Friendly fire casualties are a desperate problem in the prosecution of war. It is both destructive and demoralizing to recognize that the people who should be making common cause are killing and maiming each other. With friends like that who needs enemies? In the church, plenty of the faithful are maimed by friendly fire, because we are willing to say and do things to our fellow congregants that we would never say to a coworker or to a stranger shopping next to us at Wal-Mart.

Make no mistake; we are at war with our enemy the devil (Eph 6:12). That war will go on until the last of the faithful are brought home from the battlefield of the world by our Lord. We remain ever on a war footing, like ancient Israel in the Promised Land. War is the normal state of affairs. Peace is the anomaly. Realistic war planners are aware of this even if the worldly politicians try to hide it from the populace. Those worldly politicians inhabit both church and state as Jeremiah says of them, "They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace" (Jer 6:14). Satan will never give up. Either we are at war or we are defeated and have become slaves of our enemy.  If we are to be on a war footing continually, then using our ammunition against those who, together with us, are the body of Christ is destructive and demoralizing.

There is no excuse for friendly fire incidents among us. For to attack those who share our faith and confession is to attack ourselves. If there is but one Head of the church (and I don't mean a guy with a tall hat in St. Louis or Rome), then to attack a fellow believer is to attack the body of Christ and to attack a member of our own body. For we are members of His body (1Co 12:12). Friendly fire incidents are ultimately suicidal to the body of Christ, which is our own body.

Have you ever noticed that in movies mobsters seem to spend a lot of time eating together while hatching their plots? There is a hint of the sacrum convivium in this time of eating together. Mealtime is sacred and while evil plans might be made while the mobsters share food, none may be carried out. There is a sacred code of fellowship even among robbers when food is shared.  In the church, those with whom we eat are united in one body. How terrible then that at the table of the Lord we consider our plots against the very people with whom we commune. Our minds wander from the body and blood of the Lord to consider how we might disadvantage those with whom we commune, all the while unctuously calling, "Peace, peace." We are sharpening the knife while the Lord is feeding us with His body. We are plotting our attack while His blood poured out for us is drunk. He is giving us spiritual life, while we plot death and destruction against those with whom we eat.

But you say, "I would never do that!" Yes, you would and you do. Your weapons are tongue and eyes; firing deadly projectiles of words and looks. Satan would love us to make common cause with him against our brothers rather than with our brothers against him. The Supper calls us to battle against our enemy rather than against ourselves.