We are here to discern the Lord’s body. We are not here to do metaphysical speculations about what might be happening to the bread and wine on the subatomic level—although we do confess that God ministers to us spiritually with these material elements. We are not here to go spelunking in the deep caverns of our mysterious lusts, although healthy self-examination should be a normal and healthy prelude to our enjoyment of the Supper. We are not here to fight with other Christians who understand this meal differently than we do, although it is important for us to understand it as biblically as we can.
Our central task is to discern the Lord’s body, and to see that this body is seated all around you. This means that the meal is given to us so that we might understand that we are the meal. There is one loaf, and you are that loaf. We partake of the body of Christ which means that we must be the body of Christ. But there is no way for you to be the body of Christ without coming to the conclusion that your neighbor is also part of that body.
You cannot partake of Him without also partaking of him, and him, and her, and them. This is why this meal knits us together. We are eating, drinking, meditating, listening and singing, and we are doing it all in love for God, and in love for one another.
Some of the things we have made the Lord’s Supper into are things which can exclude little children—just like the disciples did when they kept little children away from the Lord. The Lord didn’t like it at all and said that coming to the kingdom involved becoming more like them. It is not like insisting that they become more like us—which is to say, clueless. Children may not be good at metaphysics, or at morbid introspection, but they can see their neighbor as well as you can. So love God, and love your neighbor.
Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.
“Some of the things we have made the Lord’s Supper into are things which can exclude little children—just like the disciples did when they kept little children away from the Lord. The Lord didn’t like it at all and said that coming to the kingdom involved becoming more like them.”
The ol’ bait and switch. If full-grown Adam was a child of heaven (faithful), God would give him children on earth. There’s a big difference, and it’s the difference between Abraham (circumcision: related by blood) and the heavenly Father (baptism: related by Spirit). Conflating the two is, well, clueless.
1) People in the Old Testament were circumcised who had no blood relation whatsoever to Abraham (Exod. 12:44, 48).
2) If circumcision was intended as a sign of physical descent from Abraham, then the unbelieving Jews in controversy with Christ were correct to focus on physical descent. But Jesus said that despite their physical descent (John 8:37), they were not children of Abraham, but of the devil (John 8:44).
3) The true use of circumcision was as a seal of righteousness by faith (Rom. 4:11), not as a seal of blood descent from Abraham.
Jesus is normal; the rest of us are weird. Does brother Mike think young Jesus started out as a little heathen? Does he see Him in the least of His brethren? He (Mike) doesn’t have a perfect list of true believers among adults, does he?–so how can he give Baptism or the Supper to anyone at all? Look, we agree we need to be “related by Spirit” to God; come to the Father by faith in Christ Jesus. But some of us acknowledge that the Almighty can, and sometimes does, bring about this relationship–make children for Himself–in very young children,… Read more »
Come on guys, it’s really not that hard to distinguish between circumcision of the flesh and circumcision of the heart. I’m sure, if pressed to think a little, you could find solutions to your own objections. I find it amazing how a paedobaptist assumption obscures texts which are crystal clear. Sorry if I’m blunt. Short on time. 1) People in the Old Testament were circumcised who had no blood relation whatsoever to Abraham (Exod. 12:44, 48). Yes, but they then intermarried within Israel, as part of Israel and her tribes. It was a family/tribal sign. Same goes for the women… Read more »
Other than that, what’s your opinion of paedobaptists?