Tonight I'll be subbing for Pastor Curtis at our sister parish's Wednesday Eucharist. We'll be using the Votive of Christ the High Priest. The Gospel for this is a great passage from Luke 22:14-20. Our Lord has a gift for His people. He's been aching to give it to them. Looking forward to it for the longest time - even longer than His incarnation. Throughout the long history of Israel He was forever dropping hints about it: Melchizedek and his bread and wine; the Passover itself; manna in the wilderness; Elijah's miraculous meal that brought him to the mountain of God. Many, many more. Teasing little hints dropped here and there: "Open your mouth wide and *I* will fill it!" Psalm 81. "I will lift up the cup of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord." Psalm 116 "I will make my wonders to be remembered." Psalm 111 On and on the hints go and grow: "I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob...I will forgive their iniquities and their sins I will remember no more." Brighter and brighter it shines.
But at last comes the wondrous moment when the veil is removed and the time for prophetic types and hints is gone: "This is my body given for you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, shed for you, for forgiveness." A gift reached them by hands soon to be pierced by nails.
The Eucharist. The great gift that has been in the heart and mind of God from the start, and which He ached to give us, longed to impart. Now it is here. This is the point of it all. What you were made for: to be a temple of God, a dwelling place for Him through His Spirit and in the Body and Blood of the Eternal Logos made flesh.
Receiving the gift in awe and wonder and love, we can't help but marvel at how great a God we have, who plans and carries out such great things on our behalf. Glory to Him! Glory to Him forever!
5 comments:
at our sister parish's
I'm going to get very nitpicky here and beg to point out that American Lutherans are not really on a "parish" system.
The setup in the U.S. is on a congregational polity.
Christine,
You can be picky! I'll just note that "parish" is quite a normal way for us to refer to each other; it's just that we use the word with different connotations, perhaps, than our Roman brothers and sisters. To us "parish" and "congregation" are interchangeables, though "parish" stresses more the idea of the surrounding community - something the automobile has made less than an accurage description!
Yes, Pastor, I surely can be picky, sigh. If I believed in astrology I'd say it was my Virgo nature. But I don't believe in astrology.
A Catholic parish being part of a diocese has a far wider organizational structure. Plus, my parish priest is obligated to attend to the spiritual needs of all his parishioners whether they register, attend Mass daily, weekly or once a year or contribute so much as a dime.
The congregational structure makes much more sense in the American Lutheran environment.
Does the fact that I adore Lucy help at all to make reparation for my stubborness? :)
A Lutheran pastor also is obligated to attend to the spiritual needs of all his parishioners whether they attend the Divine Service every week or once in a year and utterly regardless of their offerings!
The fact that you adore Lucy makes great reparation. She is, in fact, adorable.
And if my daughter reads this and writes something untoward about her in favor of that wretched cat of hers, please ignore it. [Understand, I like cats too - but HER cat is a demon in cat's fur]. :)
Yes, Pastor, of course, but I have found that some Protestant pastors (not referring to you, of course) will remove folks from the rolls if they haven't attended after a specified period of time (seems logical to me).
I have to admit I love cats too, even those of the "demon" variety!
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