The Lord’s Table

Jody Winston

July 23, 2006

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
All of my family enjoys cooking meals from scratch. From the youngest to the
oldest, everyone likes helping to prepare food. We all have different things that
we consider to be our specialty. My wife’s specialty is cakes, my daughter enjoys
cooking Indian food, my oldest son likes to cook food from the Far East, and the
rest of the boys all have items that they love to make. I personally enjoy making
different types of breads.
My favorite bread both to make and to eat is known as “peasant bread.” The
recipe for this bread is simple. You need about six handfuls of good whole-wheat
flour, two or three pinches of sea-salt, a pinch of yeast, and enough warm wa-
ter to make the dough. Proof the yeast, combine the remaining ingredients with
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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the proofed yeast, knead into a ball, place the dough in an open container, and
leave undisturbed in a warm humid area for at least twelve hours. After allowing
the dough to rest, briefly knead the dough and return it to its open container for
another twelve hours. Form one loaf and bake it in a humid oven until the loaf
sounds hollow, which is about ninety minutes. Let the bread cool before cutting
and serving it with butter or cheese.
It seems like everyone loves this bread’s texture and taste. The loaf’s surface
has a hard crust and the bread has a substantial consistency. The bread’s flavor is
slightly tangy and it goes well with hearty foods.
Eating this style of bread uses every sense. You see the bread’s appearance.
You smell the earth’s bounty in the bread. You touch it in your hand and it feels
good in your mouth as you chew it. As your teeth break the bread, you hear the
crust crumble. You then taste the bread’s unique combination of slight acidity
along with the wheat and the salt. In short, this bread fills every one of your senses
with something good.
The bread’s benefits continue as the your body digests the bread since the
bread provides the body with needed calories and elements.
It is difficult to understand how the simple ingredients of flour, water, salt, and
yeast form something that is so satisfying. I do not think that any single individual
or even any group of people can completely explain either why the smell of freshly
made bread is so pleasing or why peasant bread is so good. I know that when I eat
this bread, I just enjoy how it feels and what it provides me.
It is easy to see why many people would name the twenty-third psalm as their

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favorite. The pastoral scene with its images of green grass and calm waters invoke
in us a sense of calmness. The Shepherd, who only desires for His flock the best
that He can provide, models for us a form of government that we can only hope
to experience. The day where no one has to want for anything is only a dream for
humanity.
This psalm’s writer appeals to every one of our senses. We can almost see the
green grass, the water, our Shepherd, and the other sheep that make up His flock.
We can practically smell the rich food that He has placed on the table. It seems
that if we just reach out our hands, we then would be able to touch all of this. Our
mouths cannot wait to taste the meal that our Shepard has prepared for us.
The beautiful images found in this psalm have often been compared to the
meal that we share together. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has brought us together
today. He has provided us with what we will eat at this Meal: the bread and the
wine.
Just because we know what goes into the Sacrament of Holy Communion does
not mean that we can fully understand the Meal. No one, not even Martin Luther,
can ever completely explain what occurs during the Lord’s Supper. What Luther
did instead was to teach us that Holy Communion was an event that we should
love.2
To reinforce this basic teaching of the church, Luther, like the early church
fathers, never provides us with an exhaustive description of what exactly occurs
2
The idea that we should adore the sacrament and not explain it is found in Luther’s Works
Volume 38.

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during this Sacrament. Instead, Luther provides us with what could be described
as a recipe for Holy Communion.
The first ingredient in the Meal is Jesus Christ. Jesus is truly here during the
Lord’s Supper since this is His meal that we serve at His command. His presence
at Holy Communion is just the same as when He lived His life here on earth. He
comes to us as true God and true man. If we forget one or the other idea, then
trouble occurs. On the one hand, if we fail to remember that Jesus is God then we
are only remembering a man. On the other hand, if we leave behind the truth that
Christ is a man, not only do we deny the Scriptures and the Confessions but we
also deny God’s physical presence with us.
The first direction for this process and the most important one of all is to
remember Jesus’ order to “do this.” Because of this command, we do exactly what
He tells us to do. We neither add anything to His Meal nor do we take anything
away. When we follow His command and “do this,” Jesus promises us that we will
remember Him and that He will do the same and remember us.
The next ingredients are the bread and the wine. In Holy Communion, the
gathering that worships the risen Lord is given the unexceptional gifts of bread and
wine. This gift from God for those gathered around the table becomes exceptional
because the bread and the wine becomes Jesus. When this happens, we can say
that the bread and the wine are the “Visible Word” of God. This Word of God,
found in the form of the bread and wine, is completely identical to the spoken
Word of God except for one vital difference. This Word is received through the
mouth and not through the ears.

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 The community that consumes the Meal is the final ingredient. This group
who has received the Visible Word is also changed and expanded because when
we eat this Meal, we join with every other community that has ever or will ever
receive the Lord’s Supper.
This brings us to the next step. In the Lord’s Supper, time and space collapse.
The past becomes the present. Jesus, true God and true man, is here with us just
like He was with the disciples. Nothing has changed. The future is now. Not only
do we look forward to the great feast to come where we will join with all the
believers at Christ’s Table but we are also celebrating that future reality here and
now. In this meal, these two times are continually mixed together. When we re-
ceive the Lord’s Supper, we are thanking Jesus for His victory at Calvary very
over death and the devil. As we recall Jesus’ suffering on the cross, we celebrate
the fact that God has already accepted us before the final judgment. At this table,
distance no longer matters. We join in the Lord’s Supper with all the saints: those
in the Church here on earth, those already in Heaven, and those believers who are
yet to come.
Finally, the Lord’s Supper is our meal for the journey. Christ has given us this
meal to strengthen and sustain us as we do His will. When we leave this place,
we will go into the world. There we will teach others about Christ, we will train
others to take our place, and we will offer Baptism for the forgiveness of sin.
Unfortunately, we often forget that this Meal is Jesus’ Supper and we are His
invited guests. Some of us desire to be the guest of honor and sit at the place of
privilege. When we take the place at the head of the table, we push God off to

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the side. Others of us wish to decline Christ’s invitation to eat with Him. We tell
God that we do things by our schedule and that no one can tell us what to do. We
say that when we have the time, we will come to the meal. The problem with us
relying on our own calendar is that we might miss a meal and go to bed hungry.
And yet others of us want to set the table to our own liking. We want to do things
our way. We do not remember that we are God’s guests that should be following
God’s rules. When we do things our own way, others will see us as controlling or
childish.
Because we are all sinful humans, none of us should be able to come to Holy
Communion. We only gather around the table because God has called us to this
Meal. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has set this Table for us in the presence of our
enemies. He has promised us that we will be welcomed here. It does not matter to
God who we are. God does not care about our background, our race, our age, or
even our intellect. All that God wants is for us to come to the Table and eat with
Him.
The Lord’s Supper is our gift from God. Jesus comes to us and wants us gath-
ered around the table with Him. He gives us His blessings and then He sends us
on our way. These gifts, just like the Meal or a good loaf of homemade bread, fill
all of our senses and leave us with the want for more. But do not ask me how this
occurs. All I know is that when I eat this bread and drink this cup, I enjoy the gifts
the God has given us. Come to the Table so that you might taste and see that the
Lord is good.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and

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minds through Christ Jesus.”3

3
Philippians 4:7.