Make-Up: October 17th – Take & Eat

Make-Up:

We ask you to read the material below. The material will include "deep thought", our key words (definition), scripture (link - please read) and some general thoughts. We ask you to read all material and then comment in the comments section. Share one key thought or concept that came to you and how it will make a difference.

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Take & Eat

Today, we finished up the second lesson on communion and the fourth and final lesson on the sacraments.

Bible Text:

John 6:48–51

Lesson Focus:

Jesus feeds us with his body and blood so that we can feed others.

Big Question:

I take communion every week at church, but what am I supposed to do about it?

Key Words:

BREAD AND WINE, BODY AND BLOOD, SACRAMENT

Key Word Definitions

BREAD AND WINE: the earthly elements that, in the Lord's Supper, are Jesus' body and blood. When combined with God's word, they bring forgiveness, salvation, and life.

BODY AND BLOOD: the physical presence of Jesus Christ that he gives us in the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is also known as holy communion.

SACRAMENT: something that 1) Jesus Christ commands us to do; 2) involves an earthly element, like water or bread and wine; and 3) combines with God's spoken word to bring salvation, forgiveness of sins, and the promise of everlasting life.

Going Deep

Jesus is the bread of life. "Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (John 6:51). Jesus gave himself in life and death. The bread and wine we receive are Christ's body and blood. As we are baptized into the body of Christ, so in holy communion we are sustained and nourished as one body. "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Jesus' meals inform our understanding of the Lord's Supper and all our meals. With Jesus, there is always enough for all. Holy communion is a foretaste of the Messianic banquet to which all will be invited.

Lutherans teach that the bread and wine of the eucharist become, by God's word, the body and blood of Christ and are at the same time ordinary bread and wine. The Lutheran Reformation rejected transubstantiation, which they understood to mean that the sacramental elements were essentially changed from bread and wine into Christ's body and blood. "Just as in Christ two distinct, unaltered natures are inseparably united, so in the Holy Supper two essences, the natural bread and the true natural body of Christ, are present together here on earth in the action of the sacrament, as it was instituted" (Kolb/Wengert, Formula of Concord Solid Declaration, Article VII 599.35–39). This teaching is an example of the idea that the finite is capable of bearing the infinite—finitum capax infiniti. The human Jesus is God's Word, the bread and wine are body and blood, AND the ordinary water is the water of baptism.

"Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17). The unity of the church is most manifest at the table of the Lord's Supper, whose most common site is the local congregation. This sacrament of our unity, shared by the whole church, unites all Christians. Over the centuries, eucharistic theology and practice have been the ground of disagreement and schism in the church. In the Reformation, Luther contested transubstantiation as a theory of how Christ is present in the bread and wine. At the same time, he rejected the teaching that the eucharist was merely a "memorial" and not the actual presence of Christ. Luther also argued against the theology of communion as a sacrifice having merits and against the private celebration of communion by priests.

From the earliest days, Christians' eucharistic worship has included sending believers away from the meal to serve the world, and in particular, to feed the hungry. Bread for the World, an ecumenical hunger advocacy organization, reports that over 800 million people in the world go hungry every day. In developing countries, six million children die annually, mostly from causes related to hunger. In the United States, one in ten households lives in hunger or is at risk of hunger, including 13 million children. Hunger around the world is not a financial problem, nor is it a problem of how much food there is. The United Nations estimates that "the basic health and nutrition needs of the world's poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year" (www.bread.org/hungerbasics/index.html). We have the financial resources, knowledge, and technology to end hunger now. The challenge is equitable distribution, a political problem. As people who know the bounty of God's grace and who share Jesus' body and blood, given for all people, we are empowered to help see that hunger is eradicated.

Small Group Connection

Object Lesson Option: Bundled, Not Broken!

Have a couple dozen new pencils and two rubber bands. Take 12 or more of the pencils and bundle them together with the rubber bands. Ask for a volunteer who thinks he or she is very strong. Invite the volunteer to stand by you. Provide a single pencil and tell the volunteer to break it. Now give him or her the bundle of pencils you have made; have the volunteer try to break the bundle. The lesson of this classic object lesson is clear: Alone, we can easily be broken, but together, we are strong. We are one in the body of Christ, and one in the church. Pass out the pencils as gifts when you are done.

Review the activity with these questions:

• What are some ways that you can join with others to make a difference?
• Why does Christ call us to help one another?
• How does holy communion represent Christ's bond with us?