Book Review: The Meal Jesus Gave Us

The Meal Jesus Gave Us: Understanding Holy Communion, by Tom Wright

Ugh, how do I review this book?  Because, on the one hand, it was good.  So, so good.  It employs a great use of metaphor to help describe the Lord's Supper, it engages the history surrounding the Scriptural accounts of the Institution of Holy Communion (and its forerunner, Passover), it digs into Paul's discussions, it even takes up the relevant Greek in a couple places. 

I'd maybe even recommend it as a good "textbook" for confirmation or an adult study.

But it falls short in one key category: theology.  I am a good Lutheran (with strong RC leanings, no less), and the wishy-washy-ness of the Anglican confession sets off my warning bells. "...we have food in the present that acts as a symbol of God's future feeding..."  (pg. 62 - emphasis mine)  First-generation Reformers argued that "to treat the bread and wine as Jesus' body and blood was idolatry" (pg. 42).  Ack.  ACK. 

As I said before, I'm a good Lutheran.  I'm not willing to go so far as transsubstantiation, which is mostly to say that I don't know, I don't care, and I don't want to speculate on the precise metaphysical nature by which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Our Lord. What I need to know is that "this is my body" and "this is my blood."  But Wright hedges on this issue.  What's more important to him is that "this food, through the Spirit's mysterious work, is a true anticipation in the present of the food that will sustain us in the age to come.  And the name of that food is Jesus."  (pg. 63)

No.  No, no, no.  This food is what sustains us in the present, and yes, the name of that food is Jesus. 

I normally ♥ N.T. Wright.  He's fantastic.  But on this, we must disagree. 

 

Communion Practice

From Luther's Large Catechism:

Now, what is the Sacrament of the Altar?
Answer: It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and under the bread and wine which we Christians are commanded by the Word of Christ to eat and to drink.

Question: How do most Lutheran churches distribute the elements of the Sacrament of the Altar?  Especially, at the moment, I'm wondering about the wine, Our Lord's Precious Blood. 

Because here's my thing.  I'm good with a Common Cup, and with intinction.  But here's a few questions for the "individual shot glasses" situation.  Let's start with the "glass glasses." 

The altar guild picks them up on Monday morning to wash them, yes?

What's in them?

They're empty, you say?  They've been drunk from?

Are you sure about that?  Completely empty?  Not a single drop left?

Well...there's probably a drop...maybe two...in each glass.

A drop of what?  Wine, right?

And...what happens to it?  Tossed in the sink with dishsoap? 

Great, no problem.  If it's wine.

But is it "just" wine?  Or is it the Blood of Christ? 

And if it's the Blood of Christ, are we really comfortable just scrubbing it out and rinsing it down the drain?

...

On to the "plastic shot glasses."  A lot of churches, I think especially those that commune large numbers of people, use these for convenience's sake.  300 shot glasses is a lot to wash, no?  So we use plastic.  Sure.  Makes sense.  Go through the line, drink the wine...I mean, Blood...and at the final station you...toss it in a basket lined with a plastic bag.  After which it will be thrown away.  In that same dumpster as the leftover coffee cups and sticky donut napkins.

That empty shot glass.

Well, almost empty.



Is it weird that I think about these things?

Tales of a Country Parson, Vol. III

So, at church yesterday, I learned that when you are the pastor of a two-point parish, it's helpful if someone tells you that the reason all those bulletins are stacked outside your office door is because you need to take them with you to the second service 10 miles down the road.  That way, when you get there and the usher says, "Do you have the bulletins?", you don't have to say, "Um...no?" 

Anyway, all in all, things went really smoothly.  There's the requisite figuring out of the choreography of offering and communion, that sort of thing.  But in general, it went fine.  The Words of Institution aren't quite second-nature (read: totally memorized) to me yet, but one of the congregations does communion every week, so I'm I'll get there soon enough. 

My supervisor came down to preach, which was good, because "thou shalt hate everybody" is a heck of a text for a first sermon.  I did the rest of worship leadership, and managed to survive.  This is one of the advantages of a (reasonably) traditional worship service - the congregation knows what they're supposed to do, and so do I.  There were a few times of transition throughout the service where I had been nervous about what words I needed to use, but then I relaxed and just let my memory take over.  I was raised on the LBW liturgy, which is (basically) what these congregations use, and I found that I remembered more of it than I thought. 

The people were also all really nice, including at the second service when we didn't have bulletins.  It seems more and more like my parishoners have more grace for me than I have for myself, which should tell me something...seems like something I should have explored in CPE, but then, well, anyway....

Finally, as my supervisor and I were leaving in our separate vehicles after the second service, he said to me, "Excellent job today, see you Tuesday!"  I realized then that it had been an extraordinarily long time since anyone had given me totally unqualified praise like that.  Not "Excellent job, just work on getting the Words of Institution down."  Not "Excellent job, just remember the bulletins next week."  Not "Excellent job, but learn to talk louder."  Just, "Excellent job."  Not that I don't have plenty of things to work on, and I'm sure I'll find more.  But it's nice to know that I have a supervisor who will tell me when I do things well, because it's good for my self-confidence to hear that. 

So...1 down, 51 to go.  Time to get a jump on that sermon for next week!