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Text:
1 Corinthians 11:23-29 & others
Proclaim
the Lord’s Death until He Comes In the name of him who gives us his
body to eat and his blood to drink that we may live forever through him, dear
friends in Christ: In Old Testament times,
the Lord God gave his people a sacred meal of remembrance by which they were
annually to recount and to a certain extent relive
the greatest salvation event in their history. The celebrated event was the Lord’s bringing
his people out of their Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm. And the sacred meal of remembrance
was called the Passover. It was a family
celebration which specifically caused God’s people to reenact the night of the
tenth and most terrible plague by which the Lord secured the freedom of his
people. It was during this plague that the
firstborn of all Egypt died while God’s people feasted on the sacrificial lambs
whose blood, on the doorposts of their homes, protected all who were
inside. For when the angel of death saw
the blood, he passed over that home, not visiting it with the death he brought
to the homes that were not so covered with the sign of God’s grace. So for uncounted generations through
about fourteen hundred years, God’s people commemorated their deliverance with
this annual meal – their deliverance which was a prophetic foreshadowing of the
much greater deliverance by which the Lord would free his people from their
bondage to sin and death through the death of his own Firstborn Son. So, properly understood then, by celebrating
the Passover, God’s people were in fact proclaiming the death of Jesus Christ,
God’s firstborn, whose blood covers and redeems his people. They did this prophetically through the shadows and images of the Passover meal
until Jesus came and fulfilled everything the shadows and images pointed
to. And just as the Lord gave his people
a sacred meal to commemorate the lesser foreshadowing salvation event, so also
he has given us a sacred meal in which we are to relive the greater salvation
achieved by Jesus Christ. Through it we
proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again in glory. And not just annually, but as St.
Paul says, as often as we eat this
bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death. And neither is the meal any longer merely a
prophetic shadow. Now it’s the real
thing. Just as the salvation obtained by
Christ so much greater, so also the meal in which it’s relived so much greater. Before God’s people only remembered the blood
of the lambs that saved them. Now, in
the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is actually present giving us his own body and blood
by which we are saved from sin and nourished in holy faith. And as we heard, in order to be worthy to
partake of this sacred meal, it’s necessary that we recognize the Lord’s
presence – that he’s actually and bodily here in the meal giving himself to us; because if we don’t, we eat and drink
judgment upon ourselves for denying the Words of Christ. And so this evening, I’d like to highlight
for you how our Communion liturgy is designed to help us recognize and
appreciate the Lord’s real presence in the Supper. You know, too often we go on liturgical
autopilot, as it were, and just sort of mindlessly follow along, mouthing familiar
words without really thinking about what it is we’re saying and why we’re
saying it. So, please turn with me to
page 194 of the hymnal, and in the communion liturgy that we will be using very
shortly to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, I’d like to show you how it’s all set
up to help us understand what’s really going on. I should probably mention too that there are
many arrangements for the communion liturgy as it’s observed in the Christian
church throughout the world; but all of them have the same basic components in
pretty much the same sequence. So, on the top of page 194, you see that the
Service of the Sacrament begins with a series of three short sentences and
responses called the Preface. The celebrant faces the congregation and
says, “The Lord be with you”. This is
not just a churchly way to say hello.
No. What the pastor is saying is
that the Lord Jesus is about to come into our presence in a way that he isn’t
here already. He’s about to come to us
sacramentally under the bread and wine.
So the pastor is saying, “I want that
presence of Christ to be with you – and I want you to understand and appreciate
it.” The congregation
replies, “And with thy spirit.”
You’re saying, “Yes, we understand the Lord Jesus is coming to us –
specifically he’s coming to us through the ministry you are about to
perform. Therefore we want him to be
with your spirit as you perform this
ministry for us. Next the pastor says, “Lift up your hearts.” To lift your heart means to be eager with
anticipation. So it’s like saying, “Get
ready, here he comes!” And I think too
there may be a sense in which it means “Let’s show him what’s broken.” You know, when you go to the doctor, he’s
going to ask you to show him where it hurts.
Well, Jesus is the Great Physician, and it’s our hearts that need
healing. So if he’s coming, we ought to
approach him like the supplicants that came to him during his earthly ministry
with all their problems – their blind eyes, their unhearing ears, their
crippled limbs. And very often Jesus
would heal them with a touch. So the
congregation responds, “We lift them up to the Lord.” You’re saying, “Yes,
we’re ready for Jesus to come – and we’re ready to have our hearts healed by
his saving touch.’ And then the pastor says, “Let us give thanks
to the Lord our God.” Naturally. Like the one leper who returned after being
healed, who fell at the Lord’s feet in gratitude for his cleansing, we want to
be thankful that the Lord is coming to cleanse us – so thankful, in fact, that we’re
doing it in advance. The congregation
responds “It is meet and right so to do.”
You’re agreeing that giving thanks to God for sending his Son for our
redemption is the right thing to do. What follows next is a prayer of thanksgiving
spoken by the pastor. It’s called the Proper Preface, not because it’s the
proper thing to do, but because it follows the propers of the day; that is, it changes according to the seasons of
the church year. It is, like I said, a
prayer of thanksgiving to God for sending Jesus to be our Savior specifically
highlighting the part of the salvation story being remembered at that time of
the year. During Christmas we thank the
Lord for sending his Son in human flesh, during Epiphany we thank him for the
teaching and healing ministry of Jesus, during Lent we thank him for the cross
and passion of our Lord, and so on. But
regardless of the season, the prayer always ends with the same words: “Therefore with the angels and archangels and
all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name, ever more
praising you and saying …” Which leads us into what
follows on page 195. It’s a hymn of
praise called the Sanctus, which is the Latin word for “holy”. And that’s how the hymn begins: “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven
and earth are full of Thy glory.” These
words are lifted straight from the Scripture.
They come from the prophet Isaiah who was given a vision of the Lord in
his temple. The prophet sees the Lord
seated on a throne high and exalted.
There are angelic beings burning like fire hovering around him, and they
are singing these words back and forth to each other, “Holy, holy, holy.” And so the idea is that we too, standing in
the Lord’s presence, join in the song of the angels. But there’s more to the story. As Isaiah takes all this in – this glorious
vision of the most holy God – he’s struck with an overwhelming sense of his sin
and uncleanness. He’s in utter terror –
convinced that he’s about to be destroyed forever. For what sinner can stand in the presence of
God and live? But Isaiah is not destroyed as he fears. Instead, one of the angels goes to the altar before
the Lord which is burning with live coals.
The angel takes a glowing coal with a pair of tongs, flies to Isaiah,
and touches it to his lips. And the
angel speaks these wonderful words, “See, this has touched your lips. Your sin is atoned for and your guilt is
taken away.” And Isaiah’s fear
vanishes. Having been cleansed from his
sin, he’s able to stand boldly in the Lord’s holy presence. More than that, he’s empowered to go forth
and do God’s holy will; and when the Lord says he’s looking for someone to do a
job for him, Isaiah leaps at the opportunity to serve. The point of using the words of the Sanctus
in the Communion liturgy is that Isaiah’s experience is the same one we will all
have in the Lord’s Supper. We will stand
in the presence of the Lord in his temple.
And as sinners we have no right to be here. It should mean our destruction. But instead, the Lord in his mercy sends his
messenger to the altar to collect something that can take away your sin – not a
live coal; but the one thing that really takes away sin, namely the body and
blood of Christ. He touches it to your lips
and says, “Take and eat, take and drink, this is for the forgiveness of your
sins.” And again, for Isaiah it was only
a vision; for us it’s the real thing. Returning then to the Sanctus, you’ll note
that after singing with angels, we join the earthly choir with the words, “Hosanna,
hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
No doubt you recognize these words as the ones used by the crowd that
welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
The idea is that we are placing ourselves in that crowd, welcoming and
honoring Jesus who is coming to give his life a ransom for us. And with them we sing, “Hosanna!” It’s a Hebrew word that means, “Oh, please,
save us now!” Okay then, on page 196 we’ve got the Lord’s
Prayer. Since the earliest days of the
Church it’s been included in the Communion liturgy rather than with the rest
prayers of the Church. The reason is
that they used to dismiss everyone who was not going to participate in Lord’s
Supper before that part of the service began.
Remember that for the first several centuries of Christianity, most people
coming into the church were converts from idol worshipping paganism. People in the process of making the
transition were encouraged to come to worship to hear the readings and the
sermon; but they weren’t ready to take communion yet. So they were sent out before the communion
liturgy began. And the doors were
literally closed behind them, which
is why, even today call it “closed communion.”
Anyway, the reason the Lord’s Prayer was included after they left was
because the ones dismissed had not yet become Christians, and therefore they
weren’t allowed to refer to God as Father. What follows on page 197 are the Words of Institution. In this version the words are chanted. They used to do this for two reasons. The first was because of the bad acoustics in
most church buildings. The idea was that
even if you couldn’t make out the words the pastor was saying, you still knew what he was saying by the chant tone. It’s funny, but I’ve discovered that the
confirmands who have to memorize the words of institution as part of the
Catechism, find it easier to remember the words if they too chant them. The other reason the words were chanted was
to prevent the pastor from trying to impress everyone with his skills of
rhetoric. It’s the Words of Institution,
the actual Words of Jesus, that make the Sacrament the
Sacrament – that bring Christ’s presence to the elements. Chanting the words forces a certain
uniformity on them that reminds everyone it’s not about the pastor who speaks
the words; but rather it’s about Christ who comes through the Word. Good.
What follows the mysterious moment of Christ’s coming to be present in,
with, and under the bread and wine is the all important proclamation of the Peace
of the Lord. Remember the words of Jesus
when he first appeared to his disciples in the locked chamber on the evening of
his resurrection. The disciples were
startled and fearful, thinking they were seeing a ghost. But Jesus calms them by saying “Peace to you.” Then he shows them the wounds in his hands and
side – the wounds by which our peace with God was obtained, and again he says,
“Peace to you.” Only then are the
disciples are overjoyed to see him.
We’ve got essentially the same thing going on here. Now that the body and blood of Christ are
present in sacramental elements, the pastor holds them up and says, “The peace
of the Lord be with you always.” And what he’s saying is “Here it is, I’m holding
in my hands your peace with God – it’s Jesus’ body and blood given for you.” The congregation responds by saying “Amen”,
which means “Yes, truly that’s what it is”; and then they launch immediately
into another hymn called the Agnus Dei,
which is Latin for “Lamb of God”. These
words are also lifted more or less straight from the Scripture. They come to us from John the Baptist who, upon
seeing Jesus approach, tells his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world.” That’s what
the congregation is saying. Seeing by
faith the presence of Christ in the bread and wine you’re saying, “We see you
Jesus. You are the Lamb that takes away
the sin of the world. Have mercy on
us. Grant us your peace.” And that’s precisely what Jesus does for you
as you receive his body and blood in the distribution. After everyone has communed, the Service of
the Sacrament comes to its conclusion with a final canticle called the Nunc Dimittis, on page 199. You may recognize these words as the ones
spoken by Simeon when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus into the Temple
for his dedication. The Holy Spirit had
informed Simeon that he would not die until he’d seen the Christ of God. And now, seeing what he had been promised, he
takes the baby from the parents and says, “Lord, now let your servant depart in
peace. Your word has been fulfilled; for
my eyes have seen your salvation … the Light of revelation to the Gentiles, and
the Glory of your people Israel.” And
having just received Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament, that’s what
we’re saying too. “We’ve seen him. We’ve touched him. We’ve actually consumed his body and blood for
our salvation. Now we too can go in
peace knowing that God’s Word is fulfilled.” So again, what I want you to take away with
you this evening is the way that our communion liturgy, using the very words of
Scripture, is all designed to stress the true presence of the Lord Jesus in,
with, and under the sacramental bread and wine.
We stress this because we believe it – that every time we come to
communion, we are receiving the benefit of the death of Christ for our sin and
we are feasting upon the very Lamb of God whose blood sets us free from death
and God’s condemnation. Let us therefore eat this bread and drink
this cup with thankful and believing hearts, for as often as we do, we proclaim
the Lord’s death until he comes. Even
so, come Lord Jesus. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! |
