Here, O my Lord, I see you face to face;
Here would I touch and handle things unseen,
Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,
And all my weariness upon you lean.
(Christian Worship 315:1/Lutheran Service Book 631:1)
Last week our Colonial North Conference (North Atlantic District-WELS) met for a conference focused on “God’s Gift to Us: The Lord’s Supper and Its Importance in the Life of the Church”. We had a great exegesis of Luke 22:7-20 and presentation of Formula of Concord: Article VII: Of the Holy Supper. I had opportunity to present the practical paper for our conference on the subject of “Encouraging Frequent Reception of the Holy Supper”.
That paper was one of the main reasons why The Shepherd’s Study has been rather quiet in the last couple weeks (apart from the usual busyness of ministry!). It was really quite a joy to study this subject, which only a couple years ago was a hot topic in our congregation here. So for your reading pleasure (or if you need sleep or something to put at the bottom of your bird cage…), I’ve provided a PDF copy of my paper below.
Here, O My Lord, I See You Face to Face:
Encouraging Frequent Reception of the Holy Supper
A simply excellent and enriching paper, Pastor Gumm. Thank you! (It also made me realize just how much I miss the Colonial North Conference, though I only tasted but a bite of its goodness.)
One comment from my admittedly extremely limited experience: I think “preaching to the sacrament” is a wonderful thing; I myself have done it in my sermons. But just as you kept a wonderful middle-road balance in the rest of your paper, I think this too requires a middle-road attitude. Preaching to the sacrament can be overdone and leave the impression with your people that the sacrament is THE highlight of the service, and perhaps that there is somehow more gospel in the Lord’s Table than there is in the read and preached Word all by itself. The Gospel in whatever form it takes in the service is the highlight of the service – be it in Word, water, or meal. So I think a balance needs to be struck between preaching to the sacrament and letting the sacrament preach to itself, so to speak.
I would welcome any further thoughts you have on this.
Again, the solid foundation of God’s Word coupled with your evangelical tone and concern for souls in your paper were refreshing beyond measure. Thank you!
Pastor Gumm, thank you for your paper.
I really appreciate the idea of “preaching to the Sacrament” (as differentiated from preaching about the Sacrament). If I understand the meaning correctly, “preaching to the Sacrament” means that you preach the law and gospel, and then exclaim, “Here is that very Gospel given for you!” If the pastor preaches to the Sacrament, then he must preach the gospel.
On the other hand, I’ve heard sermons about the Sacrament, and they are good; but I’ve also heard sermons about time management (among other things). At the end of a time management sermon, the pastor cannot say, “Here is the very thing that will help you better manage your time.” The Lord’s Supper doesn’t help us manage our time. Because the pastor did not “preach to the Sacrament,” he also did not preach the Gospel.
Therefore, I think the pastor should “preach to the Sacrament” every Sunday, every sermon, and every time he opens his mouth. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.” (1 Peter 4:11).
Rick,
Thank you for your comment. I wondered immediately after my post whether I had really understood Pastor Gumm’s use and distinction of preaching ABOUT the sacrament and preaching TO the sacrament. I think I blurred the two in my first post.
As I understand it, preaching ABOUT the sacrament happens when either A) a sermon has the sacrament as its entire focus and theme (of course entirely legitimate especially if the text is about our Lord’s institution of his Holy Supper) or B) a sermon includes a few or more lines, probably as the pastor is proclaiming the gospel in the narrow sense of the word, about how Jesus offers us forgiveness, new life, and salvation also in his Holy Supper.
Preaching TO the sacrament, as I understand it, happens when a pastor in his sermon shows the people their great need for our Lord’s free and faithful grace, so that they will want to “rush to the sacrament,” as Luther says. However, they will only rush to the sacrament if they know that the sacrament offers them just that – our Lord’s free and faithful grace. So, even though I blurred the distinction in my post, there IS some overlap between the two – preaching ABOUT and TO the sacrament.
But you were right, Rick. If a congregation does know what the sacrament offers, then simply preaching God’s law (showing them their need) and gospel (showing them the need filled by Christ) – whether you specifically mention the sacrament or not – is preaching to the sacrament.
However, this means that a sermon on time management can indeed be a preaching to the sacrament. For God certainly has things to say in his Word about how I use my time, and I certainly have fallen short of his expectations. Jesus, however, was the perfect manager of time in my place – he never let one second of his life fall idly to the ground. For this reason, I rush to the sacrament also to receive his forgiveness for my sins against God in this area of his will. (And the Holy Spirit through that forgiveness moves and enables me to be a better steward of my time.)
Thus, I wonder if the phrase “preaching to the Sacrament” is even needed. Pastors don’t preach the gospel because they want people to go to the sacrament, per se. They preach the gospel because the Word of their Lord and Savior of free and faithful grace commands and exhorts them to do so. Woe to them if they do not! And that free and faithful grace is found just as fully and richly in the spoken and read gospel as it is in the gospel in meal.
So yes, I will want to preach the gospel, and that means that on occasion (more or less frequently depending on my audience) I will want to preach ABOUT the sacrament, which also conveys the gospel and its blessings in addition to the spoken Word.
Again, I welcome any further thoughts from either you or Pastor Gumm.
Pastor Jake,
I thoroughly enjoyed your paper! Thank you so much for posting it .
Becky
@Becky, you’re very welcome!
@Pr. Biebert & Rick, re: the “preaching to the Sacrament” and “preaching about the Sacrament”.
Thank you for your insightful comments. It’s been neat to see the variety of discussions that have come from the paper as happened at our conference and happening here.
As Nathan noted well, the distinction between preaching “to” the Sacrament and preaching “about” the Sacrament is quite subtle, and I can see why one would question even making the distinction.
On the one hand, you could say that the phrase “preaching to the Sacrament” really is unnecessary because, God-willing, preaching “about” the Sacrament will always invite people to go “to” the Sacrament and as noted, the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus is always going to be our focus no matter the text.
At the same time, as was also noted, the Lord’s Supper in our preaching is going to be different depending on the tet and the occasion. In the lectionary, there are opportunities to preach “about” the Sacrament (e.g. Maundy Thursday – Words of Institution, 1 Corinthians 10-11, etc.). During non-festival times of the year, there are opportunities to offer a catechetical series on the 4 parts of the Holy Supper, a series on the Ordinary, etc., where you are helping God’s people to grow in their understanding and appreciation of the Sacrament.
On your average Sunday, however, when a text doesn’t usually have a reference to the Supper, you’re inclusion of the Sacrament in the sermon is going to be more of the preaching “to” the Sacrament kind – encouraging God’s people to partake of his Gospel gift given in a way that is just as great as the spoken and heard Word, but engaging in different ways through touch and taste and sight.
The time management example is an interesting one. I’ve failed in my stewardship of time. Christ managed it perfectly for me and paid for my guilt on the cross. Now I get to enjoy the benefits of his forgiveness and strength in his Holy Supper. Not really much “about” the Sacrament there, but a Gospel encouragement to partake of God’s grace in the Meal. In a sense, by doing that, as Wieting puts it in “Liturgical Preaching”, you’re “setting the table” in preparing God’s people to receive the Sacrament. (Makes you think a little about preaching “to” the Sacrament when it’s not offered…that’s another discussion.)
Certainly a subtle distinction that in a sense could be seen as a bit contrived, but I think it’s a distinction worth noting especially as we consider the variety of ways to encourage God’s people to frequently receive his Gospel gifts.
Nathan, I also think your concern in the first comment was still valid in that we need to be careful about setting the Supper above the Word, whether that was what you were responding to or not. I think Edmund Reim’s comment is particularly practical in that regard. In the many discussions and debates over frequency of Holy Communion, emphasizing one means over another can definitely be a danger.
So in the end, when it comes to our preaching and the Sacrament, preach the Gospel and in so doing keep pointing God’s people to the blessed means He has given to grant His grace – his Word and his Sacraments.
I hope that helps in this discussion. What do you think?
Great quote from Hermann Sasse that came to mind as I read the comments here:
“The Sacrament and the Sermon belong together, and it is always a sign of the decay of the church if one is emphasized at the expense of the other.”
(I don’t have the page number in front of me, but it’s from Sasse’s book about the Marburg Colloquey, “This is My Body.” I know it’s in the introduction of the work, so it’s on one of the first pages.(
I think the Sasse quote speaks well to both sides in this discussion (Word and Sacrament). We dare not let either the Sermon nor the Sacrament become Everest while the other is a mere foothill. Both are the powerful, efficacious Gospel, both are the place where the Spirit has determined to work. Emphasizing one to the expense of the other takes us to Rome and Geneva, there lies the loss of the Word AND the Sacrament.
Thanks for the quote, Ben. I seem to recall coming across that quote at some time and it’s well worth remembering in any discussion of frequency of Holy Communion.
Speaking of Sasse, here’s a quote that never made it into the paper, but one I found rather interesting regarding encouraging the frequent reception of the Supper. It immediately follows the Reim quote in the 1948 Quartalschrift. Reim quotes Sasse, who was in Erlangen at the time…
“It has nevertheless become more abundantly clear that there can be no worship revival without a rediscovery of the Real Presence. The worshippers (sic) must know what they receive in the Holy Communion before they can desire it again. It is not the beauty of the Communion Liturgy that can renovate the celebration of Holy Communion, which has fallen into desuetude even in some Lutheran churches. That can be accomplished only by a hunger and a thirst after that which is received at the Lord’s Table. Only faith in the Sacramental Gift to which the Catechism testifies can renovate our celebrations of Holy Communion and therewith our services. Everything else will remain mere fruitless religious estheticism which one can have in other religions as well.” (Quartalschrift – July 1948, pg. 175)
I can’t believe that you DIDN’T include that quotation, if only for the opportunity to use the word
“desuetude”
Ah, Sasse!
For anyone interested…
Here’s a link to a collection of quotations from the Confessions on what the Lutheran Church believes about the Holy Supper. Check it out!
http://cyberbrethren.com/2009/10/25/the-lords-supper-in-the-book-of-concord/
If you want a good example of preaching about the Sacrament and preaching to the Sacrament in the same sermon, check out Prof. Em. Daniel Deutschlander’s Maundy Thursday sermon, “Behold the Hidden Glory of the Cross: It Is Hidden in the Savior’s Feast”.
It can be found on pgs. 267-272 of his book “The Theology of the Cross: Reflections on His Cross and Ours”. The link for the book at Northwestern Publishing House can be found below.
http://online.nph.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?10418&productID=150746
C.F.W. Walther also brings out well why we encourage frequent reception of the Holy Supper on pgs. 354-355 of The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel. I’ve hyperlinked the title.