Sermon for 3/22/23: Midweek Lent 4 (Lord's Supper series)

This continues our sermon series for the season of Lent: our series on the Lord's Supper. It is never a bad thing to return to the Catechism so that we may continue to grow in faith toward God and appreciation for His gifts to us.  

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The Power of Holy Communion
John 6:35-44

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

I am a big fan of bread. As a diabetic, I’m supposed to avoid it like a teenage girl runs from a stalker in a horror film. But you give me a the smell of a fresh baked loaf of bread, a Manhattan-style sesame seed bagel with a light cream cheese spread, a slice of a crusty baguette with butter…excuse me while I wipe off the drool. But the bread we use for Communion is not great bread—it’s nearly paper thin with almost no taste. And what about the wine? I’m no connoisseur, but the fairly inexpensive and almost sickly-sweet wine we use isn’t going to win any awards. But even if we used the best wine available, we only take a sip of it.

As we heard last week, the Sacrament of the Altar delivers to us the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. It also unites us with God and our fellow believers—indeed, it unites us with all the believers of all times and places, along with the angels and archangels. So how can bread and wine do such great things? What makes this meal so special? What makes it so powerful? The answer is straightforward, and we could probably have one of the shortest sermons in our congregation’s history just by quoting Luther’s answer to this question: “Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins.’” Amen, right? Or, if I wanted to quote Jesus: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

When the Words of Institution are spoken—when the pastor, speaking with the authority of Jesus, repeats the words Jesus spoke when He introduced this Sacrament to the disciples—the physical body and blood of Jesus are present in and under the bread and wine. It is the power of the Word of God that make simple bread and wine into a powerful meal of forgiveness and life. Speaking through Isaiah the prophet, God said to His people, “…As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” The Word of God is powerful. Everything that was created was made through the power of the Word. Jesus spoke, and the son of the centurion was healed. Jesus said to His dead friend, “Lazarus, come forth!” and Lazarus emerged from his grave. And when Jesus says, “This is My body,” “This is my blood,” we take Him at His word. We believe that the body and blood of Jesus are truly, physically present in and under the bread and the wine. Jesus speaks, and we hear and believe.

Or do we? We have become a culture, like Thomas after Jesus rose from the dead, that seeks proof for things God calls on us believe. “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Unless I see empirical evidence, Jesus, I’m not sure I can believe this. It all seems farfetched, you see, and I believe what I can observe with my eyes. The atheist looks at faith and calls it gullibility and ignorance. Even many who claim to believe in Jesus call Him a liar by claiming He is only spiritually present in the Lord’s Supper, that the bread and wine merely represent His body and blood.

Do you believe? Do you take Jesus at His word? Do you believe the Word does what God says it will do? It is of vital, even eternal importance, your answer to that question. If you believe God’s Word is true, then it remains true even when it says something we don’t like. If you believe God’s Word is true, then it remains true when it says things we cannot understand; it remains true when it says something we cannot prove; it remains true when it says something contrary to our culture, our conscience, and the facts of nature as we perceive them through our God-given senses. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” Scripture tells us. You must pick a side. Do you believe God? Or do you believe the world?

“Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins.’” That is what we teach, believe, confess; that is what we hold to as we praise and give honor to God, as we bask in the wonder that He would stoop so low as to come to us in this sin-devastated world. When you come to this altar, you are standing before the very throne of a holy God. There should be some trepidation and respectful fear, but there should never be terror. You have no reason to be terrified, for the almighty Father has called you His beloved child. He is eager to forgive, eager to save, and eager to have you know of His love…love He sent down in Jesus. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

         

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.