The Use of the Means of Grace

Holy Communion and the Christian Assembly

Holy Communion and the Christian Assembly

• Let us pray. “God of abundance, with this bread of life and cup of salvation you have united us with Christ, making us one with all your people. Now send us forth in the power of your Spirit, that we may proclaim your redeeming love to the world and continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

• Hymn: “We Come to the Hungry Feast” #479

Holy Communion

• A meal of many names, but can one name every really be enough to capture the depth of meaning of this meal? Each reflects a different facet of this meal hosted by Jesus and those who share in it.

• Baptism is a once and for all sacrament, whereas, Communion, is repeated weekly. Why? Because we need it!

• What is Holy Communion?

Holy Communion

• “The Church celebrates Holy Communion frequently because the Church needs the sacrament, the means by which the Church’s fellowship is established and its mission as the baptized people of God is nourished and sustained.” (UMG, Background 35A)

• What difference does this meal do for and to us?

• We are what we eat! We become Christ body when we share in this meal. We aren’t living as the body of Christ if love stops at the borders of our community.

• “Send us now with faith and courage to the hungry, lost, bereaved. In our living and our dying, we become what we receive.” (ELW 469)

Holy Communion

• Does your congregation have a statement of its understanding of Holy Communion and who is invited?

• Using Principle 49 or UMG, Application 49A and 49B, and Application 37G, “Is your statement consistent with the guidance of these? If not, how does your statement and the guidance differ? What thoughts do you have about why they may differ?

Holy Communion

• What is your most memorable story about Holy Communion and why?

Holy Communion

• Using Principle 37, Application 37E, and Background 37F

• What does catechesis mean? Why might is be important to your congregation?

• How are children and youth nurtured in the Christian faith in your congregation?

• How are new members instructed? Does it connect with the sacraments?

• In your congregation, how are preparations for Baptism and for Holy Communion the same? How do they differ?

• Why might preparation for both sacraments be valuable? Why might it be required?

• Why might preparation for either sacrament be unnecessary, even if it is beneficial?

The Means of Grace and the Christian Mission

The Means of Grace lead the Church to Mission

• “In every celebration the means of grace, God acts to show forth both the need of the world and the truth of the Gospel. In every gathering of Christians around the proclaimed Word and the holy sacraments, God acts to empower the Church for mission. Jesus Christ, who is God’s living bread come down from heave, has given his flesh to be the life of the world. This very flesh, given for the life of all, is encountered in the Word and sacraments.” (Principle 51)

What do you see as the greatest challenges for worship today?

What is Worship on the edge?

• Gordon Lathrop once wrote, all Christian worship has to do with the center and the edges—the real center of Christian faith and the edges of human existence.

• Tim Wengert gives insight into this topic: “Christian worship is a centripetal force, pulling us into the center, to the name ‘given among mortals by which we must be saved’(Acts 4:12).” And “At the center of Christian worship we encounter the Trinity and, even more, Christ crucified and risen again for us. This merciful God stands at the center of our worship.”

Luther’s understanding of Worship on the edge

• “When I was naked, you clothed me; hungry you fed me. . .” “You say, ‘If I had been there, I would have helped Mary.’ Sure, you can say that now because you know who her child was. Why do you not help the poor, who are Christ in your midst?”—Luther in a Christmas sermon.

The edge and the center. .

• “Thus at the fringes, we encounter the center. And, at the center, the fringes.”

• --Tim Wengert

When we say, “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.” Does our worship end?Worship is work that is never completely done. After we are fed and nourished by God’s word and by bread and wine, we don’t settle in for a long nap. We are not the same people who gathered; we have been formed again, re-membered, as Christ’s body and are ready to be sent into the world God loves.

Worship and the World

How does our worship of God interact with human cultures?

How do we learn who our neighbor is and how to serve and love them?

How does worship of God send us out to serve the world?

WHAT CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IS AND SHOULD ALWAYS BE:

Christian worship is the communal encounter with the grace of God incarnate in Jesus Christ, and it involves the encounter with those concrete, flesh-and-blood things that connect us to the flesh of Jesus and so engage us in that grace. Welcoming others must involve welcoming them into this real community.

Questions and Resources

Go in Peace and Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God!

• Let us pray. “O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen.

Hymn: “Rise, O Church, like Christ Arisen”

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