Ready for the Meal?

Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

This year for the subsequent Wednesdays in Lent we will be hearing some of the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and their wives and families.

These old stories continue to be significant because of the realistic ways in which these persons interact with each other and with God.

Today our dress and customs may be different,

but our attitudes and actions are much the same.

We can learn from them, if we will listen.

Tonight, before we turn to that series of stories, we begin the season of lent with the question, Are we ready for the Meal?

Some years back, when we were beginning to celebrate the Holy Communion more frequently, we would hear the comments such as:

“Again? Have I been that bad?

I don't feel ready.

It's too sad.

Let's turn to Luther's Small Catechism and hear a question and answer:

When is a person rightly prepared to receive the sacrament?

Fasting and outward preparation serve a good purpose. However, that person is well-prepared and worthy who believes these words: “Given and shed for you for the remission of sins.”

The words 'for you' require simply a believing heart.

Lutheran theologian James Nestigen reminds us that the devil keeps laying two traps all the time.

Their purpose is to rip the joy out of our lives.

Satan's old tricks are:

(1) to make us think that we have to do something in order to make the sacrament effective;

(2) or, alternatively, that the sacrament “works” no matter what we do.

In the first trick, Saran tries to turn Jesus' promise into a set of rules to be followed.

In the second trick, Satan tries to persuade us that Jesus' promise is magic.

The first trick has dozens of variations:

Our sinful nature, the “old Adam“ some call it,

will come up with a sham holiness about the gift of Holy Communion, claiming to be so concerned about how lightly and insincerely some regard the sacrament.

In a similar vein, there is a danger this night in the use of the old custom of having an ash mark on our foreheads.

We could begin to regard it in a prideful way rather than a reminder of how we have abused Christ's gift of Holy Baptism.

The “Old Adam” in us will talk about how religious and wonderful people can be without bread and wine.

The “old Adam” in us could go after the Pastor and all of the others who help to distribute the sacrament,

point out all of the leaders' sins, and claim that they are so bad that God couldn't possibly use us to carry his good gifts to others.

God is too holy to bother with sinful people, some might say, and we are too un-holy to carry a different message.

The tactic is this:

after complaining about leaders,

complaining about the way the sacrament is given,

and complaining about to whom it is given, then one will say:

If I am to get the good things that God gives by way of the sacrament,

I have to do something to prove that I am sincere,

that I am trying hard.

This amounts to saying

that Jesus doesn't know how to give good gifts...so I'll help him out.

Jesus doesn't know the kind of people to whom his gifts are being offered... so I'll help him decide about worthiness.

Jesus doesn't know who is helping to serve... and I think I'm better at it anyway.

This is a mess!

Jesus is regarded as a liar or a fool.

Communion is turned into something that we do in order to impress Jesus.

It isn't about comfort or joy, because we are constantly fretting about how we look, act, feel, and appear to others.

What a messy trap Satan has laid for us!

Now to the second trap: that the sacrament works no matter what we do.

Paul writing to the Corinthians chastises them severely for misunderstanding this.

Each of the well-to-do folks took care of him/herself, without regard for the food available to the poor who were only able to come later to the fellowship meal.

The privileged regarded the sacrament as their own possession, as a sort of vaccination against bad,

so that they could come to communion and then go and do whatever they wanted without any thought or care.

Paul in the passage we heard this day rehearses what Jesus did in taking, blessing, breaking, and sharing the bread and cup as a paradigm of what our Christian lives should be.

We might call it eucharistic stewardship.

In order to avoid the two traps which Satan sets,

we can continue to ask:

Whose supper is this? Is it Christ's or ours?

If it is his supper, and if it is a gift,

then there is nothing that we can do to earn or deserve it.

It is the one thing which we can most desire to receive.

Anticipating the reception of such a gift, we will want to do a variety of things:

--we may contemplate the sacrament ahead of time,

--we may avail ourselves of the office of Confession, whether corporately or individually.

--we may once a year as tonight use ashes as a reminder of our needs.

These and other preparations serve a good purpose, Luther says;

but not because we have to use them,

but because the gifts for which they prepare us are so very great.

Remember the story of the three visitors to Abraham and Sarah.

The visitors conveyed great promises from God, but not because Abraham and Sarah were so great, wonderful, had done such marvelous things, but just because God chose to offer the promises.

And they received them.

And so we come this day to the sacrament, not because we are worthy, or because we can in any way make ourselves worthy;