What it Means to be Lutheran - Week 6

[00:00:31] Speaker A: On what it means to be Lutheran. This is the third week that we've been talking about the sacraments. It's just kind of a lot to cover there and talk about. Today we're going to be considering the sacrament of the altar. But let's begin with prayer. Heavenly Father, you know us. You made us, you know our sin and wretchedness. You know our sinful condition. You sent your son Jesus for us to meet our need to draw us back to you through himself, to forgive our sins and remake us in himself. And we ask that you would strengthen our faith through this time together, and that you would give us wisdom, that you would turn our eyes to look to Christ and not to swerve from him. In Jesus name. Amen. And then, Aaron, could we get the slides on the back wall, too? That'll help me. All right. Well, this morning I included the same review that we did last time, because part of the point of this is that we're kind of laying out a way of organizing what it means to be Lutheran and how our theological understanding works, and then it applies to all these areas. So last week we discussed baptism, and we saw that it's not just water that does such great things, but it's the word of God with the water. We'll see something similar here. So let's run through a little bit of review of what we've been talking about. So, again, the sacrament, as the Lutherans were defining it, instituted by Christ, it includes a physical element, and it confers grace. It actually, something's happening, and you actually receive. It's a means of grace. It's a way in which God gives us his grace. Applies to baptism, applies to the Lord's supper. Again, Lutherans in the time of the Reformation, and I would say still today, were situated between two extremes. One extreme emphasized the physical, the other extreme emphasized the spiritual, and each neglected the other. And the lutheran position is in the middle of distinguishing the physical and the spiritual. So the roman catholic approach could be summarized by ex opera operato. The thing counts because it's being done physically. The priest says the right words, and the sacrament is happening, and so gifts are being received just because of that. But it neglects faith. Luther wanted the people to be taught faith. Know what you're doing here and believe it. Know, be engaged with your faith. On the other side, you had the radical reformers like Zwingli and Calvin and others who emphasized the spiritual. It was like, well, what's going on in baptism or the Lord's supper? It's not about like, it's not actually happening physically. The idea was Christ's body and blood. Like, that's. That's something. It's not right here. The bread and the wine, they remind us of Christ's body and blood, but they're not physically here. And we'll talk about why a little bit later. So the benefit really is to remember what Christ has done for us. These things just sort of symbolize it and remind our hearts, direct our hearts toward Christ. And so the benefit is only spiritual for the radical reformers. So the only spiritual, or, like too much focus on the physical, those are the two sides. And the lutheran position, again, is in the middle, not because the middle path is always right or compromise or something like that. But it just so happens that here, this is the lutheran position, to properly distinguish between the physical and the spiritual. I just want to pause for a moment and talk about that. What does it mean to distinguish between the physical and the spiritual? This can be applied in a lot of different ways. So, for example, I've mentioned the milkmaid before, who knows that, well, who rejoices because she knows that she's a servant of God and serving others, and that she's been given this role by God to milk cows and provide milk to people. So you've got kind of two things going on there. You've got the physical, like what you can see, okay. You could also say what can be perceived by sense perception. You know, okay, there's a maid milking a cow, right? Okay. But then there's what's hidden in that which faith can see, which is that God is providing for people through her. You see that? So there's the physical and there's the spiritual, and you don't want to confuse the physical with the spiritual. You don't want to forget about God, right? Or idolize the thing in front of you that you can. That you can sense with sense perception. You want to just be able to parse out what's going on. So you don't just thank the milkmaid, you thank God through the milkmaid, that kind of thing. And then you're recognizing both and bringing them together and recognizing the way that they work together in the Lord's supper. You don't just focus on eating the bread and wine and forget about faith and just say, I'm good. You eat the bread and wine and believe God's word. That says, where Jesus says, this is my body, this is my blood. And then by faith in Christ, you receive not just the physical benefit, but the spiritual. Benefit both of them there. So holding those two things together is the way to distinguish them. All right, finally, these are our lutheran principles. So Luther says all the time that the word alone is spiritual is heavenly. He uses those. Those are the same thing. In this kind of framework, the word alone is spiritual. Heavenly. It comes from above and makes earthly things spiritual and heavenly. So remember last week, not just water, right? But water with the word. And so it's holy water. Why? Because of the word not in itself. The word alone makes things heavenly. So the milkmaid's task, her vocation, it's heavenly because it's given by God. Come back to that. Spiritual goods can't be generated from below. So if you want to know about God, if you want knowledge of spiritual things, if you want the truth, the light that comes down from above, you got to find it in Jesus, who comes down to us. The word made flesh, you can't generate it apart from him. So you can't kind of skirt faith in Jesus and just get what you want. Luther talks in various places about, like, the idea that you can climb up apart from faith, climb up into heaven. And he talks about it like you would go into God's house under cover of darkness and sneak into his special store and grab what you need. It's like, that's not the way it works. God gives it to us. He brings it down through the word, and then we receive it where and when he wills, and through the means that he has ordained. So it can't be generated from below. An example of what you might say if you thought it could be generated from below is to say, like, well, I was made in God's image, and sin didn't completely destroy me, and I still have spiritual good in me, and I can use that to do the best that I can. And that phrase is what the Roman Catholics were coming back with in the time of the Reformation. You just do the best that you can, and then God kind of makes that grow. So, like, you've got that spark in you, and then God fans the flames, you know, kind of thing. And for the Lutherans, rightly so. And I see this when I read the church fathers in the early church, you know, no, the reason Jesus came was that we couldn't generate anything from below, and we had cut ourselves off from heaven. And so Christ came down and became a human being that we could perceive with sense perception, so that through our sense perception, we could hear the truth. And we could see not just with our eyes, but starting with our eyes, and then with our hearts that Christ has the name that's above every name and has power over everything, and so that the attention of our hearts would be drawn to him and through him be drawn to goddesse. All right, so spiritual goods come down from above and are received by faith. And this is really key. So faith alone. This is a major Lutheran. This is kind of the heart of lutheran theology, is that every good thing we receive from above. If you have a large catechism at home, or if you get one, this is the way Luther talks throughout his explanation of the first commandment, you shall have no other gods. It's all, you know, to have another God would be to look somewhere else to receive spiritual goods, anything good. But faith is looking to God and receiving from him alone. Spiritual goods come down from above and are received by faith. And I won't spend time on this, really, but last week we talked a lot about Luther's illustration of the ring that he uses in various places to describe this reception. So you've got the gem, the word Christ, that's the valuable thing. That's the treasure, like in our readings this morning, that we receive. And then he gives us that through ordinary things, through physical means. That's what the sacraments are all about. God attaches his word to water or to bread and wine. Christ unites himself to bread and wine so that we can receive it as human beings, we human beings who are, you know, body and soul together, we receive it in a physical and a spiritual way, because that's who we are. So God attaches the gift to an earthly element, and then it's received and held onto. Bye, faith. All right, we're going to turn to the. Well, the section in Luther's small catechism that deals with the sacrament of the altar. We're going to go through this fairly quickly, but I would just emphasize what we just talked about. But the word coming down, giving the gifts and it being received by faith, look in these questions and answers for those principles, and you'll see that they're at the heart of them. Harold, thanks for your question. You said when a football player gives the glory to God, is that physical as well? I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean. I am kind of, yes. Separating them. Separating physical and spiritual to kind of keep them straight. Yes. So when a football player gives glory to God. If I'm understanding your question right, I'll try and answer it, and then you can tell me if I actually did or not, you know? But a football player giving glory to God, I mean, physically is maybe, you know, pointing up, and there he is physically. And so we receive that through our sense perception. Right. We see him giving thanks. We hear him giving thanks, and then that directs our attention to God as well. And so there is a. I mean, you know, I guess for him, like, he is, his body is participating in his. In that as well. So body and soul together, he is giving thanks to God. Yeah. Don't skip church, Harold says, for the football game, though, you know. But, yeah, I give thanks to God for those moments. There was one in the Dodgers Padres game the other night when. Who was it? Trinen gave thanks to God in just a beautiful way. It was wonderful. You know, you see him close the game and win and then just point to God. Point to God. Point to God, and you recognize that for himself. Like it really isn't about him. And thank God. So thank you, Harold. All right. What is the sacrament of the altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine instituted by Christ himself for us christians to eat and to drink. Instituted by Christ. Where. Where is this written? The holy evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul write, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So it's instituted by Christ himself. And so this gives shape to the way that we celebrate communion as well. I mean, like, for example, why do we use bread and wine? Because he did, and that's how he instituted it. Right. Why do we believe that it's Jesus body and blood? Because he says, this is my body. This is my blood. And we're not going to go into arguments from scripture for that, really today unless you make me try. But a couple months ago, I did some reading of Luther, writing against the radical reformers and showing from scripture how you really can't come away with a symbolic interpretation, especially with the texts that they were giving as proof. And that was very enlightening. I think I shared a little bit of it, maybe in a sermon or something, but I'd be happy to talk about that sometime. All right. What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? Notice this is the pattern of the explanation of baptism as well. These words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, show us that in the sacrament, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. So right there in the words with which Christ institutes it, or in the word, you could say, we see forgiveness of sins. Okay, there it is. That's what it is. And then he kind of expands that and says, what are the implications of forgiveness of sins? It's life and salvation. We could expand that further and say forgiveness of sins means that we're right with God. It means that we're in God, we're brought back to God, and he's our father. And there are all kinds of ways we could describe this. How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things, this bodily thing? Well, certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say, forgiveness of sins. So there we have those. Well, we've got the physical element. He doesn't throw that away, right? That's actually just really important. That's how we receive it. That's how our bodies receive it. If you remember last week, I think I read a quote where Luther was saying, you know, for baptism, the water touches our bodies. Like, that's the way that our bodies receive it. That's the only way that your body can receive it, is physically so. And we are body and soul, that's us. So we don't throw that out. But then the body, you know, receives it by faith, by being united to our inner life as well, right? And so all of us together, you know, we receive it physically and spiritually, because that's what we are. So here we have the bodily eating and drinking, and then. And then we have the word attached to that right, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sinse. And then faith that receives that right. These are the main thing in the sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say. So that's how we receive and hold on to the benefit is by faith, which receives the promises, and who receives this sacrament worthily. Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training, but that person is truly worthy and well prepared, who has faith in these words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Because apart from faith, you can't receive. But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared for the words, for you require all hearts to believe. So there he ties readiness and worthiness to receive the sacrament, to receptivity, to faith, to receive the benefits. All right, so we're going to. Are there any questions on those in. [00:21:05] Speaker B: The old days, like in the 1920s and thirties? So back in the 1920s and thirties, the Lutheran church for Norwegians, the men who were elders, would say that if they knew somebody had sinned that week, it was a sin that was open and everybody saw it, would say they weren't able to go up to communion. And so how does one, as a pastor and along with your elders, make that determination, not knowing what they've done in their heart to ask for forgiveness of that sin? I mean, it didn't sound like they sat them down to see if they had talked with God. But we do forgiveness of sins before we go up to communion. But you and I don't know what's happening in the pew if they're really doing that. Right? [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. So that was probably heard by everybody online as well. But just to reiterate it a little bit, the question is basically in the old days, if somebody sinned publicly, then on Sunday, they might not be allowed to commune. And how could that be? Since we can't see in their hearts if there's repentance, shouldn't they be able to commune? Long ago, like in the early church, first several centuries of the church, it was more strict than that. If you sinned publicly in, say, a grievous way, then you might have to wait three years to commune again. And so instead of just coming right up like, ah, you said you're sorry. Come on up. It's like, no, you're going to be one of the standers. They were called. I think it was the standers, not the Kneelers. I got to think about that. And so they would stand in the back and it was like, okay, for three years, you're going to work on repentance. And I would just say it's a little bit of a recognition that we can cheapen repentance and just say sorry, you know, and then like, well, okay. Oh, well, you know, but we used to have to meet with the pastor. Yes. Harold says we used to have to meet with the pastor prior to communion. Right, right. This was another form of this, of taking it pretty seriously. It's kind of like when, when you discipline a child, it's for their own benefit. Right. And. But you're not always just gonna say, like, but are you sorry for that? And then they say yes, and then you say, like, okay, back to normal. There are some things that could really help them learn. Like, you know, I'm thinking in my mind, like, are you really repentant? You know, are you just saying that? Are you sorry? And thinking back to my own childhood, there were a lot of. There were punishments that lasted months, actually, you know? And so it was this constant reminder to be repentant and to actually be sorry because my parents wanted me to actually reform inwardly and actually be sorry. So this is the physical and the spiritual, actually, you know, it's like, does the physical have something to do with the spiritual? Well, yeah. Like I've said before, if I bow in front of the altar, that's physical. What I'm doing is I'm training my heart to bow before goddess, right? The physical act, like, by itself isn't anything but, but it's training my heart and your hearts. Right? I mean, as you all see me do that, right? And so the same thing, like, if I, if I, as a child, you know, I don't, I don't know that I ever. I don't think I ever got on my knees and said I was sorry to my parents, but, like, maybe I should have, you know, because. Because that act of humility and of lowering myself before my authority probably would have trained my heart to do that, right? Or, or, like, I was never very good at displaying the right emotions, and maybe I resisted that, you know, at the time. But, like, repenting with tears could probably be a, like, a good thing for my soul. Right? And people do repent with tears, right. In all kinds of circumstances and maybe before God. Right. So I think we kind of separate the physical from the spiritual in that way, and we're really quick to throw away anything that feels like discipline. Like Luther mentioned, you know, fasting's a good idea, but, you know, it's like, well, where'd that go? You know, so that we're kind of, we're kind of quick to throw away the physical these days and, and also traditions and rituals because we don't, like, we don't want to just, I don't know, we just think we can just skip to the spiritual. That's kind of a radical reformer position in a way, although that's probably not even fair to, that's probably a more modern thing, actually, is just to kind of disdain the physical, the ritual, those kinds of things. But we do it all the time. Like, you know, we shake hands, and that's a ritual. It's a physical thing that really does mean something. So we're engaged in rituals all the time, like eating around a table, all kinds of things. And so, yeah, I mean, it's back to the original question, why go a Sunday without communing? Well, we'll get into this a little bit in just a little bit. Hopefully, unless we're really running out of time, we'll touch on that a little bit more, but mainly just so that repentance is real and has a chance to sink in. That's at least one answer. All right, we're going to move on into what I've selected to talk about here. We're just going to quickly touch on the differences in how Christ is present, again, from the Reformation. So, at the time of the Reformation, the Roman catholic church was teaching a doctrine called transubstantiation. They still do today. And, I mean, from our perspective, this is something derived from philosophy. Like, it sounds kind of like Aristotle, and it's a theory of how the bread and wine change into Jesus body and blood. So it's like there's a, there's a physical transformation. Notice the focus on the physical. For the Roman Catholics, there's a physical transformation that occurs at a given point in the communion service. And now it's no longer bread and wine. It's physically turned into Jesus body and blood. And on the other side of things, the radical reformers said, no, that's physical. Who cares? That doesn't really matter. What matters is that this is reminding us of Jesus, of Jesus body and blood. More than that, Jesus body and blood can't be present because it's a human body. And how could his body be in a billion different places on Sunday morning at once? It's a human body, or is it not really a human body that it can do that? Where's his body? They would say his body is up in heaven. It's not here because he ascended into heaven bodily, and that's where it stays. So to all of this, the Lutherans said, well, transubstantiation, well, maybe, but we don't really know that that's the process by which it turns into that or whatever, and it's just kind of too specific and not given in scripture. And so we kind of leave it to be a little bit more mysterious. But Jesus says that this is my body, this is my blood. And can Jesus body, his human body, can it be everywhere at once? Well, look whose body it is. He can do what he wants with his body. So we say that Christ's body is in, with, and under the bread and wine. And that's not some kind of specific theory just to say it's there, but we say it's still bread and wine, and it's Jesus body and blood. We receive it, Jesus body and blood with the bread and the wine. And then with regard to Jesus being able to be everywhere, as I already said, this goes back to one of the ecumenical councils that we mentioned in our first session on dealing with nestorianism, because Nestorius had been teaching that Jesus natures are separate. Like, he's. There's. There's sort of Jesus the human and Jesus the divine, and they're the reformers, like Luther's and the Lutherans described it, or maybe they did, I don't know, as, like, two boards glued together and keeping them separate and not mixing them. So the Lutherans just kind of used what the council came out with to deal with Nestorius, which was that Christ is human and divine. Not in a way that, like, his divinity is messed up by his humanity or anything like that. Like, there's no mixing there in that sense, but there's the, like, such a perfect union in him. He's just. He's just that. And then. And then they. The Lutherans had to clarify, and this was kind of further clarification than the council had even done, but it's in the spirit of the council and is, I don't know, I think, recognized by, I wonder, by orthodox and Catholics, too, as good. I don't know that for sure, actually. I'm trying to remember why I think that. But anyway, that Jesus human nature shares in his divine nature. And so there's a communication of attributes is the technical term. So if Jesus can be anywhere, then soak in his body, because it's his body, right? Does that make sense? All right. Okay. Frequency of reception. This is a question I sort of answered incorrectly, unintentionally. Last Sunday or the Sunday before, probably the Sunday before. Somebody asked me about the frequency of reception in the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the reformation, and I said, well, it was happening all the time. And that's true. Like, the Lord suffered. I mean, communion, it was happening all the time. You could pay a priest to do a communion all by himself for a dead relative, you know, like, it was. It was all over the place. But participation by the laity, you know, by common christians, was. Was pretty seldom. And they all also were only receiving what we call one kind, they were only receiving the bread and not the wine. The priest was. Was receiving the wine himself. And Luther said, like, that's okay, but we might as well be, you know, receiving both. We should just be receiving both. And so it really wasn't being received by the people very much. It was more important, they thought, to just be in the room and watch it be done. So everybody would watch. When the priest held up the elements, it was like, okay, I saw it, you know, and it happened. And think about the emphasis on the physical. It's like the act was done, it was performed, and that was the benefit. Luther says, well, he's got to be received by faith. You know, faith is really important in the sacrament. And also, well, we'll talk in a moment about other reasons for the importance of receiving it. So the radical reformers, because it was like this great symbol for remembering Christ. It's like if you do that all the time, it's like, well, we did this last week, and I had this great experience of remembering Jesus and his significance for me. And if you do that too much, then it kind of cheapens it, at least has been the outcome of that. And so then. And now it's just. It's more occasional Lutherans frequently. Right. It was. It was. Luther encouraged frequent reception of this sacrament, and why? Because we're participating in Christ's body. So I want to finish just by explaining this a little bit. So, in. In the Lord's supper, we participate in his body. Like Jesus says, this is my body. This is my blood. And then. And then we. We eat that and drink it, and we are participating in Christ. I've mentioned before what Luther writes against zwingling, where he says, normally when we eat something, we're turning it into ourselves. We eat the yogurt, and then, you know, we make it into our body. Like, that's. That's what eating is. We're building our body, and so we're taking things around us and transforming them into ourselves. So he says, like, usually that's how eating works, but this is. This is not just any kind of ordinary food. And Jesus body is spiritual. It was conceived by the Holy spirit, and Christ has come down from heaven to us. And. And so just like, just like, jesus isn't corrupted by touching a leper or something like that. It doesn't make him unclean. He makes the leper clean. It just goes the other way. It's the same thing with this food, that this food transforms us into itself. And then he uses the illustration of a wolf and a sheep. Normally, when the wolf eats the sheep, it makes the sheep into its body. So the sheep becomes a wolf. But this is a different kind of food, and it goes the other way. Luther says it's like if a wolf ate a sheep and then the sheep turned the wolf into a sheep. It's like by eating a sheep, the wolf became a sheep. That's how this works. Now, that's a fun illustration. But coming back to receiving Jesus body and blood and this just spiritual food, Christ is transforming us into himself. I mean, he's transforming us into his body. Listen to that. That's everything we've just been talking about. He's making us his body, and to become something's body is to be taken up into its life again, this is a little weird to think about this way, but all the food that we eat, it was just kind of there and by itself. But when we make it into us, these things are now participating in our life. Like, they're. They were lifeless, and now they've been taken up into us, and they're a part of us. And that's what Christ means when he says that we're his body. He's taking us up into his life. Or you could say we are participating him. So you can see this in terms of receiving his body and being taken up into his life. And into whose life? Into the one good man that ever lived, the man from heaven, this spiritual man. He takes us up into his life and restores our nature, makes us truly human again. You can also think about this in terms of being united to God. Peter says in one. Peter, that letter, he says that we have become partakers of the divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature. We've been united to no less than God himself. Come to us in the flesh. There's another dimension to this, too, though, because we're participating in Christ's body. You can think of that in terms of receiving his body and blood and participating in him. But then you could also think about it in terms of participating in Christ's body. Who's Christ's body? It's his people who participate in him. And so in the Lord's supper, you're not just receiving spiritual medicine. You are. You know, it's called in the early church, the medicine of immortality. I mean, you're receiving, given, and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. You're receiving forgiveness, life, and salvation, but not just you individually. And this is where, you know, we think individually all the time. Our culture trains us, too. That's the american spirit of. It's like we all left Europe and other places to make it on our own, so we're just kind of individualistic. But this is a community thing. That's what communion means. It's like union together. It's being brought together, and we're brought together into Christ, but not just alone, but all of us together. And that's something that we might not think about enough. Is our union around the table. Here's something that Luther wrote. Let me find it. I don't have this one in print, so I had to go to my electronic version of Luther's works. Otherwise I would not be using a phone. Okay. All right. So Luther says, hence it is that Christ and all saints are one spiritual body. He's talking about communion. Hence it is that Christ and all his saints are one spiritual body, just as the inhabitants of a city are one community and body, each citizen being a member of the other and of the entire city. All the saints, therefore, are members of Christ and of the church, which is a spiritual and eternal city of God. And whoever is taken into this city is said to be received into the community of saints, the communion of saints, and to be incorporated into Christ's spiritual body and made a member of him. And then here's another spot a little further down. This fellowship consists in this, that all the spiritual possessions of Christ and his saints are shared with and become the common property of him who receives this sacrament. All right, so we receive all the spiritual gifts of Christ, participating in him and his saints together as his body in receiving the sacrament. But here's the other thing it means. Again, all sufferings and sins also become common property. So just like Jesus taking our burdens and our sorrows or taking his sin on himself, this is also what this means, right? That's what happens when we're united to Christ. He takes our sin and he gives us his gifts. But in being united to one another as Christ's body, the same thing happens, that we share gifts and we take. We receive sufferings and sins to bear on behalf of one another, to carry out our homely figure. He says, talking about the city. It is like a city where every citizen shares with all the others the city's name, honor, freedom, trade, customs, usages, help support, protection and the like, while at the same time he shares all the dangers of fire and flood, enemies and death, losses, taxes and the like. For he who would share in the prophets must also share in the costs and ever recompense love with love. So in, in the Lord's supper, you know, we're receiving personal benefits. You could call it that. Right. But, but more prominent in, in the supper is the idea of the table, of this common sharing. And so when we approach Jesus table and partake, participate in his body, we should also be asking ourselves, are we ready to take up the sufferings, to take on the sufferings and sins of our neighbor next to us? We're all up here together, communing as God's people, as his community. And we're also saying, like, I love you and I care about your well being, I love you, and I'm willing to bear your burdens, you know, maybe, let's say, not get annoyed by the quirky things about you I don't like or the sins that I perceive in you, that kind of thing. No, we're taking on one another's burdens and laying down our life for one another with the kind of love that Christ shows us. That's the kind of love that we're participating in Christ, that's participating in Christ's body. So back to the question that was asked, because I said we'd come back to it. There's a unity that we participate in, in the Lord's supper that, you know, somebody sins publicly. Okay, well, maybe more than one person should. Not communion. That's Sunday. Right. But there's a. We should not be going up to communion unrepentant, you know, personally, but also having a grudge against one another if we're not actually united. But we're participating in Christ's body as if we're together and sharing his gifts and taking on one another's burdens, but we're not. We're holding each other at arm's length or pushing each other down, like, that's not a good place either to be receiving Christ. Right. So repentance toward God, but also repentance and reconciliation, forgiveness, you know, you could say laterally with his body, his people. Those are both very important. And then what a joy that we all together are in Christ, sharing in him together and sharing with one another, taking on one another's burdens. And that ought to permeate our lives. There are some things that we can do to help that, too, like try and undo some of our individualism and recognize the. The communal significance of Christ among us. All right, I'm going to open it up to questions for, you know, the bell's about to ring, but. Or it should have rung. Maybe it did ring. Maybe I was just too engaged. It's 1021. So say if somebody has a question, we can briefly answer it, but otherwise seeing none. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you have brought us together from the isolation of sin and individualistic rebellion against you. You've brought us through one baptism, one faith in Christ. You've brought us together and have made us to share in Christ himself. And to share together in Christ himself. Build us up as his body. Bless us with your word. Make it to be in our hearts and on our lips for the benefit of one another. And we thank you for all of your blessings, for your grace and forgiveness for us. In Jesus name, amen. Only one.