Join us for our last Small Catechism Bible class this Wednesday @ 6:00 pm! We’ll wrap up our discussion of the Lord’s Supper with the topic of worthiness. How do we receive the Lord’s Supper rightly? A helpful refresher for all, young and old, new and familiar!
April 30, 2024
Dear Friends,
If you’re going to the all-you-can-eat sushi place in St. Cloud, the smart move is to prepare ahead of time. You want to make sure you’re good and hungry when you get there. No breakfast, no lunch, no snacks, just hold off. When you start to feel that ache in your belly, push through it and set your mind on the rolls and the sashimi and how you’re going to sit there and eat slowly for a couple hours until you’re good and satisfied.
Maybe you don’t like sushi, and so the picture falls flat in your imagination. Substitute something else if you need to – all-you-can-eat shrimp, mongolian bbq, Old Country Buffet (is that still around?), Thanksgiving Dinner.
Whatever it is, think about how when you are planning on a feast, you do well to build up your appetite. You don’t want the splendor of that Christmas goose and potatoes and gravy to be diminished because you ate too many Doritos and spoiled your appetite. No, instead, you want to build up appetite.
The Lord’s Supper is a feast, and the smart move is to prepare ahead of time.
How do you build up your appetite for the body and blood of Jesus?
Interestingly, Luther says that “fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training.” Although the Lord’s Supper is not the kind of meal that will fill your belly after a fast, fasting beforehand can still be helpful because it reminds you of your limitations and your mortality. It reminds you of sin and death. Coming to the Lord’s Supper hungry can be good, not because it will satisfy your hunger for food, but because hunger teaches you that you depend on God for all good things.
Besides fasting and bodily preparation, there is a more important spiritual preparation that builds your appetite. Are you a sinner? Do you know your sins? Are you sorry for them? Do you want to do better? Which commandments have you broken? Whom have you hurt? Whom have you failed to help? Do you doubt? Are you fearful, anxious, or worried? Are you selfish and vain? Do you love your enemies? Do you pray for them?
If you come away from self-examination without a hunger and thirst for the forgiveness of sins in Christ’s body and blood, then you should note how cold and insensitive your heart is towards your gracious God. If that’s what your heart is like, if that’s the kind of spiritual stupor you are in, then you need the life-giving body and blood of Jesus all the more!
The Lord’s Supper is a feast, and you should prepare yourselves. I’ll write some more about this in the weeks ahead — there’s a lot we can learn about self-examination!
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs
COMING EVENTS:
Wednesday, May 1
9:30 am – Chapel
10:00 am – Bible Study
6:00 pm – Small Catechism Bible Study
7:00 pm – Vespers
Sunday, May 5
9:00 am – Divine Service
10:30 am – Sunday School/Bible Study
Wednesday, May 8
9:30 am – Chapel
10:00 am – Bible Study
6:00 pm – Elders’ Meeting
7:00 pm – Council Meeting
Thursday, May 9
7:00 pm – Ascension Service @ St. Paul’s, Eden Valley