Oct 1-As we move toward the 500th anniversary of the reformation, this day reminds us that one of the issues that split the reformation, almost immediately, was the interpretation of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. The reformation offered a fresh start on manner matters of faith, but once again human nature took hold of an Edenic opportunity, a moment where the promised land was in sight, and we immediately set to squabbling, even over something we could scarcely grasp.Luther held to a view closer to that of the Catholic church with a focus on the literal meaning of this is my body at the last supper. The emerging Reformed wing of the church took a position that this is more a spiritual statement, redolent with deep symbolic meaning, more than a statement of physical state of the elements of bread and wine (see Hunsinger).
Ex.17:1-Paul says the rock was Christ.All ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. This complaining was remembered by israel as a dangerous moment. Perhaps it is linked to the Lord’s Prayer save us from putting god to the test.God sustains the people in the wilderness.the Lord’. We may well come to the sacrament with deep spiritual thirst, spiritual disquiet and think that complaint is our proper response.We are being pulled into christ’s orbit, a life of sharing and generous giving of ourselves.So supper should be an antidote to quarreling. Here too, God stands in front of us, with us, within us in the sacrament-yes God is with us.
Phil 2:1-13, empty/fullness at work in us-the passage is about learning to share and being emptied of egotism. A new christian perspective through Christ-Communion does not seem like nearly enough to face personal and social troubles.(see Gorman). Christ continues to pour out himself to us in communion. What does he pour out? A broken body is presented that matches broken lives, a broken world.does not selfishly exploit equality with the divine for personal advantage. God both hidden and revealed in the eucharist. Here we participate in the life of christ in our lives joined. God is truly with us here. Miracle is that God reached out to us at our level of being.
Mt.21:23-32- power and refusals is power getting people to do what they do not wish to do?what sort of power is present in communion on World Communion sunday, so it is not power over.
Ex. 17, Phil. 2, Mt. 21:23
Work on communion meaning, including participation and theosis in communion theosis is kenosis. It is built into the Christian view of divinity.the cross is the story of a continued descent to our level. It then is reversed to draw us up toward god.this communion because we share in each other’s lives and the life of christ.It points the way that we are being reformed, reshaped, conforming to the very image of Jesus christ. This is mutual indwelling.Christ enters into the lifeblood, the current of our lives.What could be more humble than to have a broken body and spilled blood as a constant representation of the divine life? What could be more humble than to sh continue to demonstrate the life of jesus christ in a crust of bread and a thimbleful of wine? Just as jesus bridges both divinity and humanity, this sacrament bridges the gulf between earth and heaven. In Our tradition, the spirit acts to bring us into full contact with christ.we also see ourselves and each other as christophers as bearers of christ.What respect, what reverence we would then present to one another.
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