Our Father, One Big Beginning Place

We say it so often that it may actually lose the significance of what we are saying.  "Our Father, who art in heaven."  These words of Jesus teach us, as we learn in Martin Luther's small catechism, that "With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father." 

God is our Father.  That's what Jesus teaches us.  And that introduces something significant for us.  If God is the father of us all, that means that have a unique connection with each other.  If we have a common Father, then we are all His dear children, and that makes us a family.  Perhaps, in your reading of the New Testament, you catch the frequency with which God's people address each other as brothers, or as brothers and sisters.  This is because, through Jesus, God creates a new family.

This creates a new dynamic for God's people as they gather together.  It isn't just simply coming together for worship, or for fellowship, or for learning.  It is coming together as a family gathering.  Think about the ways that you greet your family members when you see each other.  It's a joy to be with them.  You give hugs (and maybe even kisses).  You have smiles on your faces.  You have things you want to talk about.  You want to hear what is going on in their lives.  Sometimes you simply want to spend some time with them, and at other times, you have one or two matters that need to be worked through.

When you look around your gathering of God's saints, you are looking at your brothers and sisters.  Now, as I go through this series of blog posts, we are going to see how God intends for this family and its connections to be even more powerful than the "blood" family connections that we have, at least when it comes to the family He creates.  In many cases, it shouldn't introduce too much of a challenge to us.  Yet, there will also be times when it presents a major challenge to us.  Plus, as a family, it means that there are things we work toward with each other, and there are things that we simply do not do to family members.  We will be covering a lot of these things as we "think out loud" here.

For now, give some thought to how you would approach God's people at your congregation if you were to think of them as your family.  Think about how you would be different toward them, and in what ways you would remain the same.  

Oh, The Wealth

From the top, I want to make one thing perfectly clear.  There is NOT a set order of worship outlined by our God in His holy Word.  For something that is as important to Him as giving us His gifts, and in us offering our praise and thanks, it may seem strange that God didn't see fit to include a "do it this way" set of instructions on gathering for worship. 

And yet, that's very much like our God, who refuses to be easily simplified down.  Without a set "form" for recieving God's gifts and returning thanks and praise, that means that God's people are left with a great deal of latitude in how this takes place.  So, you might think that this would mean that there are a whole host of ways in which God's people gather for worship.

However, history paints a bit of a different story.  It seems that there are certain parts of worship that have remained fairly consistent through the ages, regardless of where Christians live or when they live(d).  Christians sing thanks and praise to God.  Christians hear God's Word and reflect upon it.  Christians confess their need for God's forgiveness in Jesus, and hear the certainty of that forgiveness.  Christians unite hearts and voices in prayer.  Christians receive the holy meal that Jesus Himself instituted.  And as they do these things, they typically occur in a rather unified fashion.

So what does this have to do with our celebration of the Lord's Supper?  Well, as we gather as Christians in worship, we have a rather set "form" that we tend to follow, one which has its roots all the way back to the earliest of Christians.  And yet, we have variations to that order which displays the freedom and openness that God allows in worship. 

In particular, included in the hymnal our church uses are five different orders of worship for celebrating the Lord's Supper.  They have an order or form in common, and yet, each is also highly unique, with music and wording that fits the form, and yet allows a certain amount of diversity.  We have a wealth of worship, especially when it comes to celebrating the Lord's Supper. 

But what if we don't regularly enjoy this wealth?  True, we will almost always have our certain "one" that we like more than the others.  At the same time, celebrating the Lord's Supper each week at our early time of worship will also allow us to make use of this wealth of worship as we celebrate God's gifts to us.  We may even find that there are parts of each of them that speak our heart language more than others, and thus serve to draw us closer to our God as He gives us His good and gracious gifts.

Oh, the wealth.  As God's people, our desire is always to utilize that which our God so freely gives. 

What Do You Believe?

In one of the statements we make to God in our typical times of worship, we state that we are "by nature sinful and unclean."  We admit in the statement that we have sinned "by what we have done, and by what we have left undone", or in other words, we did what God says not to do, and we haven't done what God has told us to be doing.  In a different statement that we make to God, we say that we "cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition."  All of these are reflections of what we find God telling us about ourselves in His revealed Word.

If we think through that completely, we realize that we are sinful throughout in every moment of every day.  From the time we are conceived until we pass from this life, our condition is that of sinful.  And as such, if we are to stand in the presence of God and be welcomed into His eternal kingdom, that also means that something needs to change for us.

That's where we enter with Jesus' forgiveness, and specifically for our post today, the role that the Lord's Supper plays.  We need that forgiveness fully and completely, and we need it every moment of every day.  So, when Jesus offers us a place in which we receive His own body and blood, it should make sense that we want to receive such a gift as often as we can get our hands on it.  We want to be forgiven for all those things listed in the first paragraph.  We want to be connected to the pure, perfect, holy, everlasting life of Jesus.

As Christians, it would make a great deal of sense to have the Lord's Supper offered then on a weekly basis.  In fact, most Lutheran churches approach somewhat of this frequency.  Yes, some do it by alternating the worship time at which they offer it, but I also believe that there is something to offering it at an expected time and place. 

In the past, I have found it very helpful to have the following practice.  Offer the Lord's Supper at the earlier time of worship every Sunday, and then have variation in the later time of worship.  That way, God's people can always know when and where to go to receive this great gift which connects us to our Savior in a very real way. 

Do This!

It was the day/evening just prior to an event that would change the course of history for a great number of people.  Most of the participants didn't really understand what would take place that night, and through the next day.  Yet, God was about to do something truly powerful.  He was set to deliver His people.  So, standing on the eve of the day when He would do great things, He commanded His people to partake of a meal. 

Essentially, God commanded His people to "Do this!"  In the context when this command was first given, God was about to free His people from slavery, slavery in Egypt.  As they sat down to the meal, God had commanded them to "Do this," not merely on that evening, but every year, as a reminder of God's mighty action in freeing His people from slavery and bringing them to freedom.

"Do this!"  Sure, it sounds almost like a military style command.  Yet, I would suggest that we can also look at it another way.  "Do this", as in, remember what I have done for you with thankfulness.  God had brought His people out of their suffering and slavery, with the intent to bring them to the land He had promised their ancestors.  Do this, and remember that I am a God who is for you, who is on your side, and who wants to do good for you.  Do this, because this meal will remind you of the extent of my grace and goodness for you.

So, in the context of a future celebration of that same meal, Jesus was set to change the course of history for many people of this world.  He was about to do mighty things, such as conquering sin, death, and the power of the devil.  So, on the eve of such titanic events, as He sat at the meal with His followers, He told them to "Do this, in remembrance of me."

Why do we want to celebrate the holy Supper of our Lord frequently?  Because every time we do, we are reminded of the extent of God's grace to us.  We remember that Jesus loves us enough to give His very life for us.  Every time we receive the bread and wine, which is His body and blood, we are brought back to the price He paid on the cross, and to His victorious resurrection from the dead.  We are reminded of how valuable we are to God, that He would send His Son to do such things for us.

I don't know about you, but knowing such a thing makes me want to "Do this" as often as I can.  So, as we ponder changing our earlier time of worship to celebrating the supper every week, I think that these words of our Lord Jesus speak powerfully as to why we should "Do this" every week.

This is...

Most Christians are intimately familiar with Jesus' words as He observed the Passover with His disciples, just hours before He was arrested, tried, and crucified.  During two significant segments of the Passover celebration, Jesus took what had been in place for centuries and added new meaning to it.  Taking the bread, Jesus broke it, and as He gave it to the disciples, He proclaimed, "This is my body, given for you."  And then later, taking one of the four cups (very likely the cup of redemption), He gave it to them, telling them to, "Drink of this, all of you, for this is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."

Now, I understand that there are Christians who take Jesus' words as symbolic more than literal.  The next few blog posts won't actually be addressing anything related to that issue.  Suffice it to say that, for our reflection over the next few days, we will be taking Jesus at His word, that He can indeed cause His body and His blood to be present in the Supper, even if we cannot reasonably fathom how such a thing can be so.

The first thing I want to point out from the mouth of our Lord is that He says this is done "for you".  Jesus gives His body into death "for you".  Jesus shed His blood "for you".  And so, as you take the breach which contains His body, He gives it "for you".  As you receive His blood in, with, and under the wine, He gives it "for you". 

These two words carry a great deal of importance for us as Christians.  We have a connection with Jesus that is renewed every time we receive this holy Supper from the hands of our Lord.  Jesus pours His forgiveness into us as we receive His body, broken for us, and His blood, shed for us.  And the thing for you and I to reflect upon is that we need this forgiveness so often.  Not only do we daily sin in what we do and in what we fail to do, but our inherited state from our first father and mother is that we are sinful.  This means that we desperately need that forgiveness and our connection to Jesus.  We daily sin much, and stand in need of God's forgiveness in Jesus just as much.  We also live in a state of separation from God, and need that forgiven every moment of every day. 

The connection we have with this holy Supper of our Lord Jesus is such that we need it "often".  Truly, we could spend every moment of every day receiving it, as that is just how deep our sinfulness runs, and how deep the forgiveness of Jesus runs.  But since a constant side of bread, blessed with the body of Jesus, and an IV of wine, blessed with Jesus' blood, isn't that practical, we desire to have this great gift as frequently as can be available.