On the Mystery of the Eucharist

It has been asserted that, after the Reformation, the Protestant denominations have forgotten the true meaning of the Eucharist. Let me offer a short clarification to partially refute this allegation. The complaint of most Protestant churches is that the Catholics are performing the ritual with a wrong intention and understanding of what the Lord's Supper actually means. They say it is wrong to crucify Christ again and again. Perhaps this is close enough to strike home, or perhaps the exchange of accusations needs a closer look.

As Martin Luther took pains to point out, in the Eucharist there are two kinds of reality present: the ordinary material, and the spiritual Presence of Christ. He called it "consubstantial" in the same way as the three Persons of the Trinity are "of the same substance" in the Nicene creed. 

For the Orthodox Church, the transformation of the elements is to be regarded as a mystery, and we should stand in awe of the imminent Presence of Christ with us during worship. When Jesus said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you," He meant that He was the true bread, the true food come down from Heaven. The disciples did not grasp his meaning when He said it, but knew these were the Words of eternal life. They knew that to speak of a mystery by way of metaphor does not make the statement any less true.

There is no other way to approach this than to regard it as a mystery of recognizing the Presence of Christ within and alongside the physical elements of bread and wine. What need is there to assert that the elements are no longer what they appear to be? In the spiritual reality of the ritual, they are MORE than they appear to be. The realm of Spirit does not need to be visible to be present. If pressed on the deep theology in this, I think most Protestant pastors might concur. To say that it is merely symbolic is overly simplistic and lazy thinking.

In practice, the infrequent ministry of the Eucharist seems to be a shame. We lose part of our connection to the Body of Christ, the Church, when we let our worship in the Lord’s Supper attenuate. It is not necessarily a sacramental practice of administering a flow of grace to offer this, but it is an opening of our hearts to allow God to reach inside of us and renew his Spirit to dwell within us. If we seek to grow in the fruit of the Spirit, we will always desire this. Even the offering of our hearts to Jesus every day should not be regarded as too often.

That indwelling is the reason why we need to confess our sins beforehand. The Spirit will not dwell where sin remains. This can equally be done in private prayer, if there is no felt need for counsel and verbal absolution. The communal prayer of confession is adequate for sins that do not weigh heavy on our hearts. For those that trouble our conscience, a more intentional confession to God, or if worse, before a pastor may be needed. 

We need to come to the Lord's table with clean hands and a pure heart in order to receive the full mercy and gift inherent in this act of communion with Jesus. To come without confession can be an insult, and grieve the Spirit. Only in reconciliation can the Eucharist do its best work for our continuing progress in sanctificaton.

So let us regard the ritual offering of the Eucharist not as the repetition of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, as if He could need to die for us again. God forbid! Rather, the Lord's Supper is the manifestation of His Presence in the communion of his people coming together as his Body still in the world, but not of it. To do this, as often as we come together, is the obedience to his commands that we promised when He was with us. "Do this in Remembrance of Me." If we do not remember Him, for what reason have we gathered? We come not just for a social occasion, but to encounter the Living Christ and hear his Words spoken into our hearts. For this we gather to worship the God who created us for the sake of Love, and we accept his invitation to eat the Bread of Life and drink to the forgiveness of our sins. What a happy opportunity to participate in the Banquet of Heaven! 

Why Must We Preserve the 2nd Amendment?

1. Every time you disarm law-abiding citizens, you embolden the criminals who carry guns. Making penalties harsher makes criminals more likely to resist getting caught, but if the price of crime is high enough, it deters normal people from going bad. Normal people should have guns. Then the criminals will think twice before doing bad stuff. 

2. The politicians are not afraid to infringe on the Constitution, because we do not use our rights to gather in organized citizen militias. We need to assert our power as citizens to pressure politicians to allow the Constitution to mean exactly what it says. An annual parade of armed citizens waving the flag and proclaiming "Don't Tread on Me" in support of the 2nd Amendment will effectively end the argument. It would be great for the 4th of July. Because as Thomas Jefferson declared, God created us with certain inalienable rights, and we must not let corrupt politicians take them away from us.

Let the police calculate daily just what it could mean if they dare to abuse ordinary citizens. That's not a threat. It's the retention of the power to demand their dismissal. And let the criminals beware the imminent danger they face when attacking armed citizens. Only armed citizens will truly enjoy the freedoms that they can demand and protect. 

3. Our Founding Fathers believed that they could trust us to bear arms. They saw how armed patriots could make a nation free. Also, they saw the example of Switzerland, where the citizens are required to possess skill with firearms. Switzerland has never had a "gun problem." Every Swiss citizen over the age of 12 can hit a 2-inch bullseye at 100 yards. They don't have gun crime. BUT, none of the surrounding nations dares to attack Switzerland. 

We could stand to be a little more like Switzerland, with competitive shooting sports and civil defense clubs, to keep people safe (and warn the criminals). That is what the Founding Fathers meant to say, after all, and it would certainly strengthen our Constitution, and deter any enemies of our Nation. 

4. It's not about safety. It's about freedom. It's about citizens being able to protect their own and their children's lives, and their homes and property. It's about citizens being able to protect America and the Constitution that preserves the ideals that make us free. Any politician who wants to infringe the 2nd Amendment has dreams of making us slaves to a totalitarian system. We can have some rules for accountability without disarming responsible citizens. 

All of our enemies know that America has enough guns to repel an invasion. That's why they support the liberal politicians who are trying to take our gun rights away. Follow the money. 

5. We should insist that every politician take self-defense classes and carry their own protection. Then they will know the value of the 2nd Amendment, and the responsibility for handling a weapon safely. It should be a prerequisite for going into politics. Then they won't need so much extra security.

6. We need to organize an "Armed but Peaceful Protest" surrounding the State Capitals in every case where they are debating our 2nd Amendment rights, and verify that those rights were preserved before we disperse and go home. I doubt the police would want to interfere. It's their job to support law and order, not to provoke disorder. On occasion, "We the People" need to remind the government that it serves us, rather than weakly allowing them to impose controls whenever they please. Failure to respect and preserve the Bill of Rights is sufficient grounds for immediately dismissing politicians from civil service. 

7. We need to demand a binding uniform resolution to establish the 2nd Amendment across all 50 states and all of our territories as mandatory, to end this ridiculous charade of pretending that we need to limit gun ownership for the sake of "public safety." Disarming responsible citizens merely encourages criminals and gives politicians too much opportunity to impose despotism. If we allow the various States to impose their own interpretations upon the Bill of Rights, soon we will have no rights, and no means to regain them. If it takes a series of Federal legislation to forbid any kind of "infringement" of our legal right to carry a firearm, then let's have the Congress spell it out clearly, once and for all time. But, the Founding Fathers thought that the few words they wrote should be clear enough. "No infringement" means "no nibbling away around the edges" to limit our God given rights.

8. Maybe, we could be required to sign up to join an "organized and disciplined militia" that teaches a required free "gun safety" class to anyone without a felony record, and offers monthly drill weekends for any who wish to attend. It should be organized by veterans, not the police. Let it be a part of everyone's public education in high school. The practice need not be as onerous as the drills required of our National Guard, but for those who wish it, let them train to military standards. In truth, they are the Reserve who will defend us when the homeland is threatened. 

If passing that safety class is necessary for buying a gun, I don't see it as too much of a burden. Many of us are willing to do that much to get a "Carry Concealed Weapon" (CCW) license. It could reasonably be a condition of gun ownership, even in "Constitutional Carry" states, since it obeys the letter of the Law. Just carry your "Militia license" just as you carry a driver's license. Then, even if you never buy a gun, no one can say that you can't own one. 

9. Our 2nd Amendment rights are not a privilege given us by government. The power to govern us is a privilege we grant to politicians, for so long as we approve of their policies. Our right to carry firearms is the guarantee that we retain the power to dismiss the governors when they become tyrants. Moreover, the widespread ownership of weapons is the other side of protecting the rights of minorities from being trampled by the majority. If it's not worth a civil war, cooperation with discussion will remain the common order of the day. We need not take dissent beyond protest and civil disobedience when it is clear that we are exercising proper restraint. Any fair government will recognize when the time has come to listen and be flexible. 

10. Do you fear that we will go back to the old "Wild West"? You've been watching too much television. That time was dangerous only because they lived on the edge of lawless territory. Criminals thought they could hide beyond the frontier, and few would chase them. There is no frontier today. Chasing the bad guys is what we pay our police to do.

11. There are some people out there who will say that Christians should be above all of this, that we should be pacifists. They are the ones who wish to slap us with impunity. They want to control us while we turn the other cheek. It is true that God gave us the morality that says killing each other is wrong, but there are those who rebel and refuse to value the Image of God that He created in us. They are the ones we would deter by carrying the means of self-defense. Jesus told us to love one another, but He also said to sell our cloaks to buy a sword. We are allowed to defend ourselves in the last resort.

We do not seek conflict; we seek to create a space for peace. We hope to cause corrupted people to hesitate, to consider better alternatives, before attempting to take advantage or to impose their will. If God wills, a world that relents, and repents from violence, may yet be transformed into his Kingdom. That aim may be beyond the strength and wisdom of ordinary people, but He promised to support our efforts. Yes, there is a time to flee from evil, rather than counter violence with more violence, but there is also a time to resist. We would wish to be able to offer mercy to our fellow humans, and that is why we impose the rule of Law. 

12. But we do not fight only against men. God's Ten Commandments say, "Do not Murder." That doesn't mean we must surrender and accept another era of slavery in Egypt. The false gods have not gone away. They still seek to impose their idolatry and deceiving ideologies on this world. It is their corruption that we must fight when we are reclaiming our homeland for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If we are forced into civil war to defend our existence as a nation, so be it. We have been a beacon of Freedom for 250 years, and we will not let that flame go out on our watch. 

America was founded on Biblical principles to give us justice and a democratic republic, and that is the reason why God stands with us when we are threatened by those who would take our freedom to enjoy the American way of life. We established the freedom to seek God, each according to his own conscience, and to worship together as we believe is right and fitting. We will not let anyone take that away. The State shall never assume the power to impose any foreign or heretical religion on our people. That, too, is in that Bill of Rights which we defend.