#freebreadandwine

Nadia Bolz-Weber, founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints created a wonderful hashtag on Twitter the other day. 

Two ideas caught my attention. 

The first is the idea that “we basically just let anyone show up”. Biblically we are commanded to show a certain amount discipline around the Eucharist. 

“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.”

- 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 TNIV


The early Church fathers also had significant discussions about the need for order around the Eucharist. Much of the discussion focused on what it meant to be “unworthy” to receive. In Sermon 227, Saint Augustine said: 

“What is receiving unworthily? Receiving with contempt, receiving with derision. Don’t let yourselves think that what you can see is of no account. What you can see passes away, but the invisible reality signified does not pass away, but remains. Look, it’s received, it’s eaten, it’s consumed. Is the body of Christ consumed, is the Church of Christ consumed, are the members of Christ consumed? Perish the thought! Here they are being purified, there they will be crowned with the victor’s laurels. So what is signified will remain eternally, although the thing that signifies it seems to pass away. So receive the sacrament in such a way that you think about yourselves, that you retain unity in your hearts, that you always fix your hearts up above. Don’t let your hope be placed on earth, but in heaven. Let your faith be firm in God, let it be acceptable to God. Because what you don’t see now, but believe, you are going to see there, where you will have joy without end.”

There is a beautiful reality that Augustine points us to in these words. The Eucharist is not just a momentary experience but a sacrament of heaven, a physical way in which we experience what our eternity will be like - one of being entirely consumed by God. 

Augustine might then argue that “being unworthy” has less to do with offending God, or even “ruining” eucharist, and more to do with an unknown or unwilling person entirely missing the point of what could easily be a life changing experience. 

This is for good reason. The Eucharist is at the center of our life with God and it deserves to be protected from dilution or distortion. 

However if protected “too” much, the Eucharist ironically will fall into danger. 

Think of the Church that decides communion will “mean less” if they do it “more often”, so they decide to share the Eucharist every month, or quarter, or year - which then misses the point of this liturgical sacrament which is meant to be repeated and shared often, essentially integrated into your regular life. 

Or the Church that decides it would be better to not even risk having “unbelievers” receive communion, therefore only the most committed are allowed and those who are new to faith or new to the Church are turned away from this grace of God. 

This leads me to the second thing which caught my attention, the wonderful hashtag #freebreadandwine

Yes, we should protect the Eucharist. The early church had to install what we now call “communion rails” so that dogs would stop eating the bread. If we give people a bite of bread and then a sip of wine and say “Surprise! You just received communion” We are no more experiencing the sacrament than we are worshiping when we stub our toe and shout “Oh my God!”. 

Yes, we should protect the Eucharist. 

However, there is an element to the Eucharist which is easy to forget. 

We argue about who can receive, about which bread is best, about when it will fit into our worship service…

And all to often we forget this simple concept about the bread and the wine.

It is a pure gift. 

In the Eucharist we are not called to take anything. We are called to receive. 

This sacrament is highly “sacrificial”. We walk forward and place our hands out in an act of surrender and from that moment on, it is out of our control. We ourselves can not complete the sacrament, we must receive. 

When I serve communion at my local church, I often keep the elements close to my body, sometimes even holding them away from a person. It’s as if I’m playing a game of “keep away” with the congregation. This is so they are forced to receive. Hold a plate of bread out and everyone walks up and grabs. Force them to stand and wait and then they will receive. 

Ian Cron brilliantly said it this way: 

“That posture of putting your hands foward and receiving is the precise opposite of what went wrong in the garden. In the garden, what went wrong? Grasping and grabing. In the Eucharist what goes right? Receiving. You put the hands out and simply receive. I don’t want people in communion to even physically mimic what is internally a disastuorus posture in life. Grabbing, not receiving. This is the undoing of the momentum of Eden.”

So why then does #freebreadandwine catch my attention? Because it is just that.

Free.

It’s a gift.

You did nothing to deserve it. You did nothing to bring it about.

You simply must show up, to a place where they “basically just let anyone show up”, and receive a gift of free bread and wine. 

And this act is so contrary to the way our society typically functions, that it is in a way, as Ian Cron put it, an undoing of the momentum of Eden. 

In N.T. Wrights, Scripture’s Doctrine and Theology’s Bible,he simply said it this way:

“When Jesus wanted to explain to his followers what he thought would be the meaning of his death, he did not give them a theory; he gave them a meal.”

Our Saw-Toothed History

PSALM 125

Those who trust in God 
are like Zion Mountain: 
nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain 
you can always depend on. 
Mountains encircle Jerusalem, 
and God encircles his people— 
always has and always will. 
The fist of the wicked 
will never violate 
What is due the righteous, 
provoking wrongful violence. 
Be good to your good people, God, 
to those whose hearts are right! 
God will round up the backsliders, 
corral them with the incorrigibles. 
Peace over Israel.

A friend of mine suffers from manic depression. His condition, which many are becoming increasingly aware of, is called “Bipolar Disorder”. His mood changes like the weather. One hour is good, the other hour is bad. One minute he’s flying high, the next the bottom drops out. 

I often think that the worst part of his depression, aside from the obvious ailment and stress of an unpredictable mood change, is that he feels alone in this diagnosis. As if the world around him is carrying on with their days in a respectable state of being, while he is struggling to stay constant for just a few hours. 

While I know that he, like many others in this life, can find a way to live with this condition, I often want to reassure him in this way. He is not alone. In fact, his mental state, his ups and downs, his highs and lows, are not all that different than the history of Israel, let alone the history of our own lives. 

In Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience In The Same Direction he says this about Psalm 125, and our own personal security: 

A couple of years ago a friend introduced me to the phrase “the saw-toothed history of Israel.”  Israel was up one day and down the next.  One day they were marching in triumph through the Red Sea, singing songs of victory, the next they were grumbling in the desert because they missed having Egyptian steak and potatoes for supper.  One day they were marching around Jericho blowing trumpets and raising hearty hymns, and the next day they were plunged into an orgy at some Canaanite fertility shrine.  One day they are with Jesus in the upper room, listening in rapt attention to his commands and receiving his love, the next they are stomping around cursing in the courtyard, denying they ever knew him.

But all the time, as we read the saw-toothed history, we realize something solid and steady: they are always God’s people.  God is steadfastly with them, in mercy and judgment, insistently gracious.  We get the feeling that everything is done in the sure, certain environment of the God who redeems his people.  And as we learn that, we learn not to live with our feelings about God but by the facts of God.

…All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers.  We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.  The opening phrase of [Psalm 125] is “those who trust in God”, not those who trust in their performance, in their morals, in their righteousness, in their health, in their pastor, in their doctor, in their president, in their economy, in their nation..

I remember when I first became a Christian, I was deeply moved by the idea that God was faithful. Enough had been said about my need to be faithful to God, but little was said of God’s faithfulness to his people. And yet with any solid reading of the Bible, one will walk away with not only an awareness of repentance of sins and commitment to God, but also, and maybe more profoundly, of God’s long and patient work of faithful reconcileation and restoration in his people. 

An important truth of God is that speed is rarely a virtue. While may want God to intervene in our broken lives like a lighting blot, quickly coming in with thunder and speed, God most often moves like a vine rather than a lighting bolt. God is slow but steady. 

In the saw-toothed history of Israel and of our own lives, this is important to remember - God is faithful. Philippians 1:6 says it this way,

Being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. - Philippians 1:6 NIV

This not only implies that God will be faithful in following through on promises, on covenant, on blessings, but that God will be powerful and victorious in protecting them. 

One of the key phrases in Psalm 125 is found in verse 3: “The fist of the wicked will never violate what is due to the righteous.” The key word here is “violate”. Peterson simplifies this by saying “nothing can cancel God’s purposes which are being worked out.” 

Peterson’s translation of Lamentations 3:30 says it this way, “the ‘worst’ is never the worst”.

God is faithful and we will overcome.

A greek word to know here is νικάω or Nikao, which means “to overcome”.

It’s where we get the word “Nike”. One simple definition could be “victory” but a full understanding of this word implies that you carried off a victory that was never even a question. Not that you were confident in it’s victory, but rather that God was. While we were up and down like a saw-tooth, God never changed.

God knows that we will overcome, and will wait, like a vine, until we realize the same. 

Walter Breuggemann on Lent, Good Friday, Easter and the “shutdown” of the way it used to be.

Thursday Thoughts

Today is Thursday. Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about lately.

THE CONSISTENT REPETITION OF LITURGY

In an essay for online journal, Didache, Charles W. Christian of Kent Church of the Nazarene in Kent, Ohio quoted a brilliant passage from spiritual guru Leonard Sweet. Talking about how a consistent framework of faithful preaching can help shape a community, Christian wrote:

In his book, The Gospel According to Starbucks, Sweet recognizes that Starbucks does not seek simply to create a cup of coffee, but an experience. This experience has to do with community: a place that shares a common language (“tall” instead of “small”, for instance, in regard to coffee sizes), common themes, and a common place of gathering to further the community. As a community, we have learned to “speak” Starbucks, because we have accepted the “story”, the experience, and the invitation to join in. Even if we make a mistake in our order (saying something in the wrong order), we are lovingly “corrected”: a non-whip, tall, mocha, non-fat; becomes a “tall, non-whip, non-fat, mocha.” This consistent repetition of the “liturgy” of Starbucks teaches the “language,” which helps build community. In the church, the community of faith, the preacher becomes the facilitator of this kind of community-building.

Allow your mind to think about that one for a little while…

IAN MORGAN CRON IS BRILLIANT

Episcopal priest, musician, writer and spiritual guide. I recommend that you read anything he writes and listen to anything he says.

I am currently reading his novel, Chasing Francis, which I would highly recommend. I also recommend watching a series of videos he did with Visual Worship Media site, The Work of the People.

www.iancron.com

TIMOTHY KELLER’S “THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE” IS A GOOD BOOK

Especially in comparison to this:

Here is an excellent and trustworthy review of Driscoll’s work from Rachel Held Evans.