Life is a mystery that turns inanimate matter into animate matter. Death is a disruption of this glorious gift, turning animate matter back into inanimate.
But life is always God’s default option. He is the God of all life; He is the living God. Death entered this world only through sin and rebellion. When God created all things, He looked out at the world He had made and He said that it was all very good. But when He said this, death was not in the picture. Sin and disobedience caused death to come in and disrupt everything. But we must not allow the fact that death is very common now make us think that God has made His peace with it. He has not—death remains His enemy. Life is what He bestows because life is what He is.
And He bestows it through food. Food is also a great mystery. We cannot be nourished by the inanimate world directly. With the exception of a few things here and there (salt, for instance) everything we eat was once alive, and is a bearer of life to us. The herbs of the field, various grains, and trees with fruit, are all devices He has created to transform inanimate matter into animate so that it might bring life to us. As plant life covers the earth, and as animals eat those plants, and we eat those plants and animals, more and more of the created world is becoming ensouled, taking on the image of God.
And as God is in the process of overcoming the destructive impact of our sin and rebellion, He operates in an analogous way. That which is spiritually animate is conveyed to us by means of that which is spiritually inanimate. What is this, physically? It is merely bread and wine, no more capable—in its own power—of establishing us in the grace of God than any other kind of mumbo jumbo.
And yet, when we come here in evangelical faith, knowing that we serve and worship a God who brings life out of death, that which is animate out of that which is inanimate, He does a wonderful thing. We do not look to the means that He used—we look to Him, grateful to Him because He keeps His Word. He always keeps His word.
So if the power here is not a magic power, what is going on? What is happening here? We are a covenant people, and God is allowing us to approach Him in order to renew covenant with Him. We do this by renewing our covenant oaths, our covenant vows. When we do this in animate faith, using the means that He has assigned—inanimate bread and wine—He quickens the world.