and blood. Liturgically speaking, we the congregation turns to the great 7th century hymn Agnus Dei, which we will talk about in our next Walk Through the Liturgy.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We are just a few weeks past the biggest event in the world, the day of our Lord’s Resurrection, where you and all the world were reconciled to God on behalf the Crucified Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is forgiven in Christ. You have new life in Christ. You are being led by the Lord Your God. But our hearts and our minds are easily led astray. Our minds easily turn elsewhere and instead of being of one heart and mind focused on the Words and Deeds of our Lord. The church, much like the ancient Israelites a mere month after their own salvific event of the Exodus and the cross of the Red Sea where the Egyptians were thrown into the sea, is easy to complain and mumble and grumble asking what the heck the Lord is doing. What has the Lord done for us lately.
We fail to remember and do the things by which we receive the very victory and life Jesus won for us by His death and resurrection from the dead.
John in his beautiful Epistle does not want you to forget what the Lord has done for you. In the first verse, John commands you to Look and See. That is an imperative command. He is telling you look and behold for yourselves this Love of the Father. And you know this Love. This Love is not a feeling or an emotion. This Love is a person. The Love the Father has given us is His only begotten Son, and Love was given to us in this way, that He offered Himself up for us at the cross. And He continues to offer Himself to you in His Flesh and Blood by His coming to you now in Word and Sacrament. Jesus is still in Flesh and He still here for you and your salvation building you up in Him who is Love.
And by this Son, Jesus, you are called and gathered to be children of God. What Jesus has done for you at the cross, where sins are dealt with once and for all, where sins are paid for by His blood, you now receive in Holy Baptism. You are washed and purified from sins by Baptism. And you are made a child of the Heavenly Father. Behold, the Love of the Father. See Love as the Person of the Lord Jesus displaying His marks of His cross. John says elsewhere in the Epistle that God is Love. If God is Love, then the Incarnate Lord Jesus is Love in the Flesh for you. And He is still in the Flesh for you, and in Baptism you are then united to the Resurrected God-Man Jesus who is Love. Then then in Christ are being built up in love.
You have been washed in the water and Word. You have been given God’s Love, Jesus. But that was a long time ago for many of you. I mean my baptism was October 9th 1988. Long time ago. The events of Easter were even longer before that. What has the Lord done for us lately? Often, we are no different than Israel who grumbled not a month after the great event of the Red Sea where the Lord destroyed the Egyptian army that chased after Israel on the Exodus. We too are a sinful and rebellious people and we murmur against the Lord. Have we forgotten all that He has done already and spurn what He gives us now? Do we really think that God saved us from Egypt to bring us to die in the wilderness? Or are we failing to believe and trust in His promise?
We are prone to think that Jesus is gone, that Jesus is not here with us. It’s easier to rationalize that Jesus is gone than to believe His promise that upon His ascension He in his human body can be everywhere at one time and the specific promises to His Church by which people who are dead in trespasses and sins are made alive in Him. That by those specific things, He unites Himself with us and we with him? And in so doing he offers us His love, mercy, and forgiveness? What is Jesus doing now? Is He gone or what?
Would you, who are married, tell your wife on the day of your wedding that you love her and you will continue to love her the rest of her life, but never tell her again that you love her? Would you never kiss her again after kissing her on your wedding day? Would you expect her to remember your love that you pledged to her on that day if you never displayed that love again toward her? You should express love and gratitude, constantly reminding her of the love you have for her. You would do nice things for her, buying her or picking a bouquet of spring flowers, sweeping the kitchen floor, carrying laundry, rinsing the dishes. Things that display your love for her. And likely you do these all the time.
So, it is with the Lord. For Christ is here for you in love and devotion. Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See his hands and his feet. Pierced for your salvation. And he actively gives you that salvation. He continually cleanses you from your sins. He is your advocate with the Father, the propitiation for your sins. He is constantly showering you with his love and His devotion, like a husband making sure that his wife knows his love for her.
What has Christ done for you lately? He purifies you as He Himself is pure. Now the hard part, we don’t see this much on this side of heaven. More often than not we see ourselves as dirty and unclean in our sins. We are continually shown our sins and our failings. We are told according to the Law we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, that is we deserve the consequences for our sins. So, are you pure? If you only look to yourself, you know the answer. This is the curse of Law. We would be like the one who is lawless. We would be children in the dark.
But our Lord who loves us, who has made called and gathered us to the heavenly Father by the cross, has called us children of God. This is a promise to be believed. Yes, it beyond all our understanding, but why would God speak a promise like this if He did not mean it for our good? Yeah, we may not understand, but we know His Word is true, so we are called to believe.
And by His sacrifice at the cross, by His hands and feet, we are God’s children. And we are loved, loved so much that He constantly calls us back from sin and he works to purify us. This is the call to remember our baptism, the promise that we are indeed called children of God.
Our Lord is active right this minute purifying our hearts and our minds by the preaching of His Word, the proclamation of the Gospel. Jesus is delivered to you. Love in a Person is given to you. And you have Love placed onto your very lips when you eat and drink His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Hence the prayer we pray is answered immediately when we pray that with fervent love we reach out to one another. We are infused with the very Love of Jesus.
There is only man who was pure from sin. The very Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. He was pure for you that he might give Himself up for you at the cross. And the Crucified and Risen Lord now purifies you from the inside out. For His resurrection to be ours on the Last Day, the actual flesh and blood of Jesus as the new mankind must come to us. And He does come in Flesh and Blood. And He does what He promises. He saves you and gives eternal life by His Body and Blood. He first washes you and calls you his brother and sister, children of His Father in baptism, and then puts Himself into you by the Sacrament of the Altar.
In Christ there is no sin, and now He comes into you. You are pure because of Christ. “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” You are in Christ my dear friends in Christ. You are children of God! Believe the promise from God, and hold Him to it.
When God looks at you for the sake of Christ, you have no sin, that is the promise. He has cleansed you. He has washed you in His blood. You are in incorporated and find your home in Him, and He likewise finds a home in you via the Sacrament of His body and blood. Think about how awesome this truly is: When you receive the Lord’s Supper, Christ, by creative power of His promise, is physically choosing to abide in you. His love abides in you because God is Love.
Will you sin in this after baptism? Yes, you will because you still live in this sin filled world in your sinful flesh. But you have a Love given to you that appeared to take away sin. Confess your sins, repent, and believe the promise of Christ. You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for your sin. And this Love, the God-Man Jesus, is given to you here every week. You receive Jesus, Love in the Flesh, for you that you might not forget, but always rejoice in the Gospel. What has God done for us lately? Well, everything that you might be like Him when He appears. Little Children, let no one deceive you and lead you otherwise.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
