October 11, 2022 – Eat His Flesh – Drink His Blood

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”
John 6:54-55

“No wonder early Christians faced accusations of cannibalism! This is gross. And yet we recall this kind of imagery every time we participate in the Eucharist. As I receive the bread, I hear the words, “the Body of Christ,” and then another phrase, usually, “the bread of heaven.” As I receive the wine, I hear the words, “the Blood of Christ,” and then usually “the cup of salvation.” These four phrases have at least one thing in common: Their meaning is obscure — unless, minimally, you’ve spent a fair amount of time hanging out with and hearing from Christians.

Flesh and blood are the seat of life — life belonging only to God, life that can be claimed rightly only by God. And yet in Jesus, God has willingly poured out that life for the sake of the world — not just the good people, the people who try hard to do the right thing, the people who praise and encourage the saints, but as much or more for the people who hate, and who act on their hatred, even to the point of killing a righteous woman or man, an innocent child.” (dylan’s lectionary blog, Sarah Dylan Breuer, saralaughed website)

I am glad that the above blog points out that Jesus poured out his life for all people — both the good and the bad among us. We all struggle to be good, to do good deeds, to think good thoughts, to be the best “good” people we can be. Still, that doesn’t mean that we are always good. And sometimes we do hateful things, and we encounter hateful people, and we witness the hate of the world, and we need to remember that Jesus died for those people as well – whether we like that or not.

We come to the table of Holy Communion believing that Jesus is present in the meal because Jesus promised to be present. And so no matter who partakes of that meal, whether in the right state of mind or not, in the right state of forgiveness or not, in the right state of peace, love, mercy and Grace or not, Jesus is still there — flesh and blood — poured out for our benefit. Thank G-d that is the kind of G-d we have……

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, your flesh and blood are efficacious for all. For that we give you thanks. Amen.

Pastor Dave

October 10, 2022 — That Great and Terrible Day

“Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.”  Malachi 4:5-6

“The promise of the Day of YHWH does not come without its requirements, however. The day of the Lord is a blessing for the righteous because they “Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb…” As we wait for the Lord to make things right, we must remember that we are called to stricter obedience to God’s will. The obedience is herein described in terms of the Mosaic Law complete with its statutes and ordinances. Though we, as Christians, have a different relationship with Mosaic Law, we are not less obliged to “remember” that we have been called to a different set of values than those posed by our world. As Christians, we are called to live our lives by God’s system of rights and wrongs. Taking seriously personal morality and our commitment to justice, we are called to live out an example of God’s ways, rejecting the dangerous moral postures that hurt our brothers and sisters, and offering a new way of living out God’s forgiveness, truth, and light. We are called to express a new Law, the Law of Love that Jesus repeatedly commands of us as the testimony of our fellowship with him.” (December 21, 2008, Rodney S. Sadler, Jr.)

The true fact of life is that we cannot predict to any great degree of accuracy when we might leave this world. It may not be for three score or more — it may be tomorrow. And if we delude ourselves into thinking that we always have enough time to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ, that there is always plenty of time to get the “G-d Thing” down in our lives, well that is just a continuation of the delusion.

As the parable of the man who built bigger barns to keep his stuff teaches us, G-d may come tonight to demand our presence in the Heavenly realm. So, if we believe that we have plenty of time to wait to work on justice and peace in this world, or if we believe that we have plenty of time to take obedience seriously, obedience to the ways that Jesus calls us to live, we had better begin to change our thinking now. There is no better time than right now to consider the “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord” — for it may be here before you know it.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, we have no idea when you will come – come to judge the earth or come to welcome us into the kingdom. Help me to prepare every day as if this might be my last – and to live in joy and love for all you have given me. Amen.

Pastor Dave