We heard earlier that this Table is the arbiter of disputes. This is what Table fellowship means; this is what true Table fellowship does. You were no doubt taught by your mother that good manners involves learning how to eat what is set before you. It is no different here, and this is true on …
The Dislocated Center
The center of the Christian life is union with Christ. This means that the center of the Christian faith is the Incarnation. Mankind was created in Adam to be the center of all the created order—everything in this world is meaningless without the part to be played by man. There is no point without us. …
Cooking or Eating?
We are seeking to return to a full and biblical view of the sacraments, and, as we do so, we have to guard against the temptations that attend this endeavor. One of the temptations is to set Word and sacraments against one another, as though they were somehow competitors. “What is more important,” the question …
Refuge From God In God
We come before the Lord as His people, and we commune with the Lord through the means that He has established. If this is disconcerting, we may reject these means, and flee from Him, as the open infidel does. But we may also be cowardly infidels, and think that we cannot risk open flight—after all, …
A Memorial Before the Lord
There are two fundamental errors to avoid in coming to the Table of the Lord. We readily recognize the first, and so there is a temptation to think that this is the only possible error—so we will consider it in the second place. The error that characterizes modernity is the sin of arid rationalism. In …
A Converting Ordinance?
One of the debates that the Church has had about this ordinance (and there have been many) is the debate over whether this is a converting ordinance. And the debate itself reveals the problem we have in formulating out theological opinions when it comes to the matter of saving grace. We want a tame God. …
God Continues to Deal With Us
Since we have begun the practice of weekly communion, sometime ago now, we have periodically said that one of the blessings that comes from this is the identification of sins, the flushing out of sins. This is never pleasant, and we are sometimes tempted to think that before the sins were revealed to us, they …
This Is A Great Mystery
As we meditate on the Word of God that accompanies the sacrament, we have to take care that we pray for the Word to teach us fully, which is to say, richly and mysteriously. You commune with the Lord, one with Him through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and in this communion, this partaking, …
The Real Miracle
The God of all creation, heaven and earth, sea and dry land, is a wonder-working God. He is the God of extraordinary miracles, and He is the God of all the ordinary miracles as well. What is more miraculous than all the ordinary things that surround us on every hand. God is the author of …
Faith Sees Better Than That
As we come to the Lord’s Table, we are seeking to be fed. The food and drink available to us here are the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put another way, we are being made partakers of His perfect humanity as we come, and are being nourished up into that humanity, bone …