Sermon for Good Friday - 2 Cor 5:14-21

 

   Good Friday

                                                                                                2 Cor 5:14-21

                                                                                                4/18/25

 

 

            “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  That is how the apostle Paul described his missionary activity when he came to Corinth.

            The Greco-Roman world’s education system was focused on rhetoric. It taught how to develop arguments and present them in a persuasive and appealing manner. An educated person learned the conventions by which this was done, and could recognize them when others were doing so.

            It was also a world filled with philosophy.  This was not the abstract academic exercise that comes to mind today when we hear the word. Instead, philosophy described how one was to live in the world in light of the principles that were true.  It dealt with wisdom for life based on an understanding about the ultimate realities of the world.  Individual teachers went around sharing this wisdom, and gathering hearers around themselves.

            Paul freely admitted that when he came to Corinth he did not proclaim the testimony of God using lofty speech or wisdom.  He did not employ the rhetoric that an educated person expected to hear. He did not speak wisdom that sounded like what the philosophers taught.

            Instead, Paul had proclaimed Jesus Christ and him crucified.  To the outside observer, this didn’t make any sense.  In fact, it was just stupid.  Paul certainly knew this.  He said, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”

            Christ crucified was a stumbling block to Jews – it was a scandal.  Indeed, Christ crucified was an oxymoron. “Christ” and “crucified” were mutually exclusive.  The Christ – the Messiah – was the descendant of King David who brought God’s end time salvation. In the Scriptures he was mighty and victorious.  By definition, anyone who had been killed by the Romans could not be the Christ. And Deuteronomy said that a person hung on a tree was cursed by God.

            Christ crucified was folly to Gentiles – it was moronic.  Jesus was from that odd and disdained group of people, the Jews.  He had been executed as a criminal. And he had not just been executed.  He had been crucified.  He had been subjected to the most humiliating form of death known in the ancient world.  After all, crucifixion was something that polite people didn’t even talked about.  He had died, powerless and helpless – placed on display by the Romans for all to see.

            Christ crucified was a scandal to Jews and moronic to Gentiles. And yet, this is what Paul had proclaimed in Corinth. He explains why in our text as he says, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

            Paul says that Christ’s love controls him, because he had concluded that Jesus died for all, and therefore all have died. This death on Good Friday that we heard about in the Gospel reading from John was not an isolated event. Instead, it was something which affected all people.  Jesus Christ had died for all, and then he had risen from the dead.  Now people are no longer to live for themselves, but instead for this Christ who died for their sake and was raised.

            Jesus Christ died for all and rose from the dead. And the apostle draws a conclusion from this.  In our text he says, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.”

            To regard things “according to the flesh” is to perceive them in a worldly way – in a manner that has no spiritual insight.  When viewed “according to the flesh” the death of Jesus on the cross appeared to be an event of weakness, failure, and humiliation.  Paul had certainly once viewed it that way.  For him it was proof that Jesus was no Christ at all, as he sought to persecute and destroy the Church which confessed Jesus.

            But the risen Lord had confronted Paul on the road to Damascus.  Now, he no longer looked at Christ and his death “according to the flesh.” Instead, he recognized that God had been acting in that death to give forgiveness and salvation.  The apostle says in our text, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

            Paul says that God was acting in Christ’s death to reconcile us to himself.  In fact, God was doing this for the whole world – for all people. The apostle uses the language of reconciliation to describe what God has done.  Reconciliation is needed when there is disagreement and antagonism between two sides – when opposition and division exist between them.

            The apostle identifies our trespasses as the cause of this division.  Our trespasses – our sins – put us in opposition to the holy God.  Created in the image of God to live in fellowship with him, Adam did not trust God’s word. He disobeyed God and sinned as he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In his action he brought sin and death to all people. As Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

            This sin continues to be present in our lives.  We do not trust God’s will and loving care when things don’t go the way we want them to.  We get angry with others and speak words that are meant to hurt. We act in selfish ways as we look out for ourselves and ignore the needs of others.

            We were under the power of sin and unable to do anything about this. But Paul tells us that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.” It was God who acted as he sent his Son into the world when Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Jesus lived his life with a purpose and mission before him. He carried out a mission that led to the cross.

             The apostle says, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”  God has reconciled us to himself. He has done this because he does not count our trespasses against us. 

Yet in doing so, God did not cease to be the holy God.  He did not cease to be the just God. Instead, he is the God who judges justly. As Paul told the Romans, “He will render to each one according to his works.” Then he added, “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.”

Sin evokes God’s wrath and judgment.  It cannot be otherwise.  And so on Good Friday God judged our sin.  He poured out his wrath on our sin.  He did this in the person of Jesus Christ.  Paul says in our text, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus Christ had no sin.  As the incarnate Son of God he did not receive the original sin that has been passed on since Adam.  And then, he lived perfectly according to God’s will.  He was the sinless one.  But in a striking turn of phrase, Paul tells us that God “made him to be sin.”  Jesus had no sin of his own.  Instead, he took our sin as if it was his own.  The apostle told the Romans about God’s action in Christ: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”

Paul says in our text that because God has done this, we have now “become the righteousness of God.”  We are now righteous and holy before God.  We are because of faith in Jesus Christ. This faith is not a work of our own. Instead, Paul defines faith as the opposite of doing. 

He told the Romans, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” This faith worked by the Holy Spirit trusts and believes in what God has done through Christ, and so God counts us as righteous. He says that we are righteous because of Christ. And because God declares this, it is true.

It is true, and so now we have a new status. Paul addresses this letter, “To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.” All who believe in Jesus Christ are now saints – we are holy ones in God’s eyes.

You have this status because you have been baptized into Christ.  You have received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism.  Your life has been joined to Christ.  You now live as one who is in Christ – you have come to share in Christ’s saving work.  Paul tells us in our text, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Already now you are a new creation in Christ.  Through the work of the Spirit the life of Christ is present in you to live in ways that share his love in word and deed.  As Paul told the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

On Good Friday we remember that Jesus Christ died for us. This was the action by which the holy God reconciled us to himself. Paul tells us that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”  We are now righteous and holy before God, because he judged and condemned our sin in Christ. As Paul says in our text, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

Sermon for Maundy Thursday - Jn 13:1-15

 

         Maundy Thursday

                                                                                                Jn 13:1-15

                                                                                                4/17/25

 

           

Maundy Thursday has two distinct emphases, and you can see this in the Scripture readings. The Old Testament reading provides the background for Jesus’ Last Supper with the disciples as it narrates the Passover.  Just as God had commanded Israel to continue to do so, Christ gathered with his disciples to celebrate a Passover meal.

The Epistle lesson from 1 Corinthians 11 provides the account of how Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Altar at that meal.  Paul reminds the Corinthians about the tradition that he had received in the church, and had handed on to them.  On the night when he was betrayed, Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper.

The Gospel lesson from John narrates how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet.  John doesn’t tell us about how Christ instituted the Sacrament.  Instead, he tells us about an action by our Lord that we do not hear about in the other Gospels.

Maundy Thursday often prompts us to focus on the nature of the Sacrament of the Altar that was instituted at the Last Supper. The Hymn of the Day for this service is “O Lord, We Praise Thee,” which is a hymn about the Sacrament.

During Lent, our mid-week catechetical sermons focused on the Sacrament of the Altar.  Our current Bible study is looking at the Sacrament of the Altar.  So you know what I am not going to preach about tonight? The Sacrament of the Altar.  Instead, we will look at that other unique feature of the Last Supper – Jesus’ action of washing his disciples’ feet.

Our Gospel lesson begins by telling us, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”  During Holy Week Jesus had said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  He had declared, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”

Jesus’ hour had come. It was the time when he would be glorified through his death on the cross. It was the time when the purpose of his presence in the world would be fulfilled.  It was the time that began his return to the Father.  Our Lord knew this. He knew that he had loved his disciples – he had loved them all the way, and that was the reason he was about to give himself into death on the cross.

John tells us that Jesus rose during supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and then tied a towel around his waist.  He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was around him.  Christ’s action was surprising and shocking.  The ancient world operated on the basis of system of honor and shame. People wanted to gain as much honor as possible, while avoiding shame.

In the Jewish world, the rabbi – the teacher – was held in the greatest honor by his disciples.  On other hand, the job of washing the feet of others was a shameful task.  Wearing sandals while walking on the dusty roads of Palestine meant that people’s feet ended up being covered in dust and grime.  The act of washing this off another person’s feet was a humiliating form of service that no one would choose to do.

And yet, Jesus had chosen to do this very thing.  The Lord was taking the expectations of the world and turning them upside down. Peter expressed the discomfort that this presented for all of them as he asked, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”  Jesus replied, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”  The Lord granted that right now they did not understand why he had done this.  However, later they would.

They would, because of the events that would happen that evening and the next day. John tells us that Jesus arose and “laid aside his outer garments.”  The verb used to refer to the action of laying aside the garments is the same one that had been used in chapter ten when Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

The Lord’s action of laying aside his clothes and washing the disciples’ feet pointed to what he would do on Good Friday.  The act of service signaled what he was about to do on the cross. Jesus had told Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  Jesus had shown that he would die on the cross when he said during Holy Week, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

            John the Baptist had declared about Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Christ offered himself into the suffering and death of the cross as the sacrifice for our sin.  After leaving the meal, Jesus would say on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  Jesus lay down his life on the cross out of love for us.  He did it in order carry out the Father’s saving will.

            Christ laid down his life through death on the cross.  Yet that was not the end of God’s will.  Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

            When Jesus had finished washing the disciples’ feet, he put on his outer garments and resumed his place – the place of honor at the meal.  Then he asked, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.”

            Jesus acknowledged that he was in fact their Teacher and Lord. Yet this fact underscored what he had done, and the implications it had for them.  If Jesus had washed their feet, then they should be willing to do this for each other.  If he, their Lord and Teacher, had been willing to act in humble service toward them, then they should do the same for one another.

            Jesus said, “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”  Christ described his action of washing their feet as an example.  His act of service provided the model that they should follow with one another.

            Of course, we have already noted that the action of Jesus to lay aside his outer garments and to begin washing their feet was something that pointed to the cross.  Ultimately, it is Christ’s death on the cross that provides both the motivation and the pattern of life for us. 

Later in this chapter, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  Jesus Christ loved us by offering himself in death on the cross.  He shows us that biblical love is not a feeling. Instead, it is action.  It is what we do in serving and helping others.

The Gospel teaches us that forgiveness and salvation are God’s gift.  These have nothing to do with our actions.  Our doing is not involved in any way.  Any teaching that tries to reintroduce our activity as part of the reason we are saved is a denial of the Gospel. It takes the Gospel and turns it into Law. It turns the Christian faith into what you find in every other religion of the world – religions of the Law that operate on the basis of the demand that we do things.

The Gospel frees us from every demand that we do in order to be forgiven and be saved. And because this is so, we are now freed to act in love and service toward others. We don’t have to get caught up in questions about whether our actions are good enough or whether there are enough of them.

Jesus Christ has covered all of those things by his death and resurrection.  Therefore, we look at doing in a new way.  We look at what Christ has done for us by being lifted up on the cross. We see the love he has shared with us.  And now because of this we seek to love others.  The humble act of service by the Lord that saved us becomes the pattern for our life. We seek to serve and help those whom we encounter in the vocations – the callings in life where God has placed us.

Just as Jesus loved us, so we love others.  And Christ tells us that this serves a purpose.  He says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The Christian Church is shaped and formed by mutual love.  The action of love and service for one another demonstrates to the world that we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

At the Last Supper Jesus did something that overturned all expectations about how the world works.  He, the Lord and Teacher, washed his disciples feet.  By this action, Jesus pointed forward to the service that he offered to us as he was lifted up on the cross to win us salvation.  His act of washing the disciples’ feet was an act of love by which he provided the pattern for our lives.  Just as Christ loved and served us, so now we serve and love those around us.

   

 

 

 

 

Sermon for Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion - Zech 9:9-12

 

    Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion

                                                            Zech 9:9-12

                                                            4/13/25

 

            The signing ceremonies for laws and presidential executive orders are carefully staged political events.  The administration makes sure that individuals who have ties to the issue in question are present for the signing.  The presence of these people is meant to emphasize the importance of the matter as the president signs the document.

            The occasion when the president signed the executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports in schools was no exception. The president sat a desk on the stage.  Behind him in the first row were girls in their various sports’ uniforms.  Behind them were women who had advocated for the fact that males should not compete in girls’ and women’s sports.  So for example, Riley Gaines was present. She had been denied a swimming national championship because a man had finished first.

            The event was carefully scripted.  And then, apparently, the president did something spontaneous.  He said to the girls, “You know, if you like to gather around, I think it will be ok.” As the group of girls pressed in around the president, he quipped, “The Secret Service is worried about them?” Spontaneous or not, it produced a memorable scene that emphasized what he was doing.

            On Palm Sunday we focus on how Jesus entered into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week.  We find that he carefully staged this event in order to make a theological point.  He did it, in order to fulfill our Old Testament text from Zechariah chapter nine.  He demonstrated that he was the Messiah sent by God to bring salvation through the humility of service and sacrifice.

            The prophet Zechariah wrote in the latter portion of the sixth century B.C. Judah had experienced the trauma of God’s judgment when they were taken into exile in Babylon, and the temple had been destroyed in 587 B.C.   Yahweh had promised through Jeremiah that the exile would come to an end, and that the people would return.

            There seemed little chance that this would happen. But then, in an unexpected turn of events, Cyrus and the Persians defeated the Babylonians.  The following year, in 538 B.C. Cyrus issued a decree that the Judahites could return to their land and rebuild the temple.

            The joy of return was soon replaced by frustration. The foundation for the temple was laid.  But then those who were not Judahites and had inhabited the land during the exile raised opposition. They bribed Persian officials in order to stop construction. The project was halted for around fifteen years, and no progress was made.

            God sent the prophet Zechariah to urge the people to resume the project of building the temple.  He sent the prophet to encourage the people.  Currently they were a small group in Judah, which was province of the Persian empire.  But Yahweh set forth through Zechariah the great things that he was going to do for his people in order to give them hope.

            In the verses before our text, Yahweh had described how he would bring judgment upon the enemies of God’s people.  Now, in our text he says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  The references to “the house of David” in Zechariah tell us that this king is the Messiah. He is the promised descendant of David who brings God’s end time salvation.

            Jerusalem is told to rejoice because their king is coming. He is righteous and has salvation, as you would expect of the Messiah.  Yet then, Zechariah describes him as “humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” All of the descriptions of the Messiah in the Old Testament present a mighty and victorious figure.  So why is he described here as “humble”? The donkey did have royal associations in Israel’s past. But paired with the adjective “humble” it seems puzzling that this figure is not mounted on a war horse.

            This is all the more so, because Yahweh says that the arrival of this king will mean the presence of peace. There will be no more need for weapons, and he will rule over all.  We read, “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

            In the Gospels we learn that as Jesus was approaching Jerusalem with other Passover pilgrims, he stopped and had his disciples procure a donkey.  Jesus had been walking.  But now he very intentionally chose to ride into Jerusalem mounted on this animal.  Matthew tells us, “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

            Jesus is the Messiah – the Christ.  He is the son of David.  He is the king who enters into Jerusalem in a way that fulfills the words of the prophet Zechariah.  Yet he comes as the One who is humble, and mounted on a donkey.  He comes to bring God’s saving reign, but his entrance demonstrates that he will not do this in might and power.

            The Gospels tell us that people spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches and spread them as well. The crowds around Jesus were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”  They shouted out praise in language that spoke of the coming Daividic Messiah. 

            But did they get it? Did they understand who Jesus was as he rode in on the donkey? Did they understand that he was fulfilling Zechariah’s words?  The clear answer is no.  Matthew tells us, “And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.’” Just a prophet.  That is all they saw in Jesus. And this was a rejection of Jesus and his work.

            The crowds didn’t understand. And John tells us that the disciples didn’t understand either.  He says, “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.”

            On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah’s words.  He came as the Messiah – the One descended from King David upon whom the Spirit rested.  He came to bring God’s end time salvation – to bring peace.

            But the manner in which Jesus entered Jerusalem foretold the way in which he would do this.  He did not come with might and power.  Instead, he arrived humble and mounted on a donkey.

            Just before they entered the city, Jesus said to the disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” Our Lord said that the trip to the city would lead to crucifixion.  The Messiah – the son of David – would be enthroned on the cross.

            The angel had told Joseph that Jesus would “save his people from their sins.” Christ went to Jerusalem to do this for the Jews.  He went there to do this for the Gentiles – to do this for all people. He entered Jerusalem during Holy Week in order win forgiveness for all of the ways that we fail to love God with all that we are; for all the ways we do not love our neighbor as ourselves.  Jesus declared that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            Jesus went as the humble One mounted on a donkey.  He humbled himself to the point of death – even death on a cross.  But on the third day – on Easter – God raised Jesus from the dead.  In the resurrection of Christ, God has defeated death.  Jesus has been exalted for as he told the disciples on the mountain in Galilee, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

            God says through Zechariah in our text this morning: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”  Judah did not see this in Zechariah’s day.  We have not seen it in our day.

            But Jesus Christ will bring this about on the Last Day.  He will because he is the risen and ascended Lord who has been exalted to God’s right hand.  The Lord has promised that he will return in glory.  When he does, he will bring eternal peace.  He will bring a peace that is not only for the nations, but for creation itself as the words of Isaiah about the Messiah are fulfilled: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together.”

            He will raise our bodies from the dead and transform them to be like his resurrected body.  He will be seated on the throne as he pronounces the final judgment.  His rule will encompass all of creation.  No longer will there be anything humble about him, but instead at his name every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

            In our text this morning, God says through Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  On Palm Sunday Jesus fulfilled these words. He entered Jerusalem as the Messiah who was humble and mounted on a donkey.  In humility, he offered himself into the suffering and death of the cross to save us. Risen from the dead and exalted by God, he will return in glory on the Last Day to give us victory … and there will be nothing humble about him.

    

           

 

 

 

  

             

 

           

 

 

 

 

  

 

Sermon for the fifth mid-week Lent service - The Sacrament of unity - 1 Cor 10:16-17

 

         Mid-Lent 5

                                                                                    The Sacrament of Unity

                                                                                    1 Cor 10:16-17

                                                                                    4/9/25

 

           

“Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  During the last three weeks we have heard those words in the explanations of the Small Catechism about the Sacrament of the Altar.  It is the central truth that we are being taught. 

Again and again, we have returned to the fact that the Sacrament is the true body of Christ which was given into death on the cross.  It is the true blood of Christ which was shed on the cross.  In the Sacrament, Christ gives to you the very price that he paid to win the forgiveness of sins.

We have emphasized that Christ deals with you as an individual as he applies the forgiveness that he won by his death on the cross of Good Friday, and his resurrection on Easter.  He places his true body and blood into your mouth and leaves no doubt that this is forgiveness for you.

This important emphasis could lead us to conclude that the Sacrament of the Altar is solely an individual matter – that is only a vertical matter as God deals with each person.  One could determine that the Sacrament of the Altar is only “about Jesus and me.”

However, such a conclusion is entirely mistaken.  For the full biblical teaching about the Sacrament leads us to understand that Sacrament is also a corporate matter – it is also a horizontal matter that involves all who receive Christ’s body and blood.  The Sacrament unites us together as the Body of Christ.  This fact has important implications for the way we administer and receive it.

We mentioned last week that Paul’s warning about receiving the Sacrament “worthily” was prompted by problems that had arisen at the Corinthian celebration of the Sacrament.  Paul begins by saying, “But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.” Paul had learned that the celebration of the Sacrament had become an occasion for divisions – a setting where divisions were present.

The apostle describes what was happening as he said, “When you come together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 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.”

We learn that the Corinthians were celebrating the Sacrament of the Altar in a way that was similar to the setting in which it was instituted – that of a meal.  They received the true body of the Lord. Then there was the eating of normal food.  Later, “after supper,” they received the true blood of Christ.

This practice would have seemed very natural, since it looked much like the ordering that was found in Greco-Roman meals. Yet this sense of familiarity was causing a problem at Corinth, because they were behaving at the meal that accompanied the Sacrament in the same manner that they did at other meals.

In the Greco-Roman setting it was assumed that the host of the meal would have his friends in the dining room that probably held about twelve people.  Less important guests would sit in other parts of the house. The host and his friends would get their food first. They would get the best food. They would get the most food.  The rest of the guests would get whatever was still available.

Not surprisingly, a member of the Corinthian congregation who owned a home where the church could gather was more wealthy.  The problem was that these members were treating the meal that accompanied the Sacrament in the same way they would any other meal.  The richer members were getting their food first, and were getting the best food. They were acting in a way that shamed and mistreated the poor members of the church.  They were acting in a way that was creating divisions in the setting where the Sacrament of the Altar was celebrated.

Paul’s response to this seems, at first, to be a little surprising.  He quotes the Words of Institution that he had delivered to the Corinthians.  He brings them back to what the Sacrament is – the body and blood of Christ.

Paul does this because he has already prepared the way for discussing this situation.  He did so in the previous chapter when he was talking about yet another problem at Corinth - that of eating at the temple of idols and of eating meat sacrificed to idols.

There, Paul said that Christians who participate in the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament can’t participate in the cup and table of demons at a pagan temple.  He says about the Sacrament, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Next, he adds, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Paul teaches us in this verse that reception of the Sacrament unites us as the Body of Christ.  Each person communing receives the body and blood of Christ, and in so doing they are united as the Body of Christ.  It is the Sacrament of unity as we are joined together.  This characteristic of the Sacrament has nothing to do with what the apostle is discussing in chapter ten.  But it establishes the truth that will be the basis for what he says in chapter eleven.

There, Paul addresses the divisions at the Corinthian celebration of the Sacrament by returning them to the Words of Institution. He returns them to the nature of the Sacrament. It is the body and blood of Christ that makes us one Body – the Body of Christ.  It is the Sacrament of unity, and divisions are contrary to the very nature of the Sacrament.

The Sacrament is an individual and vertical gift as Jesus gives his true body and blood to each person for the forgiveness of sins.  But the Sacrament is also a corporate and horizontal gift as it unites those communing together as the Body of Christ.  It is the Sacrament of unity.

This has great importance for the way in which we administer and receive the Sacrament. Divisions are contrary to the nature of the Sacrament, and have no place there.  This is true first of interpersonal divisions such as those addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11.  Where personal divisions exist, there must be forgiveness and reconciliation before people can receive the Sacrament.

The Pax Domini in the liturgy of the Divine Service is a reminder of this fact.  After the consecration, the pastor holds up the host over the chalice – he holds up the body and blood of Christ – and says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” This is a declaration that the body and blood of Christ gives us peace with God.  It also is a reminder that if we are to receive the body and blood of Christ, we must be at peace with each other.

At the same time, what is true of interpersonal divisions is also true of confessional divisions.  Where Christians are divided about doctrine, they need first to resolve their differences and arrive at agreement before they come to the Sacrament of the Altar together.  Divisions are contrary to the nature of the Sacrament.  When we commune together, we are saying that we are united and believe the same thing.  This has been the practice since the early Church.

In order to receive the Sacrament worthily we must examine ourselves to see that three things are true.  First, as we mentioned last week, must confess our sin and repent.  Second, we must recognize what the Sacrament is. It is the true body and blood of Christ. Third, we must recognize what it does.  It gives the forgiveness of sins and unites us as one body – the Body of Christ.

This means that in our practice of closed communion we will not permit division at the Sacrament of the Altar.  This is true of congregation members who must first reconcile.  It is also true of other Christian groups with whom there are doctrinal divisions.

When we commune at an altar, we are saying that we are united with those who are communing.  We are saying that there are no divisions, and that we believe the same thing.  We use the word Church Fellowship to describe this unity between groups of Christians.  Our congregation is part of the fellowship of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.  You can go anywhere in the United States and commune at any LCMS congregation because we are united in believing the same thing. And that fellowship extends around the world.  The LCMS is in fellowship with other Lutheran churches who also believe the same thing.  So when I am in South Sudan, I will commune at altars of the Ev. Lutheran Church of South Sudan/Sudan because we are in fellowship with them.  We believe the same thing, and so can share in the Sacrament of unity together.

Paul told the Corinthians, ““The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”  In the Sacrament, Jesus gives each one of us his true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  And at the same time, he unites those who receive the sacrament as one Body – the Body of Christ. The Sacrament of the Altar, is the Sacrament of unity.