Remember And Proclaim (1Cor 11:23-26)

Eugene Peterson, in his book, "Christ Plays in 10,000 Places" has greatly stimulated my thinking about the Lord's Table. Again, here are some thoughts that come from that work, as I have processed them...

The church is a funny thing - by that I mean that it is quirky, goofy, and occasionally silly. And I also believe that Christ is quite fond of his 'bride,' in all her quirky self.

And here’s the really quirky thing: the church is a wide spectrum of understanding and mission. We have the cloak and incense bunch on one end; the store-front missions, independent fundamentalists, and Pentecostals on the other end; and the middle-church of the Presbyterians, Methodists, and established Baptists.

Friends, all of them is us. We are all the church; a rather diverse spectrum we are, indeed. Yet, in all of that, we affirm and practice - on a regular basis - the special gathering that we variously label: “Eucharist,” “Lord's Table,” “Breaking of Bread,” or simply “the bread and cup.” Excepting the Quakers, we all do this.

Biblically, there are many things - in scope and depth - that are accomplished in the Lord's Table. But here are two: the remembrance of Jesus and the proclamation of Jesus.

Let’s start with “Remember.”

This word means more than a mere mental activity. It is a re-enactment of what actually happened. It is more than recalling the memory of what Jesus did – though it most certainly is that. It also calls us to participate right now, at this Table in what he did and continues to do. This is where our Roman friends get confused: Jesus is not actually re-crucified. Hebrews, chapters 8 through 10 are clear about that. But as we go through our time here, we affirm that Jesus does continue to work redemptively in our world today, and we re-present him in these physical symbols of body taken and blood received. At the start of our week, we reaffirm that the gospel is for everyday, weekly life.

That takes us to the second thing that is accomplished ... Proclaim.

We proclaim the Lord's death. In what we do this morning, we - as a group - are preaching Christ crucified and raised. In a way, the Lord's Table is a parable of action to be observed by the world Christ came to save. We are exhorted: "How are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?" (Rom 10:14b) Alas, relatively few have taken that offer to be saved. Yet, we act out a parable which means this: "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

So that is the proclamation: Salvation is accomplished in Jesus' death, and only in his death.

These two things, to remember and to proclaim, are the intertwining magnetic poles of the Lord's Supper. We always remember the crucifixion of Christ and then always proclaim what has happened.

Remember and Proclaim.

But there is an implied warning here. If we emphasize one of these over the other, we get disoriented - our compass goes askew.

·        Yes; we can “over-remember” - if we only remember and are not also authentically proclaiming Christ

·        And, yes, we can “over-proclaim” - if we only proclaim and we do not also remember the grace we received in Jesus' death

Or, putting it more simply: we can be over-devotional or over-active.

Here, at the table, we are called to remember and proclaim; to be devoted and to act. As we do the Lord's Supper here together, we are encouraged to then co-operate with God as we leave this place.

Both together here and apart later, we remember and proclaim.

Thoughts on Hebrews 11

I’ve been thinking about that famous chapter of the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven, frequently called the “Hall of Fame.” The chapter begins with a discussion of the nature of faith. The writer of Hebrews (we don’t really know who that is) does something that neither John, Paul, nor James do – he defines the word “faith.” And, wouldn’t you know?, he uses the word a tad differently than the other guys (who all use the word differently from each other – a topic for another day). Faith, for the writer, is both a rational thing and an action thing.

ByTheWay, no Biblical writer ever suggests that faith is a “blind leap” like wishful thinking. That is a completely un-Biblical understanding of the word.

The point of this whole section (and the writer has been working up to it throughout the book) is that faith is what saves. Hebrews 11:2 “For by it the people of old received their commendation.” That is, the idea of salvation by faith is not some new-fangled idea invented by John or Paul. It’s been around from the Very Beginning.

There are some really interesting things to notice in the chapter. First, the writer seems to emphasize a ‘declaratory’ nature to faith in the time before Moses. People are commended, speak (4, 14), are warned, are called, condemn, receive promises, bless, and make mention. These are all words related to speech, to declaring something. At the same time, notice that these people also are doing things. Kinda a ‘speech-act’ notion. Interestingly, after Moses faith is demonstrated pretty much only by action.

But then Moses comes along. There are three Great Heroes to the Hebrew people: Abraham (Father - identity), Moses (Prophet), and David (king). The writer deals with two of them, Abraham and Moses. Like Paul and James, the writer affirms that Abraham was not justified by the Law, but by vital faith. Even more startling to the readers (Hebrews) is that "The Law Giver," Moses, was approved before God because of his faith – not his ability to keep the Law! Even today we refer to that governmental, sacrificial, and ethical complex of rules as “The Law of Moses.” But the writer slaps that down pointing out that even Moses wasn’t justified because of The Law that bears his name.

But the REAL agenda that the writer wants to emphasize is that it is only Jesus who is the standard, source, and object of faith. It is clear that every person mentioned in the so-called “Roll Call of Faith” was a sinner; some of them notoriously so. But Jesus is the perfect example of faith. The writer says, in 12:1-2, (pardon my paraphrase): ‘While you have all of those examples of so-called “Great Faith,” you’re looking in the wrong direction. You need to look at Jesus – he’s the Real Deal.’

So the writer’s argument is that it is faith in a proper object, from a proper source, and actually relied upon that saves. And it has always been that way.

Rom. 3:21 - God Is "Tricky"

Romans 3 is really interesting! In a startling "reveal," Paul says that it turns out that God can - and does - save people apart from the Law.

Paul points out that the Law was never intended to save people. The sacrificial system could not accomplish that (Heb. 10:4). Abraham was saved before he became Jewish because (Rom 3:21), 'God has shown a becoming-saved-process that is not at all linked to The Law.' The Law doesn't save - it brings death and even greater realization that we are doomed. But God - all along - had this undercurrent of salvation by grace through faith. God's salvation was always apart from The Law. The Jewish mindset was that they needed to obey the rules to get God to like them more.

The author of Hebrews says a similar thing as Paul when he does a "reveal" that there's another order of priesthood that you-all forgot about. Everybody was fixated for the longest time on the Aaronic Priesthood. But there was this other priest - no relation to Aaron at all - that was a priest of God whom even Abraham showed submission to. This guy with the crazy name, Melchizedek, was a believer in Yahweh and acted as his priest hundreds of years before Aaron came along.

I have to chuckle at this. It's a bit like the illusionist who distracts your attention away from what's really going on and it when the effects are shown, it looks like "magic." All this time God had a righteousness and a priesthood working in the background ready to be used when The Law and Aaronic priesthood had fully taught us what we didn't want to believe. Because what we wanted to believe was that we could try really hard and get God to like us.

That could be confusing so let me restate the lesson: it is absolute folly to think you can do anything to make yourself acceptable to God.

Go 'head, try it! Here's a list of 613 commands - just 613 of them. Go ahead, keep them all.

OK, OK, that's too many and too hard. Here - let's start you out on just ten rules. Live your life so as to not violate just those ten. Hmmmm. Can't do that either.

Well, by the time people are figuring this all out, Jesus comes along and says there really are just two: love God and love neighbor. We still can't do it.

Have we learned the lesson? We can't do anything to gain acceptance by God. OK, now let's get to the real point: it's about grace and it always has been.

This must have been an earth-shattering realization for both Jews and Gentiles. An earned righteousness that is apart from rule-keeping. Mind boggling!