When someone is urged toward a new conviction, there's usually one or a few motivating factors. Something might be spurring you forward, something else may be driving you away.
(Being driven away from something is never a good reason by itself to adopt new ideas.)
If you know me or have spent any time here, you know I was raised GARBC Baptist and have never stopped considering myself a Baptist. "GARBC" stands for General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. You can learn more about them here >.
I've lately been worshiping at St Matthew Lutheran Church in Ada, MI. It's close-by and worships in a way I have missed for many years - an ordered, reverent, quiet reflection on Jesus, the same sort that I remember from childhood.
The first service I attended opened with the congregation singing "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," frequently sung at Bethel Baptist Church in Erie when I was a boy, and I'm sure still today.[1]
The compelling part:
St Matthew’s offers something else : I've come to believe over the past couple years a doctrine rejected by evangelical Protestants and my Baptist brothers and sisters - that Jesus is truly in the communion bread and wine ("real presence"). Not spiritually, not metaphorically or symbolically, or in the same sense that he is in our hearts or in the building - but physically really truly it and in it, and a channel of grace, so that when you ingest the bread and wine, you are taking something into you that cannot be accomplished any other way.[2]
I believe that when a minister consecrates the host with this intent, this transformation takes place.
I'm not a theologian, but after considered thought, these two points helped me understand communion in this way:
1. Jesus' own words in John >
2. The Emmaus Road story in Luke >, in which the risen Jesus remained a stranger until he broke bread, at which point he was recognized.
Our modern sensibilities regard real presence as superstition, but that's how Jesus described it and how the apostles and early church understood it.
There are some other things I find appealing about St Matthew's : They’ve also given me a very warm welcome, without which the peaceful service and real presence probably wouldn't have brought me back.
I have in the last couple years been fortunate to be welcomed by sensitive Christians interested in my journey. There’ve been exceptions, but not many.
My Catholic friends may think St Matthew is a miss as good as a mile and will pray for me. My Baptist friends may think I've lost my mind (though not my salvation) and will pray for me. Jesus is at both ends and everywhere in-between.
I wouldn't be here and probably wouldn't be a Christian if it weren't for my Great Grandpa Bauer, a Lutheran German immigrant. That doesn’t justify a choice one way or the other, but it's interesting nonetheless.
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The first half of the title of this blog entry is from the Roman rite of exorcism. You may recall it from the movie The Exorcist. It's the very same power in the bread and wine I've consumed at St Matthew's and I believe what drew me there. No difference at all.[2013-08-23]
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[1]
For those that haven’t heard it. Organ is performed by Bob Swift. I don't know him or which church this is, but it's a pretty rendition. Found it on Youtube.
[2]
Lutherans call it "Sacramental Union," and say that Christ's body and blood are present "in, with and under." Although Luther's view was different than the Roman Catholic view, he made it clear he believed in real presence and not the views then developing among Calvinists and others:
"Who, but the devil, has granted such license of wresting the words of the holy Scripture? Who ever read in the Scriptures, that my body is the same as the sign of my body? or, that is is the same as it signifies? What language in the world ever spoke so? It is only then the devil, that imposes upon us by these fanatical men. Not one of the Fathers of the Church, though so numerous, ever spoke as the Sacramentarians: not one of them ever said, It is only bread and wine; or, the body and blood of Christ is not there present.
Surely, it is not credible, nor possible, since they often speak, and repeat their sentiments, that they should never (if they thought so) not so much as once, say, or let slip these words: It is bread only; or the body of Christ is not there, especially it being of great importance, that men should not be deceived. Certainly, in so many Fathers, and in so many writings, the negative might at least be found in one of them, had they thought the body and blood of Christ were not really present: but they are all of them unanimous.”
– Luther’s Collected Works, Wittenberg Edition, no. 7 p, 391
"Ist ist ist" as Luther said (in German), "It is is is."
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