If someone is ill, and there is a medicine that can help, it is good to know, which medicine it is, and how one must take it, in order to get better. Or is it for instance of great use to dissolve an Aspirin and rub it onto your sunburned skin? > No! It wouldn’t help at all; on the contrary, it would make your skin even worse, because it contains acid. So; it can even have devastating consequences, if one acts without knowing what exactly is wrong, and what treatment is needed for a cure. The same applies to the Sacrament of the Altar, as we can learn from Paul’s words from his 1st letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11: „For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 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." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, 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. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.“
Speaking about ‘eating/drinking in an unworthy manner’, Paul describes in view of the Lord’s Supper, what I meant by pointing out the consequences of unknowing, or even ignorant behaviour. But what is this unworthy eating and drinking in view of the Sacrament? Paul himself gives us an answer to this question a couple of verses before today’s word for the sermon. There he refers to incidents and behaviour in the Corinthian Congregation, which conflict most blatant with the Lord’s Supper. He writes there: 17In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. [And] 20When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, 21for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without wait-ing for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22Don't you have homes 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 praise you for this? Certainly not! What Paul points out with these words is the following: Whoever receives the Lord’s Supper, should receive it in awareness and responsibility of the unity, in which Christ places us by means of his sacrament; namely the unity of his body and blood, which is nothing else than the congregation that is united in his meal. Jesus unites us at His table like a family comes together at one table. And like family members take care of each other, Jesus wants us to take care of each other, and not to ignore one another. So; receiving the Sacrament regularly in a particular congregation without showing any interest in, or compassion with any of its members, would be like letting yourself being tied together with people, whom you are afraid to touch. It would be like eating con-stantly at a table of strangers. It doesn’t make any sense; and sooner or later it will cause trouble as you can imagine. On the other hand – says Paul – it is the given body and blood of Jesus Christ, which one should always bear in mind, when one receives the sacrament. Because: This is, what makes us children of God, which makes us a family despite of all differences, it is the forgiveness of our sins, which we receive for the sake of Christ’s sacrifice. Now you could say: Of course we have Christ’s body and his blood in mind, when we come to receive His sacrament. What else should one have in mind? Well, let me tell you that I experienced and learned over the years from ‘Christians’, that there are sometimes seemingly more im-portant reasons to go to the sacrament than the forgiveness of sins. Once for instance I talked to a man, who said: I can’t stand to remain seated while all others go. Even if I actually don’t want to, I rather go and receive the sacrament, just because I don’t like to stand out. So his reason was peer pressure rather than the desire to receive Christ’s forgiveness. Or: There was a sponsor, who said, he wants to go to the sacra-ment at the confirmation of his Godchild to show their bond. But to demonstrate such a bond by means of the sacrament is not only nonsense. It is devastating. Christ invites us to receive the forgiveness of our sins and an aid in faith through the unity that HE makes possible by means of his presence in the sacrament. This is the purpose of the Lord’s Sup-per, nothing else.
It is for this reason that only those people should receive the sac-rament, who – like the disciples – were taught in the understand-ing of God’s word and the meaning of the sacrament. And this is also the reason, why we admonish people before we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. How else should someone benefit from the Sacrament, if he or she doesn’t know, what Jesus offers in His meal? If people celebrate the Lord’s Supper just as a nice ceremony with bread and wine, but with no deeper meaning, they won’t see what Christ offers in his forgiveness and help.
Because: Only those, who know, what’s wrong, and what medical treatment can help, are able to use the right medicine in the right way. It is this, what Luther puts in simple terms saying in his Small Catechism that only „that person is truly worthy and well prepared [to receive the Lord’s Supper] who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.” It is for no other reason why in former times many Pastors in the Lutheran Church also examined those who wanted to receive the Sacrament by means of questions before each service. They tried to prevent that people eat or drink judgment on themselves. However, this is – as Paul points it out – the responsibility of each and every single Christian rather than that of a Pastor. Paul explicitly implores therefore all Christians to practice this self examination seriously. Because: As it is with medicine that is taken in the wrong way, it is also with the Lord’s Supper. Whoever – says Paul – receives it in an unknowing or ignorant way won’t benefit from it. He or she won’t receive what Christ offers by means of his meal, namely forgiveness of sins, peace with God, comfort, and strengthening in faith. And if someone doesn’t receive all this, what else does that mean than judgment; a judgment that is caused by people’s disrespect and ignorance! Let us therefore examine ourselves over and again:
Let us remind ourselves, before we receive His body and blood, whose death and sacrifice we proclaim in this meal, so that we may benefit from his presence and help. AMEN