Reflections on Body and Blood
Nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus sat down at table with his friends, with people who had been with him through thick and thin, people who had heard him speak hundreds of times on God and God’s kingdom and on his relationship to the father who sent him.
But at this meal, despite all of the history, his words about the bread being his body and the wine being his blood caught them off guard and left them in confusion. The familiar landscape of the Passover ritual gave way to new territory they were not prepared to deal with. What does he mean? This is my body, broken for you? This is my blood, shed for you?
And nearly 2000 years later, we’re not sure we understand these words any better. We know there’s something sacred here, something deeply meaningful. And we know Jesus tells us that we should “do this in remembrance of Him.” But we come to the meal like the disciples, aware that something important is happening but that it is wrapped up in mystery. Like the disciples, we know something really big is going on, but we don’t understand all of the implications of the meal.
Not quite 500 years ago, the Reformation forced church people to take a hard look at communion. Now that it wasn’t a mysterious act carried out by priests in a magical ritual, now that church people were allowed to handle the elements and have Christ brought close to them through the Eucharist, they had to come to terms with what it meant to hold Christ’s body and blood in their hands. Some of them, especially the Anabaptists, were so afraid of profaning the sacrament, so afraid they might spill a drop of Christ’s blood or inadvertently dip their beards in the cup, that they shied away from taking communion, electing to participate in the Sacrament only three or four times a year.
Surprisingly, John Calvin, From whom we Presbyterians draw much of our theological heritage, wasn’t too concerned with that. In fact, he said that even sinners could eat the communion meal. Of course, says Calvin, all they will get from it is bread and wine. They will get calories but no spiritual content.
As we remarked in an earlier blog, Calvin picks up on something we heard Jesus say. "It is the spirit that gives life." The elements are important and are an integral part of the mystery of the feast that Christ instituted with his disciples in the Upper Room. But it is the spirit that gives life. Calvin goes so far as to say that unless we come to the communion table already feeding on Christ, already being fed by his spirit through prayer and meditating on scripture and praise and worship, we too will get only bread and wine. If we are not already in communion with Christ, feasting on his love and depending on his spirit to sustain our lives, then there is no spiritual food for us in the Eucharist. Only empty calories for empty souls.
So it is my prayer for us today, that as we come to the table of our Lord, we come asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and fill us and transform us so that we may recognize the presence of our Lord in the bread broken and the wine poured. May we be fed by the spirit so that Christ is truly present to us in communion. May we truly abide in Christ and he in us, as we share together in the feast, anticipating the time when people from every time and place will come from East and West and North and South and sit at table in the Kingdom of God, as we behold our host, the one whose body and blood has fed us and has called us to be children of God.
Amen.
But at this meal, despite all of the history, his words about the bread being his body and the wine being his blood caught them off guard and left them in confusion. The familiar landscape of the Passover ritual gave way to new territory they were not prepared to deal with. What does he mean? This is my body, broken for you? This is my blood, shed for you?
And nearly 2000 years later, we’re not sure we understand these words any better. We know there’s something sacred here, something deeply meaningful. And we know Jesus tells us that we should “do this in remembrance of Him.” But we come to the meal like the disciples, aware that something important is happening but that it is wrapped up in mystery. Like the disciples, we know something really big is going on, but we don’t understand all of the implications of the meal.
Not quite 500 years ago, the Reformation forced church people to take a hard look at communion. Now that it wasn’t a mysterious act carried out by priests in a magical ritual, now that church people were allowed to handle the elements and have Christ brought close to them through the Eucharist, they had to come to terms with what it meant to hold Christ’s body and blood in their hands. Some of them, especially the Anabaptists, were so afraid of profaning the sacrament, so afraid they might spill a drop of Christ’s blood or inadvertently dip their beards in the cup, that they shied away from taking communion, electing to participate in the Sacrament only three or four times a year.
Surprisingly, John Calvin, From whom we Presbyterians draw much of our theological heritage, wasn’t too concerned with that. In fact, he said that even sinners could eat the communion meal. Of course, says Calvin, all they will get from it is bread and wine. They will get calories but no spiritual content.
As we remarked in an earlier blog, Calvin picks up on something we heard Jesus say. "It is the spirit that gives life." The elements are important and are an integral part of the mystery of the feast that Christ instituted with his disciples in the Upper Room. But it is the spirit that gives life. Calvin goes so far as to say that unless we come to the communion table already feeding on Christ, already being fed by his spirit through prayer and meditating on scripture and praise and worship, we too will get only bread and wine. If we are not already in communion with Christ, feasting on his love and depending on his spirit to sustain our lives, then there is no spiritual food for us in the Eucharist. Only empty calories for empty souls.
So it is my prayer for us today, that as we come to the table of our Lord, we come asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and fill us and transform us so that we may recognize the presence of our Lord in the bread broken and the wine poured. May we be fed by the spirit so that Christ is truly present to us in communion. May we truly abide in Christ and he in us, as we share together in the feast, anticipating the time when people from every time and place will come from East and West and North and South and sit at table in the Kingdom of God, as we behold our host, the one whose body and blood has fed us and has called us to be children of God.
Amen.
posted by Frank at 3:00 PM
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