“Remembrance of Me” 1 Cor. 11.23–26, Maundy Thur., April ‘19

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word on this Maundy Thursday is taken from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, it’s entitled, “Remembrance of Me,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                You see them on the side of the highway almost anywhere in the country: little shrines with a cross and a few plastic flowers. Some may be neatly mowed. Some are marked by solar lights. In the Southwestern part of the United States, they’re called descansos, the Spanish word for “rest.” In South Dakota, since 1979, the state puts up a little sign that says “Think” on one side and “Why die?” on the other. In all cases, they mark the spot where someone died in a car crash. At the spot where death occurred, they proclaim that person’s death quietly but clearly. 

3.                Today we have something that’s more than a sign, more than a memorial, but a sacrament that reminds us of the death of Jesus. He assigned it for that purpose at the first Lord’s Supper in an upper room on the night he was betrayed, the night before he died. Those roadside shrines do make you think, just as the state of South Dakota intends. Think about wearing your seat belt. Think about distracted driving. Think about alcohol use. Think about excessive speed. Think. The Lord’s Supper also makes you think . . . about Jesus. Do this in remembrance of him who died. Proclaim his death. Those signs can’t keep you from having a car crash. This sacrament can forgive your sins, strengthen your faith, and give you eternal life.  Jesus Causes His Death to Be Remembered So That People Have Life. 

4.                It didn’t take long for people to forget about Jesus’ death when they came together for the Lord’s Supper. Paul says sternly in 1 Cor 11:20–21, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.” Wow, that’s really forgetting Jesus! They didn’t believe and didn’t receive the benefits of the Lord’s Supper. They had only their own meal with whatever temporary effect it could have on the body. They had only their own social gathering with whatever effect it had on their spirits. They may not have even had the social benefits because Paul said, “when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you” (11:18). The Lord’s Supper is for those who are united in the faith that has been given in God’s Word. The Holy Spirit calls people to faith by the Gospel, so in God’s Supper, there is unity as people confess the same faith, united at the altar in remembrance of Jesus, proclaiming his death. Since those who receive the Lord’s Supper “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (11:26), Paul warned people that the abuse of the Lord’s Supper—forgetting Jesus’ death—would make them “guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (11:27). What God intended for the good of their souls would be the opposite. Instead of forgiveness and strength, there was judgment and even death (11:29–30). That’s not the kind of death that God desires to be connected with the Lord’s Supper.

5.                There are still problems with us when we come together for the Sacrament of the Altar. I’m happy to say that they’re not the kind of problems Paul heard about at Corinth. But we struggle sometimes on this unity issue. We’re so used to having things our way that we forget whose supper it is. It’s the Lord’s Supper, but sometimes it seems we want it to be something else. We want it to be our supper… a private thing between each individual and God, and then it can mean whatever the individual wants. We don’t like to remember death and the cross all the time, so we try to put a more positive spin on the Lord’s Supper.

6.                It’s like society’s distaste of death that leads to calling a funeral a celebration of life. To avoid even saying the word death, it’s common to hear that someone “passed.” Some folks even think those roadside reminders of where someone died in a car crash are inappropriate. In Orlando, Florida, a radio announcer offered free T-shirts to anyone who would tear one down and bring it to the station. Enough lawsuits have been filed over crosses appearing alongside public roads that some states only allow a plain white sign. People don’t want to be reminded of religion or death. Yet the Sacrament of the Altar is a visible sign combined with the Word of God to make not only a reminder of Jesus’ death but to cause a participation in that death to take place for those who commune. 

7.                Still, we sometimes focus more on the eating and drinking than we do on the Word of God and the faith created by that Word. There’s a Tennessee Williams short story about a shy man who married the love of his life and quietly ran a bookstore. But, his wife wanted adventure and left to join a theater group. Her husband gave her a key to the store, trusting their love would bring her back. So, he waited and grieved. Fifteen years later, she expected to surprise him. But he didn’t recognize her! He asked what he would ask any customer. “Do you want a book?” So, she answered yes, but that she’d forgotten its name. She said it was about childhood sweethearts—a newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore, and a young, ambitious wife who left to seek adventure but could never forget the key her husband gave her. She waited for him finally to recognize her, but after a long pause, he said it’s familiar and he thought it was something by Tolstoy. He forgot the purpose of his waiting and grieving. All the man could remember was the waiting and grieving itself. 

8.                Christ, the Bridegroom, who loves us more than anyone, has left us this key, this Sacrament, this powerful gift. We should recognize the Lord’s body and blood, remembering him and the love he showed in dying for us on the cross. “Do this in remembrance of me.” And we keep doing it, as Scripture says in 1 Cor 11:26, “until he comes.” But, have we focused so much on other things that we don’t even recognize him nor remember his death? Here’s the question: Will we no longer know the purpose of our eating and drinking and have only the eating and drinking itself?  Jesus Causes His Death to Be Remembered So That People Have Life. 

9.                The words “do this in remembrance of me” are a central part of the Lord’s institution of the Sacrament of the Altar. But what is “this”? Do what? Luther’s Small Catechism asks, “How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?” Then it answers, “Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins.’ ” So, the words of Christ, not our actions, are doing something. The Word is the main thing. Then it goes on, “He is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the remission of sins.’ ” God has tied a bright string around the finger of the Church in this Sacrament. He causes his death on the cross to be remembered. He causes the forgiveness of sins to be remembered so that his people have life by his blood. 

10.             Most people remember how the giving of a life saved their life. Every Friday night until his death in 1973, Eddie Rickenbacker walked along the Florida coast with a bucket of shrimp, feeding seagulls. Years before, this war hero and businessman was in a plane that crashed at sea. For almost a month he and his fellow survivors fought the water, the weather, the scorching sun, the sharks, and starvation. After eight days, when their food was gone, Rickenbacker pulled his hat over his eyes and fell asleep. He woke up when a seagull landed right on his head! Rickenbacker grabbed the gull. They ate what they could and used the rest for bait to catch fish. Their bodies were fed and their hope renewed because a lone seagull, hundreds of miles from where it normally would have been, became a sacrifice. After they were rescued, Rickenbacker remembered how that gull gave itself without a struggle; he remembered by feeding other gulls every Friday night. How much, much more has Jesus done for us in offering himself to death so that we have life! 

11.             Throughout our Lenten services, we’ve been looking at the word remember and how it’s an active remembering. Something happens when God remembers or when God causes us to remember. God has filled the Lord’s Supper with power so that it’s far more than a ritual, far more than just the act of eating and drinking. “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24). Proclaim Christ’s death because in that death, he has given us life. There’s an eating and drinking, but it’s not the main thing of the Sacrament. God’s Word is still for us the main thing in the Sacrament. Question 364 in the Explanation of the catechism asks, “How can bodily eating and drinking give us such great spiritual benefits as forgiveness, life, and salvation?” It is “the words of Christ—together with His body and blood under the bread and the wine—that are the means through which forgiveness is bestowed.” 

12.             God has powerfully placed such life and salvation into the Lord’s Supper. Does our examination of ourselves show sin and weakness that cancels those benefits? Not at all. The Sacrament forgives our sins and strengthens our weaknesses. Again, the catechism says “he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the remission of sins.’ ” God’s powerful Gospel word gives us faith to believe his words of life.  Jesus Causes His Death to Be Remembered So That People Have Life.

13.             Since God causes us to remember the death of our Lord, and since biblical remembering involves an action, what action does God cause to happen in us after the Lord’s Supper? “Depart in peace.” This is the condensed version of the words we sing after Communion: “O Lord, now let Your servant Depart in heav’nly peace, For I have seen the glory Of Your redeeming grace” (LSB, p 211). Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your heart and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.