HOLY COMMUNION

Pastor Rick Rogers

 When we determine our position on the Lord’s Supper do we follow Church Tradition or do we follow God’s word.

A huge body of theological work concerning Holy Communion is devoted to examining oneself, partaking worthily, bringing judgment on oneself.

Have we really read the scripture or do are we repeating the teachings of men?

This is the scripture in question:

1Co 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another-- 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home--so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

Five words need definition:

Discerning - separating out the two elements that are the body and blood of Jesus from the rest of the elements in the supper

Judgement - to be under scrutiny

Guilty - in this case the word actually means liable for

Unworthily - this is an adverb. It does not amend the person who eats and drinks, it amends the manner of the eating and drinking-- how it is done, not the preparation of the one who does it.

Examine – Simply stated, to judge one self. Not to judge one’s life but to judge what we are about at the moment of receiving communion.

If you apply these simple clarifications to the passage several things leap out at you:

There is no process of preparation implicit or explicit in the passage.
All of us are under judgement, both by ourselves and our behavior, and by the Lord
All of us are liable for the Body and Blood of Jesus anyway because, if we could have been acceptable He would not have had to die.
Unworthiness has to do with my manner of ingesting the elements, not my pietistic preparation.
There were lots more than two foods present in the meal Paul speaks of so there are few things that we do today that are the same as what they did then. We aren't anywhere close to celebrating as they did.

What is Ablaze!?

Ablaze!® began as a vision of LCMS World Mission to involve every member of the LCMS, its partner church bodies, and partner mission agencies in one focused and concentrated effort to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who do not yet know Him. By joining together in this effort, not only would those who hear and receive the message of salvation in Christ be transformed by it and brought into the body of Christ, but our own church bodies, mission organizations and congregations would be strengthened as members grow in discipleship through mission involvement. Additionally, all our Lutheran resources would be strategically coordinated, so that more can be accomplished in mission to the glory and honor of our one, true God. It was the desire of LCMS World Mission to give this vision away—to ignite a spark that would become a mission movement of individuals, groups, congregations, etc., all committed to the goal of reaching 100 million unreached and uncommitted people with the Gospel by 2017, which is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
LCMS World Mission Purpose Statement
Praying to the Lord of the Harvest, LCMS World Mission, in collaboration with its North American and worldwide partners, will share the Good News of Jesus with 100 million unreached or uncommitted people by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.
LCMS World Mission adopted this new purpose statement in 2002 for the following 15 years to direct the mission effort entrusted to the organization by the Synod in its bylaws. Under the larger umbrella of the Ablaze! movement, it emphasizes four core components of the way LCMS World Mission approaches our Lord’s Great Commission task:
Prayer
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalm 2:8)
The purpose statement of LCMS World Mission intentionally begins with prayer. Truly, prayer is most important in any effort to share the Good News of Jesus with others for whom Christ Jesus died, for our Lord says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7)
Partnership
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 1:4-6)
There are a growing number of Lutheran mission societies, such as Lutheran Bible Translators, People Of the Book Lutheran Outreach, and Lutheran Heritage Foundation, which are involved in mission work throughout the world. These partners often work with LCMS missionaries, as well as our partner churches. LCMS World Mission desires to build strategic partnerships with entities such as these, so that our total LCMS resources can be used in the most efficient and effective ways possible.
Of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s 29 partner churches, the origins of 16 are connected with LCMS mission work. We humbly stand before our God as a church body, praising Him for using the LCMS to start Lutheran churches, many of which have also commissioned and sent out missionaries to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who have not yet heard. We desire to strengthen our partnership with these national churches, and with the approximately 30 additional emerging and established Lutheran church bodies in other countries in which the LCMS is involved in mission work, to serve these bodies in the most appropriate ways and to continue to work with them to build capacity for the mission endeavor, so that all the peoples of the earth might believe on the name of Jesus and be saved.
Proclamation
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matt. 13:8)
Sharing the Good News of Jesus is at the heart of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20a.) These were among the last words Jesus spoke before He ascended to heaven. As Lutherans, God has given us a great doctrine/understanding of His Word as related to the means of grace. We believe that conversion takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit, using God’s Word and the Sacraments. God has called each of us to mission involvement through our own conversion as His redeemed, forgiven people. We now have the privilege of sharing the Good News of Jesus with others.

LCMS World Mission places strong emphasis on witnessing to “unreached” or “uncommitted” people—those who are not already believers in Jesus Christ.

• “Unreached” people are those who have never heard a clear message in the name of Jesus. Asia, Africa, and the former Soviet nations are still home to many unreached people who have never had access to the Good News of Jesus.

 
• “Uncommitted” is a term used for people who have been exposed to the Word, who have had an opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus, but who do not have faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. “Uncommitted” people live mainly in such areas as Europe, Australia, North America, and South America.
The figure of 100 million was chosen intentionally after much research, prayer, and deliberation with our missionaries and mission partners. In our Lutheran understanding of conversion, God does the work of converting the unbelieving heart through His Holy Spirit. By setting this goal, we are not limiting the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit will determine how many people will be touched by the Gospel through our efforts, but we will be faithful sowers of the seed and will hold ourselves accountable to sowing the seed of the Gospel in the hearts of at least 100 million people in North America and around the world by 2017.
Reformation
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Rom 12:2a)
One of the outcomes of the Reformation was the rediscovery that God’s grace is offered freely to all people through the Word and Sacraments. We have a precious message to share!
In the past, Lutherans have frequently celebrated significant church anniversaries by publishing a new book on the Reformation or the Confessions. As a church body that grew out of the Reformation, what better way is there to mark a historic anniversary in our Lutheran heritage, than to bring together Lutheran churches around the world to celebrate God’s blessings through sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with people who do not yet know Him--rejoicing in His transformation of their lives through the preaching of the Good News and in ours by being used by Him in the expansion of His mission.
Ablaze!
“They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’ They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon’”—Luke 24:32-34.
The vision of igniting a worldwide Lutheran mission movement to share the Gospel with 100 million people is expressed by the word, Ablaze! LCMS World Mission’s goal is to ignite a movement that will change the culture of our Lutheran church bodies to be one in which every member is fully engaged in personal mission involvement through the Seven Mission Responses: Go, Pray, Learn, Give, Tell, Send and Celebrate. While this is the expressed vision of LCMS World Mission, it is the organization’s intention to give this vision away, because it is God’s desire that all people be saved, and He has called all His children to participate in the task! This is a “Quantum Leap” forward in how we approach doing the work of the Lord’s mission.

Ablaze! is not a program or a campaign. It began as a mission vision with the hope of starting a mission movement. Each participating congregation, group, mission society, partner church, individual, etc. is challenged to pray about its own particular situation and the part of the mission endeavor it can impact and to design its own strategy to contribute to reaching 100 million people. LCMS World Mission is asking the church to develop mission models that work and can be shared with others. Ablaze! is not an answer…it’s an invitation!

 One Mission - One Message - One People
Gerald B. Kieschnick, President
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

In September 2002, Dr. Kieschnick shared his vision for the Synod of "One Mission – One Message – One People."

We are called to be a Synod with One Mission...The Great Commission. Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). Accomplishing the mission of the church to disciple, baptize and teach the nations of the world is and must continue to be Job One among us!

We are called to be a Synod proclaiming One Message...the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified...the message of sins forgiven...the message of the free gift of eternal life. For, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting mankind's sins against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). We have the greatest message in the world!

We are called to live and act as One People. St. Paul, through the Holy Spirit, acknowledges "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:5-6). We have a long way to go in this regard, yet I implore you, in the words of St. Paul to the Philippians, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ . . . stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel" (Phil. 1:27). We need to work together – as one – to meet the challenges before us!

Gerald B. Kieschnick, President
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

One Mission - To Seek the Lost for Christ

Isaiah writes, "The Lord says, 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Isaiah 49:6
Jesus said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

One Message - Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world

St. Paul writes, "There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all..." 1 Timothy 2:5
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled the world to himself through Christ, not counting mankind's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

One People - United by God's love in Jesus Christ

Again, St. Paul writes, "Stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel..." Philippians 1:27
Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." John 10:14-16