The Politics of Communion
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John
6:52 So the Jews fought toward one another saying, How is this
man able to give his flesh to eat? 53
So Jesus said to them, Amein, Amein, I say to you, if you eat not the flesh of
the Son of the man and drink not his blood, you all have not life in
yourselves. 54 The one eating of me the
flesh and drinking of me the blood has endless life and I will stand him up in
the last day. 55 For the flesh of mine
is true food and the blood of mine is true drink. 56 The one eating the flesh of mine and drinking the blood of
mine remains in me and I in him. 57 And
as the living Father sent me and I live on account of the Father, so the one
eating me, even that one, will live because of me. 58 Such is the bread – the one having descended out of the sky –
not as the patriarchs ate and died. The
one eating this bread will live unto the endless age.
59 This he said
in a synagogue in
Psalm 78 UMH
799
Ten Commandments Monuments
After years of
preaching, it seems natural that Holy Communion and Independence Day fall
together once a year. But to hear some
people, a state holiday and a holy day even sharing the same week should be
illegal. They tell us church and state
aren’t to mix because someone might be offended – or because some church might
take over. I’m surprised that some
groups haven’t sued over Communion on Sunday and Independence Day on Monday:
close enough together to be considered state-sponsored religion, I
suppose.
A bizarre Church
/ State decision passed the Supreme Court last week. Three separate Ten Commandments monuments came before the court:
two in
To me, the
church / state dispute about Ten Commandments monuments isn’t of much
concern. I’d be more interested if
those involved actually kept the Ten
Commandments instead of simply debating them.
I feel confident in saying that neither the advocates of monuments nor
the judges who weigh the tablets of His laws keep them, for to break one is to break all, says the Apostle.
Furthermore, “anyone who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (I John 2:4).
That’s a fairly
hard saying. But the Apostle doesn’t
stop there:
Whoever believes that Jesus is
the Anointed is a child of the Almighty, and whoever loves the Father loves the
son. In this way we know that we love His children, when we love Him and keep
His commandments. This is what the love
of the Almighty is all about: keeping his
commandments … because
every child of the Almighty overcomes the world. (1 John
5:1-4)
This pronouncement seems quite favorable to the mix of
faith and governance. Why so? Because theocracy is a heavenly government ruled by a benevolent
King who has designated us as emissaries to a yet
untamed world. The most obvious sign of
our heavenly allegiance and common affiliation is our rite of Holy
Communion. Communion affirms
our belief in the ultimate union of faith and government.
Church and State
As to the separation of church and state: such
is a 20th century concept based on a few words of the first
amendment to the Constitution:
Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; {or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.}
Where in that hallowed statement do we find the
impenetrable “wall of separation”?
A few with the
bullhorn see the imaginary wall: those with unlimited money out of
Consider the
recent “scandal” in the media about the Air Force Academy. One news source headlines the words, “Air
Force Academy Guilty of Religious Discrimination”; another writes, “Air Force
Academy Doing a Good Job for God.” My
personal experience with Air Force Academy students has convinced me that these
men and women are some of the most dedicated and decent young people I’ve ever
known. Indeed, I agree with the latter
headline, “The Air Force Academy IS doing a Good Job.” Evidently, God is still the co-pilot of many
young cadets.
Church and state
could no more be separated than bread and butter if the church is religion and the
state is politics. Politicians will
tell you that politics is a religion, just as churchmen affirm that religion is
political. Politics and religion are inseparable
– if intentions are right, one keeps the other honest. Honesty in government is the way of Heaven – but not the way of
humankind.
You and I are
seeking a soon-coming theocracy - a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT ruled solely by
Heaven’s child - the scion of David. We’ve
lived under antichrist long enough – over
six thousand years. Jesus and his
Host will soon return and that will end the church / state debate. Let me remind you that, as long as we await
him watchfully and actively, then the Kingdom is already here – we live each
day by the commander’s truths, rulings and ordinances. We’re in this world, but we’ve claimed to be
no longer OF it. Our allegiance is to another world - for “My kingdom,” quoth
he, “is not of this world.” Our lives are politically locked into the Eternal Word – he who carries the
government upon his shoulders.
I Pledge Allegiance
When we pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, we understand our
fidelity in terms of covenant - we’ll be loyal to the constitution of
our country, we’ll fight when sent forth (whether we agree or not), we’ll stand
behind our leaders, and we’ll not betray our nation to its enemies. It takes HUGE faith to pledge allegiance to
a polyester symbol! Yet we vow
ourselves to the state with a sacred, yea religious, vow: We pledge ourselves
over to the Republic for which it stands.[1]
The Republic has
great military might to defend “we the people.” The vestiges of its might are
all about us. During hurricane Ivan,
“we the people” got a first-hand look at the compassion of our forces; the national guard made “we the people”
feel secure and saved hundreds of lives.
Military might through the lens of a natural disaster was quite
different than through the lens of Shock and Awe; however, again “we the
people” feel secure in knowing that the weapons of our warfare are the most
awesome on earth.
How could the
In a few
minutes, we the people of the United States of America will pledge allegiance
to a different Sovereignty – one in which no tangible power can be readily
observed by eye nor perceived by intellect.
It’s a sovereignty of Spirit and Truth.
The King rules behind the scenes, unlike our popular president in
Imagine: we
enter his gates and pledge bodies, souls, minds, hearts, deeds and spirits to a
dead man, publicly assassinated by the Empire, yet a man who wrestled death
and defeated it not only for himself, but for all who’ll believe. Our Majestic King lives forever – even in
the here and now – even within the bodies and hearts and minds and
chapels of His people, and the spaces in between.
For thus says the high and lofty
One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy
place, and also with him who is of a repentant and humble spirit, to revive the
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the repentant. For … from me proceeds the spirit, and I
have made the breath of life. Peace,
peace, to the far and to the near, says Yahweh; and I will heal [you].” Isaiah 57:15,16,19
The Pledge to His
Kingdom
Yes, a healing
is required to attain citizenship of this great Kingdom; no written test will
do. One must be born again from above –
for what is flesh is flesh and what is spirit is spirit, and flesh can’t
rightly inhabit the unseen Kingdom. His
Holy Constitution must be diligently kept, precept upon precept, as a pledge of
allegiance to his Sovereignty and his Monarchy. Thus we pledge not in words
only, but in spiritual worship and mysterious rituals: the primary rite is
recorded in Matthew 26:26-29:
The King took bread, gave thanks
and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is
my body. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Kingdom sisters and brothers, we eat and drink HIM even as
we eat and drink TO him.
From the very
first, this EATING has been considered more than controversial; it’s
been deemed an act of treason - uncivil, irreligious, against country and
common sense. The source of the
controversy is the bold words of the Ever-living King himself:
(John 6:53-56) I tell you the
truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you are
not even alive; but whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and
my blood is real drink. (NIV)
This is a
radical, political concept – bulldozing a vast breach in the dividing
wall between church and state: Would we pledge allegiance to an invisible King
of a state in an alternate reality by changing bread into flesh and wine into
blood, then eating and drinking flesh and blood in a pledge of allegiance to
that which can’t even be seen? It’s
absurd. It’s no wonder history records that “From this time on many of his political
allies turned back and no longer followed him.”
The Food and Drink
of the Heavenly Republic
How does that
strike you? Do we ever consider what kind
of cosmic statement we make when, centuries and centuries later, we fall upon
our knees to eat and drink Him? Do we consider the radical claims we make when
we consume a Man in this manner? Or has it just become ritualized to the point
to which the King is no longer able to form himself into the tiny elements we
consume, nor be carried bythe tiny blood cells that circumnavigate our bodies?
Have we the faith anymore? Is what the
King told us about his body and blood truth anymore? Do we believe him? Do you
believe him? As someone said to me
Wednesday night, “How do we know you’re not LYING!” Good question. Ask him
who can’t lie.
One Catholic
writer relates a discussion he had with his new Lutheran wife about this very
matter:
We never argued about religion,
that beautiful Lutheran woman and I. We did have many discussions, especially
in those first two years of marriage. Once she asked me to explain the
difference between Lutheran and Catholic teachings on the Lord’s Supper. I dug
up a copy of Luther and paced the floor and I quoted that the sacrament “is the
true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the disguise of bread and
wine....” Then I pulled down my old Catholic Catechism and read: “After the
substance of the bread and wine had been changed into the substance of the body
and blood of our Lord there remained only appearances of bread and wine.”
Catholics, I explained, believe that the Real Presence means Jesus is there -
body, blood, soul, and divinity - and there’s no longer a crumb we can call
bread or a drop we can call wine.
That beautiful Lutheran woman, whose understanding was so much
more Lutheran and less dogmatic, looked up at me from her chair - and laughed.
My eyebrows went up. “What’s so funny?” “You don’t believe that,” she said.
“Yes I do.” “No you don’t,” she replied. “If you do believe that
Jesus is there in the bread and the wine, all body, soul, spirit, flesh, blood,
humanity and divinity, and that there’s no longer a crumb we can call bread or
a drop we can call wine, then why don’t you ever go to church?”[2] {OOO!
That hurts!}
Eating a Man is
a radical concept. It’s a fine for
mind-eating only or some philosophical or symbolic kind of eating. But when we come to kneel and receive, ¿
will we take the actual body and blood of Jesus into our hands, upon our lips,
against our tongues, down our throats into the abyss of our stomachs, to be
digested and invested in our flesh and blood and being? Yes, we will, in a very real, tangible,
spiritual sense. And do we really
experience the transformation of the heavenly nutrients at the cellular
level? And do we really appreciate our
transmutation from the principality known as The Dominion of Darkness to the
New Eden of the Son? We can; we
should. And by sheer faith, we shall.
To receive this
eternal truth by faith in HIS Word is a great deal of what it takes to
actually gain eternity. If we truly
believe, why don’t we put aside our pitiful, selfish attempts at person control
and godhood and humbly and gratefully approach the table of the
Spirit who took the form of a man to die for you? And why don’t we serve his body every Sunday - or every
single day of the week, for that matter, in both our chapels, homes and
hearts? If the Almighty so strongly
witnesses to this practice - even to the extent of commanding it - then
shouldn’t we believe him and obey his call to eat and drink? {Office
Communions}
The Final Promise
Anyone may come
who’ll believe it all about him, have utmost faith in him, venture
toward abiding in him, utterly consume him – and become him. It takes a lot of faith for that – more than
faith – it takes a new birth. A gallant
friend of the King writes to us one last testament about Him – and it’s purely
church and state. The Beloved Disciple
writes:
1 John 5:13-15 I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the Son of Yahweh so that you may know
that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in
approaching the Almighty: that if we ask anything according to his will,
he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we
have what we asked of him.
Just like the
promise spoken from the mouths of political hopefuls for two hundred
twenty-nine years. “I’ll give you anything you want, if you’ll vote for
me.” The difference here is that the
promise comes not from the mouth of a lying campaigner, but from the One who’s
utterly incapable of lying.
Prepare your
heart now to receive a Kingdom that was established for you upon Love’s
foundation in the Light of Truth from the beginning of creation – where the
separation of church and state vanishes when the King, to you my friend,
appears in bread and wine, and love and power.
Amein.
Father, may we as nation be
guided by the Divine to rediscover our national heritage, which so many have
given their lives to safeguard; Let the wounds of separation and division be
healed by opening our hearts to listen to the truth, allowing us to find a
higher truth; May we learn to honor and enjoy our differences as a people, even
as we more deeply touch our fundamental unity; May we draw forth individuals to
lead our nation who embody courage, compassion and a higher vision; May our
leaders inspire us, and we so inspire each other that a new spirit of
forgiveness, caring and honesty be born herein; May we move with clear,
directed purpose to help build a better future for all humankind; May we as a
nation rededicate ourselves to living as one nation, under G-d, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all; And may Yahweh’s Will be done for our country, as
we, the people, align with that Will.
Amen.