“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?  And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ. Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

A member wrote me a note a while back and asked if we could devote some sermons to Holy Communion – particularly what is meant by the Lutheran teaching of the “real presence of Christ” in the meal.  

For the next three Sundays Pastor Mark Knappe and I will devote our Sermon Series to what is variously called the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord’s Supper and the Eucharist.  Each of the phrases used to describe the meal has its origin in the many faceted meanings of the meal.   “Last Supper” derives from the fact that Jesus ate the Jewish Passover with his disciples on the eve of his death – it was his final meal before his passion.  

"The Sacrament of the Altar” is descriptive of where the sacrament emanates from in Christian worship – it is placed on the altar, in contrast with the sacrament of baptism which is administered from a basin placed in a font or a pool near the altar. It is also called this because Jesus, in the words of John the Baptist in John 1:29, was “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” In Jewish religious observance, lambs were sacrificed on an altar for atonement of sin, but Christians recognize Jesus as God’s lamb offered for us.

“The Eucharist” derives from a Greek word meaning “thanksgiving” and you can hear that in the passage from I Corinthians 10, when Paul refers to a “cup of thanksgiving” that we drink.  Eucharist describes the mood of this sacrament – contrasting the more somber suggestions of sacrificial lamb or last supper with gratitude for the grace God extends us.  

“Holy Communion” derives from the blessed “participation” aspect of the passage above.  It is holy because God ordained it and Jesus is truly present in the sacrament, and it is communion because we share it with others (underscoring the importance of eating and drinking with another or many other believers at the same time).   The word “participation” in I Corinthians 10:16 anticipates the “we who are many are one body” comment Paul makes.  The Greek word used there is “koinonia” which, while hard to render with just a single English word, means “togetherness, fellowship, but with both a heavenly and earthly dimension.”    We eat and drink with familiar faces, with faces that are new to us, and “above all” with the body of Christ who have preceded us to heaven – the church triumphant. 

This sermon series will:

Once again, I thank you for your kind attentiveness to these teaching sermons and for your inquisitiveness about the faith.  Truly, you are as much a “disciple” of Jesus with your questions as you are in your service and worship.

Because of a cross,

Pastor Ken