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This is for all the Lonely People
Jan 10, 2006 10:41:57
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Petersen Posted on: Jan 10, 2006 10:41:57 |
The folk-rock band America was on to something when they crooned: I am not sure what they meant. I am not sure they knew what they meant. It was a wierd era. But certainly the idea that lonely people find comfort and fellowship in a silver cup ought to ring true with us. For in the silver cup that holds Jesus' Blood He joins us to Himself, to one another, to angels and archangels, and to the whole company of heaven. In the holy communion we are united to the saints in heaven! That certainly includes the likes of St. paul and St. Thomas, Martin Luther and C.F.W.Walther. But it is also includes our own dead, our faithful loved ones who have preceded us into heaven. In Christ we are one. Miss grandma? Well come to communion. Come where she always is: to Jesus. This Cup is for all the lonely people, for all the scared people, for all the doubting people, for all the sad people. It is for you. |
Comments...
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Jan 11, 2006 11:17:02
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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David,
I guess I wrote to quickly w/o thinking, but that's what I meant. Thanks! -
Jan 10, 2006 15:17:13
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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Seems like there's an illustration here in "America's" vs. for the 2nd Sun after the Epiphany, The Wedding @ Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. So, too, does
He turn wine into His blood by His Word! What think ye?-
Jan 11, 2006 09:44:44
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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The connect should be made. I suppose we might want to be a bit careful about saying the wine is "changed into Blood" lest we be accused of the Thomasian doctrine of transubstantiation and try to stick with something like: "The Word of God that changed water into wine to make glad the hearts of men causes the wine in the Sacrament of the Altar to be His Blood in order to cleanse the souls of men" or "God's Word places His Blood ino the wine where is comprehended by faith but taken by the mouth." That way you won't offend the Waltherians or mislead your members. I am pretty sure if someone combed my sermons he'd find: "God's Word changes bread into His Body." But it is not technically correct.
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Jan 11, 2006 15:55:03
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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Transubstantiation is a theory about the "how" of a miracle - all such theories are bound to be flawed because you can't explain such things. However, Lutherans should not (and have not been) be shy about using the word "change" in the Supper. Something has certainly changed by the power of the Word of God. For what was bread is now, by the Word of Christ, his body. As our brothers in the Lutheran Church - Canada have written,
(Holy Communion: Terms and Practices. from the LCC's CTCR, 1999):
"Can we say that the bread and wine are "changed". into the
Body and Blood of Christ? Roman Catholics do, talking about
"transubstantiation". (the bread and wine changing into the
Body and Blood) and so do the Eastern Orthodox. Lutherans
normally have not used the term change, but have approv-
ingly quoted those who use the term [2]. But can the term be
considered wrong? In the Supper is something present which
was not there before? What?
"So, a change does take place. Bread and wine are not changed into something else. Something else, however, is now present, as the bread and wine become the vehicles for the Body and Blood which Christ gives us.
"[2] Apol. X.2, citing "Vulgarius" (the eleventh century theologian Theophylact), who notes that the bread "is truly changed into flesh." Martin Chemnitz, one of the authors of the Formula of Concord and ardent defender of the Real Presence, demonstrates how the term, if used, must be understood. He studiously avoids the term when contrasting the Lutheran view with Rome's view, while at the same
time noting that Christ gives us something that was not there before: "Therefore it is not a man, the minister, who by his consecration and blessing makes bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but Christ Himself, by means of His
Word, is present in this action, and by means of the Word of His institution, which is spoken through the mouth of the minister, He brings it about that the bread is His body and the cup His blood . . . ." Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent Part II, trans. Fred Kramer (St. Louis: Concordia, 1978), 229. However, later, as he contrasts the ancient Church's understanding with the Roman understanding, he notes (and accepts) the concept, saying "The ancients make mention simply of mutation and conversion of the elements in the Lord's Supper.
This they understand and explain this way, that after consecration it is no longer common bread and ordinary wine but is the Eucharist, which is made up of two things, an earthly [bread and wine] and a heavenly [Christ's body and blood], a
visible and an invisible . . . " (254). To use the word "change", with that understanding is certainly permissible."
I've never understood the modern day Lutheran obsession with making sure nobody falls into Transubstantiation - as if this is the temptation to any of our members! They are more likely to fall into crass Protestant unbelief or the slightly more subtle unbelief of Receptionism.
+HRC
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Jan 11, 2006 15:55:03
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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Jan 11, 2006 09:44:44
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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Jan 10, 2006 14:00:55
Re: This is for all the Lonely People
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A dear man I have visited for three months died yesterday. It gives me great comfort that I get to be with him again on Sunday.
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