Christ in Mouth of Friend and Stranger

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This is not a moment for morbid introspection. There are times when we should examine ourselves, and there are times when we must confess our sins. But this moment is not designed or intended to be one of those moments.

This is a moment to love and adore Your God, and to worship Jesus Christ, and to do so in the power of His Holy Spirit. This is a time to love all your brothers and sisters, looking around with gratitude. This is even a time to love those you don’t like very much.

When you eat and drink here you are offering yourselves as food and drink, for the strength and nourishment of everyone else in your family. In ourselves, in our own name, we have no strength and nourishment to offer, and so we recognize that this is only done through Christ. We can offer ourselves to one another in love because Christ has offered Himself, entirely, wholly, to each of us.

Because He comes to us in His infinite grace, and gives us all things through himself, we are enabled to give our little pieces to one another. Because Christ gave us the infinite wealth of Heaven, we are enabled, like the widow at the Temple, to give our two little pennies. It is not much, but it is all we have, and God blesses it.

And as we give this, first to God through Christ, and then to our neighbor through Christ, God takes it in order to feed multitudes. As the hymn puts it, “Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.