2020 Daily Devotion - Day 191

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This coming weekend, at our 5:00pm Saturday worship service in the Courtyard, we will be celebrating Holy Communion. We will be doing this in a safe manner as to protect everyone. If you are one who watches the service online, you will be able to participate as well. If you are watching online, you can be prepared by using wine/grape juice along with bread you might already have in your home. We want you to participate in the worship service either live on Saturday night, October 3, or online, Sunday, October 4. If you’re worshipping online, you’ll listen to the “Words of Institution” and then, along with the rest of the congregation, receive the elements of the bread and wine.

Over the next couple of days, I want to teach the meaning and importance of Holy Communion through these devotionals. A Lutheran understanding of Holy Communion is different from a great many other churches. One of the reasons we have delayed in offering Holy Communion, prior to now, is because we wanted to be sensitive to these issues. We did not want to create a situation where people celebrate Holy Communion apart from corporate worship.

One of the first important aspects to understand about Holy Communion is it is more than a symbol. After all, our Lord Jesus Christ said when He instituted the supper, “This is my body; this is my blood.” He didn’t say, “This is like my body and blood.” or “This represents my body and blood.” Martin Luther said Jesus Christ is present in the Sacrament – “in, with, through and under the bread and wine”. In other words, it is more than a symbol, and somehow mystically, Jesus is present. In addition, Luther taught Holy Communion was a proclamation of the Gospel, and we know from Romans 10:17, faith is born in us through the proclamation of Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians chapter eleven:

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So, Holy Communion actually does something more than just being a symbol. Faith is renewed through eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ. We are a church of “Word and Sacrament” which means the Word of God must be proclaimed to us during the Sacrament. Luther said in order for this to happen, the Words of Institution (the words Jesus used when He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar) must be proclaimed, because if not, it is “just eating and drinking bread and wine”.

Join us on Saturday, October 3 for live service at 5:00pm and Sunday, October 4 online for Holy Communion.

Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, You are “the down-to-earth God” and You still come to us in down-to-earth ways; through Your body and blood in Holy Communion. Do a new work in us through this Sacrament. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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