1 Corinthians 11:28 Let a person examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Do you keep an extra house key hidden underneath a rock, plater, or garden gnome in the front yard? Your home is secure only until someone overturns the stone. Some stones were not meant to be overturned. Some doors were not meant to be opened - at least, not yet. Many of the greatest errors in Christian teaching have been a result of manufacturing answers when God is silent. How can bread and wine also be the very body and blood of our Savior, Jesus Chrust? No one on earth understands how, and only through faith do we believe it. Much Christian frustration has its roots in looking for evidence in the wrong places. As Luther explains, we imagine that a full accounting of sin is sufficient evidence of preparedness for Holy Communion. 

Why should we be surprised to find that we doubt Holy Communion? Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we would not trust in Christ! Therefore, be comforted. Our Heavenly Father knows that we struggle and doubt. Doubt in Holy Communion need not suggest that it is false, but rather that saints are still sinners. Cry out to the Lord, "Help my unbelief!" He will do so. He will cast away doubt and fortify the faith He created. He will do so because He wants you to have the benefits of His work on the cross - forgiveness of sins and life eternal.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Proverbs 22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

More than a few family refrigerators have displayed, next to pictures and artwork and shopping lists, a list of chores. Everybody in the family is expected to contribute and do their part. That's being a family - loving and serving one another. It's our duty, even if it means cleaning a bathroom or doing the dishes.

The same is true for children of the heavenly Father. In His family, we love and serve one another. In the Catechism, Luther gave God's list of "chores," which he called the Table of Duties. They remind us that our primary question should not be "What's my family supposed to do for me?" but rather "What does God want me to do for my family?"

For parents, God says our duty is to be gentle with our children and teach them God's Word to save their souls. For children, God wants us to honor our parents. For husbands, God gives us the duty of loving our wives and caring for them. And for wives, God says our duty is loving and respecting our husbands.

The strength to serve our earthly family is found in our heavenly family. God our Father loves and cares for us. Jesus, our Brother and the husband of the Church, covers us with GRACE. And the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, works through the Word of God to give us faith. Our triune God promises to be with us as we fulfill the duties He gives us as wives, husbands. children, and parents.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies portrays a gruesome picture of what happens when civil order is lost and the beast that lurks within man is not kept at bay. After their plane crashes, boys are stranded on an island. Two leaders arise, Ralph and Jack, who vie for power. As the story unfolds, friends turn on one another, the worst in people is exposed, and "littluns" live out their worst nightmares.

Golding wasn't the first to reveal this side of human nature. Some four hundred years earlier, Martin Luther wrote, "It is the function and honor of worldly government to make men out of wild beasts and to prevent men from becoming wild beasts."

God has given us governing authorities to keep order in His world. How ell this is carried out by those in office may vary, but their job is to protect their people from dangers - foreign and domestic.

In the Lord of the Flies, Jack sets a fire intended to kill Ralph. The fire ends up signaling a naval ship and the boys are rescued. What was intended to kill actually rescued.

When we fail to repress the beast within, when leaders fail to protect those in their charge, when we resemble beasts more than the One in whose image we were created, we can take heart in the cross, we are rescued from the beasts - foreign and domestic - of sin, death, and the devil.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

1 Peter 4:10-11  As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one serves by the strength that God supplies - in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

The rhythms of our living are influenced and directed by the Father through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Reading, praying, speaking, thinking about, singing, and living in the Word of God, who is Jesus, will weave His love, grace, mercy, and justice in every single thing we say and do throughout our entire day.

As we gather as God's people, in large groups and in smaller ones, we hear what God speaks to us as people together. We get the opportunity to hear God's Word together and listen to and challenge one another. We get to play, eat, and enjoy life together. Christ's Church, His Body, in all the ways it is expressed locally, is given the gift of shining the light and love of Jesus in practical, creative, and ongoing ways.

As the family of God together, we each have our job, calling, and responsibility in His family. It is a grind. It is such hard work. It is monotonous, ritualistic, and rote, and at the same time it is joyful, celebrative, and surprising. And that's why it is best done together, never alone. But Jesus does not depend on us to do it alone. He, along with His Father and the Holy Spirit, does it right with us. It is His vocation with us. And we get to do ours with Him. What joy this is!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Matthew 9:12  Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

As a parent, one logs in a fair share of time at urgent care. There is always plenty of time to indulge in your favorite pastime, people-watching. One thing you have probably observed is that everyone in the waiting room is either sick or injured. Unlike a typical physician's office, there are no services for healthy people. Urgent care offers no wellness checks, vaccinations or sports physicals. Those who come are in need. They've come seeking prompt attention, diagnosis, and relief.

In many ways, this is a fitting metaphor for the Sacrament of the Altar. In our verse above, Jesus compares Himself to a physician, saying that it is the sick who need Him rather than the healthy. Repentant sinners are welcome at the altar. They have acknowledged the infection of sin in their lives and have expressed their need for relief in Jesus' name. Their confession is sincere, and their desire for grace is true. However, no place is found for the self-righteous, those who think God's forgiveness is theirs without the blood of Jesus. Pride such as this fools sinners into the fallacy of self-sufficiency. As Luther states, "We look more upon ourselves than upon Christ's Word."

Turning our gaze to the cross forces us to examine our own unworthiness in the light of Jesus' sacrifice. Realizing and confessing that His blood was shed for you and your forgiveness makes you truly worthy of the Sacrament. Our Great Physician is quick to comfort and relieve hearts that believe. No appointment necessary!!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

When God speaks, things happen. When there was nothing at all besides Him, He said, "Let there be light,' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). Through the angel Gabriel, He told the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and bear a Son, and she did. Through apostles and prophets and pastors and parents and grandparents and neighbors, He shares the Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection, and people come to faith. His Word does what it says because His Word has the power to create.

That is how something as simple and ordinary as eating a bit of bread and drinking a sip of wine can give you forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. When our Lord Jesus invites you to His table and blesses the bread and wine with His Word, you receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. No other huamn's word could do that. No parent or grandparent, no pastor or priest can make bread and wine into Christ's body and blood, much less bless you with forgiveness on the authority of his own words. Our Lord, however, is not just any other human being. He is also true God with the Father and the Spirit. His Word brought creation into being at the beginning. His Word turned water into wine at Cana. His Word healed the sick and raised the dead. His Word unites His body and blood with bread and wine, through which you receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.

Living inside of redemption, surrounded by the richness of God's grace, is exactly what the Lord's Supper is about. God leaves the tangible for us because He knows that the devil indeed threatens, trouble and danger do assail, love is cold on this earth, and sin clings tightly to us in word and deed. Taking the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine physically places forgiveness into every system in our bodies, filling us from the inside out with the love of Christ, the mercy of Christ, and the heart of Christ. We can certainly have forgiveness in Christ apart from the Lord's Supper, but I also wouldn't want to miss out on this inside-out grace of my Savior. I come because God the Father is inviting me. God wants my company. God wants to fill me. God meets with me.

Can you imagine living outside of that knowledge? Can you imagine wondering whether God would receive you? This is the reality for many in our world. In the message of the Lord's Supper, we share with them also the message of freedom in Christ, the love of Christ, and the strength of Christ. We go out with the supper in us, messengers of life and salvation. Because we are filled, we may overflow with words and actions, not of death and condemnation, but of life and salvation. I seek God at the Sacrament, knowing I am welcome. I share God in the world, knowing sinners are welcome.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,