Due to inconsistent internet access, my travel updates will have to be posted after the trip has concluded rather than as it concludes...
After one night in Kenya, we are already sleeping under mosquito nets (a reminder of the constant threat of malaria) and we are drinking and brushing our teeth out of water bottles (a reminder of the unsafe water). We met this morning with the Bishop and General Secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya (ELCK) which is a partner church of the LCMS. I also was able to talk briefly with another American who was at Concordia Seminary when I was there and now serving as the regional coordinator for LCMS missions in East Africa. Then it was back to the airport for a flight from Nairobi to Kisumu in the western part of the country on Lake Victoria.
Traveling back to the airport during the day gave us our first real impression of Nairobi and Kenya. Our driver pointed out the largest slum in East Africa which we viewed from afar as the van traveled along a main road. As I got this first glimpse of the differences between Kenya and the US, I was reminded that the purpose of our church's presence in the country is not to make the Kenyans more like us - more American - it is to learn how the Gospel can be communicated in and to different cultures. To think we are there to do something or fix something that the Kenyans cannot do or fix themselves would be horrible arrogant and mistaken. Throughout the trip, I found great joy in watching so many beautiful facets of the Kenyan culture and people unfold before me.
Upon arrival in Kisumu we went to the "Lutheran compound." It houses a church, offices of different ELCK ministries, a medical clinic that is yet to be opened, and a school for developmentally disabled children. We met and talked with various local and regional church officials including the pastor of the congregation and the principal of the school. The great love for and service toward others was especially evident in talking with the teachers of the school and seeing some of the students and their work. And both the congregation and the school were very intentional in reaching out to the community and those in need with services that included but went far beyond Word and Sacrament ministry. The main word for the trip was mercy and it was evident from day one in so many ways and in so many places and in so many lives.
Friday night we checked into The Vic - a very western feeling hotel - and then went out to a very Kenyan feeling restaurant where our Kenyan host (Pastor David Chuchu) ordered the most Kenyan meal among the group - a plate filled with a fish head.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Kenya - day 1
After a long series of flights the group of ten from Minnesota and North Dakota have arrived in Nairobi, Kenya safely with excitement for what the LORD will do through this trip to give us a deeper awareness of Him and His grace and the fellowship of the church around the world. Thursday was a travel day and now tomorrow we get back on a plane for Kisumu. I hope to share more as the trip continues. But tonight's wonders included simply the moon, stars, and the sound of frogs - evidence that God, our Creator and Sustainer - is present with His goodness and power on every continent.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Who should receive Communion together?
We’ve arrived at the final question that this booklet will tackle. This may be one that you have struggled to understand in terms of how a church practices Communion. Take note that the answer to this question does not include any mention of whether a specific person is worthy to receive Communion. The answer to question 4 is different and separate from the answer to question 3. The goal remains that we would allow the practice of Communion at Crosspointe to be shaped by God’s Word rather than by our own personal opinions and emotions so that as a church we can be faithful to the desires and intentions of Jesus.
Matthew 26:29 was part of the answer to why a church should practice Communion. We begin with that verse to see how the Bible helps us to answer the question of who should commune together. When Jesus instituted or initiated the Lord’s Supper, He said that He would again share this meal with His followers. Jesus is referring to the eternal feast that all Christians will enjoy after He returns and the dead are resurrected and God’s Kingdom is fully realized. As mentioned in question 1, the meal that Jesus has given to the church provides a foretaste of the fellowship that will define our relationships with one another and with God when sin and death are no more. At that time, there will no longer be any questions about God. He will be fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12) so there will be no differences in what is believed and confessed about Him as there are now. God’s desire is to bring that eternal reality into the present time through the church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is the church’s greatest moment of community, fellowship, oneness, and unity. The goal that the church should strive to attain in Communion is a maximization of oneness and unity. In other words, the church gathered at the altar to receive the Lord’s Supper should aim to resemble the church gathered at the eternal feast because it is that eternal reality that God wishes to create in our midst.
Again and again, the Bible calls for unity and oneness among the church. In John 17:20-23 Jesus prays on the night before His death that all who would believe in Him would be one. The unity of the church is further referred to as one flock with one shepherd (John 10:16), one body (Romans 12:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12), one loaf of bread (1 Corinthians 10:17), and one body, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:3-5). Unity is God’s desires for His people even now. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul writes; I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but be united in the same mind and the same judgment. Paul does not call for unity because it would be beneficial for the church in his opinion. Rather, he reveals the intention of Jesus who is the Lord of the church: that there would be no divisions among us. Paul brings this discussion of unity into the practice of Communion in 1 Corinthians 11:17-18. He tells the church in Corinth that when they come together to share the Lord’s Supper they do so not for the better but for the worse because there are divisions among them. To get a broader picture you can also look at God’s instructions for the Passover Meal. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper while He was celebrating the Passover with His disciples. In the Christian Church, the Lord’s Supper has taken the place of the Passover. But even with the Passover, God was concerned about who shared the meal with one another as is evident in Exodus 12:43-49 and Ezra 6:19.
The issue of oneness and unity for the church boils down to what it believes about God, what may be referred to as the doctrine or confession or teaching of the church. In this belief, the desire of God is that we would be united in mind and judgment. In the Bible’s first description of the life of the church, the teaching which has been passed down from the apostles (those who were eyewitnesses to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus) is the first thing mentioned. It is important to notice tin Acts 2:42, the church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching – singular! When the Bible talks about the doctrine of the church it does so in the singular. Examples include 1Timothy 1:10 and 4:16, 2 Timothy 4:3, and Titus1:9 and 2:1. The Christian faith is not a set of individual teachings from which we pick and choose the ones we agree with and the ones we disagree with. The unity that God desires includes the belief about who Jesus was and what He accomplished for us. But it includes more. God desires that we would be unified in the answer to these 4 questions and what we believe about Communion. God desires that we are unified in our belief about baptism and the Bible; about Creation and the return of Jesus and everything in between.
What this means in terms of practicing Communion at Crosspointe is that we should begin with and continue in the desire for a unified confession of faith. God’s desire for unity should be our desire and it should be reflected in our life together as church. To be faithful in this, our practice will be to gather at the altar to receive the Lord’s Supper with those who through membership in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and by personal profession of faith have demonstrated an agreement in doctrine and desire for doctrinal unity. As with the other sections, please don’t hesitate to ask me your follow-up questions.
Matthew 26:29 was part of the answer to why a church should practice Communion. We begin with that verse to see how the Bible helps us to answer the question of who should commune together. When Jesus instituted or initiated the Lord’s Supper, He said that He would again share this meal with His followers. Jesus is referring to the eternal feast that all Christians will enjoy after He returns and the dead are resurrected and God’s Kingdom is fully realized. As mentioned in question 1, the meal that Jesus has given to the church provides a foretaste of the fellowship that will define our relationships with one another and with God when sin and death are no more. At that time, there will no longer be any questions about God. He will be fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12) so there will be no differences in what is believed and confessed about Him as there are now. God’s desire is to bring that eternal reality into the present time through the church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is the church’s greatest moment of community, fellowship, oneness, and unity. The goal that the church should strive to attain in Communion is a maximization of oneness and unity. In other words, the church gathered at the altar to receive the Lord’s Supper should aim to resemble the church gathered at the eternal feast because it is that eternal reality that God wishes to create in our midst.
Again and again, the Bible calls for unity and oneness among the church. In John 17:20-23 Jesus prays on the night before His death that all who would believe in Him would be one. The unity of the church is further referred to as one flock with one shepherd (John 10:16), one body (Romans 12:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12), one loaf of bread (1 Corinthians 10:17), and one body, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:3-5). Unity is God’s desires for His people even now. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul writes; I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but be united in the same mind and the same judgment. Paul does not call for unity because it would be beneficial for the church in his opinion. Rather, he reveals the intention of Jesus who is the Lord of the church: that there would be no divisions among us. Paul brings this discussion of unity into the practice of Communion in 1 Corinthians 11:17-18. He tells the church in Corinth that when they come together to share the Lord’s Supper they do so not for the better but for the worse because there are divisions among them. To get a broader picture you can also look at God’s instructions for the Passover Meal. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper while He was celebrating the Passover with His disciples. In the Christian Church, the Lord’s Supper has taken the place of the Passover. But even with the Passover, God was concerned about who shared the meal with one another as is evident in Exodus 12:43-49 and Ezra 6:19.
The issue of oneness and unity for the church boils down to what it believes about God, what may be referred to as the doctrine or confession or teaching of the church. In this belief, the desire of God is that we would be united in mind and judgment. In the Bible’s first description of the life of the church, the teaching which has been passed down from the apostles (those who were eyewitnesses to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus) is the first thing mentioned. It is important to notice tin Acts 2:42, the church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching – singular! When the Bible talks about the doctrine of the church it does so in the singular. Examples include 1Timothy 1:10 and 4:16, 2 Timothy 4:3, and Titus1:9 and 2:1. The Christian faith is not a set of individual teachings from which we pick and choose the ones we agree with and the ones we disagree with. The unity that God desires includes the belief about who Jesus was and what He accomplished for us. But it includes more. God desires that we would be unified in the answer to these 4 questions and what we believe about Communion. God desires that we are unified in our belief about baptism and the Bible; about Creation and the return of Jesus and everything in between.
What this means in terms of practicing Communion at Crosspointe is that we should begin with and continue in the desire for a unified confession of faith. God’s desire for unity should be our desire and it should be reflected in our life together as church. To be faithful in this, our practice will be to gather at the altar to receive the Lord’s Supper with those who through membership in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and by personal profession of faith have demonstrated an agreement in doctrine and desire for doctrinal unity. As with the other sections, please don’t hesitate to ask me your follow-up questions.
Who should receive Communion?
It is tempting to think that if God delivers forgiveness through Communion, then He (and we) should want everyone to receive the Lord’s Supper. However, that line of thinking does not reflect the teaching of Scripture or the historical practice of the church. The Lord’s Supper is a meal that Jesus gave to the church and intended for people who profess the faith of the church. It is not meant to convert someone to the faith who is an unbeliever, but rather to strengthen and sustain the faith of a believer. A passage from 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 demonstrates the seriousness of this question and helps us with the answer.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drink judgment on himself.
Notice the implications. It is possible to take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and, by doing so, profane what God is doing and giving through the meal. The word “profane” denotes a guiltiness or accountability for sin. Verse 29 also states that an unworthy reception will bring God’s judgment upon the recipient so that His anger or wrath is experienced rather than His grace.
In this passage, the Bible says that those who receive Communion should examine themselves. This self-examination will reveal that none of us are or ever can be worthy on our own to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Sin has made us unworthy and how we pray or how good we are in the week leading up to Communion or how focused we are when we take Communion… none of these things make us worthy to approach the altar. Our worthiness comes solely through our connection with Jesus through faith. What God gives you through the Lord’s Supper, He gives solely by grace, not because of anything you have done. Worthy reception thus begins with a self-examination that shows our sin and causes us to cling to who we are in Jesus as forgiven and loved children of God.
1 Corinthians 11 also indicates that those who receive Communion should do so while “discerning the body.” This means two things. That we understand what we receive; that we believe that by the power of God’s Word we are truly receiving the body and the blood of Jesus in a sacramental or mysterious way. In addition to understanding what God is giving, to discern the body also means that you understand what God is doing. You believe that God is fulfilling His promise that the bread/body and the wine/blood are given for the forgiveness of sins and that in the meal He is doing that for you.
Our worthiness to participate in the Lord’s Supper is not our own, but rather has been credited to us through faith by God’s grace and is rooted solely in the life and the death of Jesus. When we come to the altar in faith and seeking forgiveness, we also come with a repentant heart. To repent means to turn away from sin and to turn toward God. In other words, we sincerely desire that our lives would be emptied of sin and lived to the glory, honor, and praise of God. As we come seeking forgiveness, we don’t just want God to take away the guilt, penalty, and consequences of our sin, we also want Him to eliminate the sinful thoughts, words, and actions themselves. Repentance naturally flows from faith. It is one of the things that God is bringing into our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, a faithful practice of the Lord’s Supper occurs when those living publicly in a sin without a repentant heart are not allowed to participate. Someone with an unrepentant heart denies the will and the work of God in his/her life by either refusing to acknowledge or turn from sin. To allow such an individual to receive Communion would falsely convey that God is willing to give forgiveness and grace without repentance by communicating that the church and God “are OK” with the sin that persists in the individual’s life.
For further biblical reading, passages like 1 Corinthians 5:11, Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:15-18, James 5:19-20, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Timothy 5:20 all speak of our need to correct one another in the midst of sin. Ezekiel 14:6, Matthew 3:2 and 8, and Luke 24:47 give some additional insight about repentance.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drink judgment on himself.
Notice the implications. It is possible to take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and, by doing so, profane what God is doing and giving through the meal. The word “profane” denotes a guiltiness or accountability for sin. Verse 29 also states that an unworthy reception will bring God’s judgment upon the recipient so that His anger or wrath is experienced rather than His grace.
In this passage, the Bible says that those who receive Communion should examine themselves. This self-examination will reveal that none of us are or ever can be worthy on our own to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Sin has made us unworthy and how we pray or how good we are in the week leading up to Communion or how focused we are when we take Communion… none of these things make us worthy to approach the altar. Our worthiness comes solely through our connection with Jesus through faith. What God gives you through the Lord’s Supper, He gives solely by grace, not because of anything you have done. Worthy reception thus begins with a self-examination that shows our sin and causes us to cling to who we are in Jesus as forgiven and loved children of God.
1 Corinthians 11 also indicates that those who receive Communion should do so while “discerning the body.” This means two things. That we understand what we receive; that we believe that by the power of God’s Word we are truly receiving the body and the blood of Jesus in a sacramental or mysterious way. In addition to understanding what God is giving, to discern the body also means that you understand what God is doing. You believe that God is fulfilling His promise that the bread/body and the wine/blood are given for the forgiveness of sins and that in the meal He is doing that for you.
Our worthiness to participate in the Lord’s Supper is not our own, but rather has been credited to us through faith by God’s grace and is rooted solely in the life and the death of Jesus. When we come to the altar in faith and seeking forgiveness, we also come with a repentant heart. To repent means to turn away from sin and to turn toward God. In other words, we sincerely desire that our lives would be emptied of sin and lived to the glory, honor, and praise of God. As we come seeking forgiveness, we don’t just want God to take away the guilt, penalty, and consequences of our sin, we also want Him to eliminate the sinful thoughts, words, and actions themselves. Repentance naturally flows from faith. It is one of the things that God is bringing into our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, a faithful practice of the Lord’s Supper occurs when those living publicly in a sin without a repentant heart are not allowed to participate. Someone with an unrepentant heart denies the will and the work of God in his/her life by either refusing to acknowledge or turn from sin. To allow such an individual to receive Communion would falsely convey that God is willing to give forgiveness and grace without repentance by communicating that the church and God “are OK” with the sin that persists in the individual’s life.
For further biblical reading, passages like 1 Corinthians 5:11, Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:15-18, James 5:19-20, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Timothy 5:20 all speak of our need to correct one another in the midst of sin. Ezekiel 14:6, Matthew 3:2 and 8, and Luke 24:47 give some additional insight about repentance.
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