Understanding Divine Service Part 4

Alright, grab a Bible, something to write with. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, we come before you in humble awe.

You are the one true God. There is none other like you. Come, we pray, bless our hearts and our minds as we study your

Word. Send your Holy Spirit into our lives so that we may grow in love and grace, and that we may go forth into all the world proclaiming your

Gospel, so that others may learn of your saving grace. Through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Amen. Alright, we have a short class today. Short. Last week we were studying the

Words of Institution, taking a look at biblical analysis regarding the

Lord's Supper. And you're going to note that in our liturgy, which by the way, when we have the

Lord's Supper here at Kongsvinger, this is the exact liturgy that we follow for the

Lord's Supper. It comes out of Divine Service Setting 1 or Setting 2 in the

Lutheran Service Book. And so, the Words of Institution we took a look at last week, just by way of reminder.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night that 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, we noted last week and did a little bit of review on the idea that remembrance talk is covenantal talk, biblically.

And so, the idea here is that a lot of people misunderstand what remembrance is.

And they'll put the emphasis on the remembrance, but not rightly understand that, over and again, in Scripture, when the word remembrance is used, it is covenantal talk.

It is invoking the New Covenant, and God remembering his promises in the

New Covenant, and we remembering his promises in the New Covenant, which really helps us out. And so, it's a comfort for us, then, to be able to go to the

Lord's Supper, and to hear the pastor say, This is the true body of Christ, given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

The true blood of Christ, shed for you. And again, the emphasis is on the words, For the forgiveness of your sins, which is the very central promise, then, of the

New Covenant, that God will have mercy on us, give us pardon and peace.

And so, when we are buffeted by the temptations of the devil, and our conscience has gone bad, if you would, and we're feeling terrible, and feeling like,

How could I possibly call myself a Christian? Oftentimes, people in that situation will be tempted to not come to the

Lord's table. Because there's another bad teaching that goes along the lines of the

Lord's Supper, and it has to do with a misunderstanding of what does it mean to take the

Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. So, when I was growing up, in the

Methodist Church and in the Nazarene Church, to take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner meant coming to the table with unconfessed sin in my life.

Or, somehow, not doing what's necessary to live a holy life. So, the idea then is, in order to come to the

Lord's table, the bar is set here, as far as holiness is concerned, and I kept coming up below the bar.

And so, there were times when I didn't have the Lord's Supper because I had the guilt pangs of a guilty conscience because of sin.

And so, in order to be worthy to have the Lord's Supper, I've got to come to this level. And so,

I restrained myself. In other places, I would note that there are others who make that decision for you.

I would even say that's part of the history of this congregation, where people were sat down.

So, no, no, no, no, you're not up to that level. But that's not what it means to take the

Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. We'll review the text real quick, in just a minute, and review what we looked at last week.

But, if the promises of the New Covenant are the body and blood of Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins, if you have a guilty conscience, and are recognizing that you are a sinner, and that you need

God's mercy and grace, then coming to the Lord's table with the belief that you're receiving the body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins is exactly what it means to take the

Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. Because you recognize that you need it.

That's the idea. So, you're going to note then, when you misunderstand what it means to take the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner, you inadvertently turn the

Lord's Supper into law. So now, me coming to the altar to receive the body and blood of Christ is now a public proclamation to everybody in church,

I'm pulling it off. I'm living a holy life. I'm doing what makes it so that I'm worthy to take the

Lord's Supper. And that becomes a form of self -righteousness. And you can note then, that if you have that view of the

Lord's Supper, are you going to want to have it regularly? Not really.

Not really. In fact, the more infrequently you have it, the better.

In fact, the more infrequently you have it, and the more you make it available, and maybe just like Christmas and Easter, the better.

Because everybody would expect that, well, if there's going to be a time in the church when you can have the

Lord's Supper, Christmas and Easter, those are pretty good times, and everyone's expected to come for those, and nobody's going to be barred from coming to the

Lord's table. And so you can kind of sneak up there and have it, and it wouldn't be so much of a proud and arrogant display of your personal piety and your growth and your holiness.

You see what I'm saying? There's a specific reason why churches where the

Lord's Supper falls into disuse and becomes a very infrequent thing. And that will always be the case when you run the

Lord's Supper through the law. Where it's something I've got to do to make myself worthy so that I can come to the table, and by doing so,

I'm announcing to everybody, me and Jesus, we're tight right now. When you do it that way, yeah, the less often the better.

And the reason why is because each and every one of us, when we're honest with ourselves from week to week, day to day, month to month, how tight are you and Jesus anyway?

You can only sustain that kind of self -righteousness for so long. And then when that becomes part of the culture of the church, then sin is no longer discussed.

And then what ends up happening is that people put up facades. They put up facades, and they spend a lot of time working on the paint on the facade.

And the facade is that I'm a holy Christian, and I'm pulling it off, and everybody knows it.

And so...

Let me pull it back. So while we're off the record, can

I ask a question? Sure, while we're off the record.

Go right ahead. So when we come to the

Lord's table, and it says, if we have anything against our brother, we should go and...

But that is still in practice. And yet, we can have something against our brother the minute before we walk up to that altar.

You actually flipped it. The text you're referring to is Matthew 18, and you just reversed the order.

Okay. Take a look at the text. Okay. Let's see.

I think it's 18. Yes. Verse 15. 15? Yeah, if your brother sins against you...

But that's not the verse I was speaking of. Yeah, yeah. The one you're looking for is the one, leave your gift at the altar.

Hang on. Hang on, let me find it. Matthew 5. Yeah. You've heard it said of old, you shall not murder.

Whoever murders will be liable to judgment. I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel. And whoever says, you fool, you will be liable to the hell of fire.

So if you're offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you.

You had said, you asked the question, you have something against your brother. Yeah, see that's the opposite direction.

And so you're going to note, this is not actually an explicit text referring to the Lord's Supper. And the reason why people identify it with the

Lord's Supper has to do with the fact that we call that piece of furniture over there the altar.

And so they think it has to do with it. But notice it says, offering your gift at the altar. So the context that Jesus is talking about is in the

Mosaic Covenant. People are required to come and bring sacrifices for atonement and things like this.

And they bring offerings with them as well. And there you are bringing your gift to the altar. And it's for the forgiveness of your sins that you're doing these things.

Because all of the Mosaic ceremonial laws have to do with the forgiveness of sins. And there, not that you've sinned against somebody or that you have something against another person.

But there you recognize, oh no, Fred has something against...

You see what I'm saying? So in a situation like that, you've got to go and reconcile with your brother.

And so the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, it never has been merely a vertical thing.

You want a right standing with God? Yes, this is a good thing. That right standing with God then has implications regarding everybody else.

That's how that works. And so the forgiveness of sins puts, if you would, a demand on you that that same forgiveness is extended to others.

So, you're there, you remember that your brother has something against you.

You see it? You went before God because God has something against you because of your sin.

And now God says, your brother has something against you too. Because you've sinned against him.

This is vertical and horizontal. And so the issue then is in a situation like that where you have not reconciled with your brother, then it is appropriate.

And this is why then it gets brought into the context of the Lord's Supper, because it does not make sense. You come to the rail and you again hear these words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

That's great that you and Jesus have been reconciled and you have peace with God. But now examine your heart.

Who else have you sinned against? Was it Janet? Barb? Well, everybody sins against Mark.

That's just a given, right? Who have you sinned against? You need to go and reconcile with them.

And I don't know if you heard it, because I didn't really emphasize it, but in the 2

Thessalonians text, 2 Thessalonians in chapter 1, we hear in the introduction a very fascinating thing to this church who's being persecuted.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly. And listen to this.

And the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

That is the natural outgrowth of the forgiveness of sins and a right standing with God, is that it will lead to an outgrowth of your love for other people.

And if that's not the case, then something is wrong, because you're not taking that next step, and that is to consider, does anyone have something against me?

And the reality of this situation is that, I'll be blunt, everybody has something against everybody here and there, because this whole room is full of sinners.

And the one thing I've learned about sinners is they sin. And when they sin, it's not in the abstract.

They sin against God. They sin against each other. And so the thing is, is that we're always going to be in a situation where somebody is going to sin against you.

It's just going to happen. Or you're going to sin against another person. It's just going to happen. And here's the shocking thing.

Very little thought or intention has to go in it. Oftentimes, it just happens because.

Okay, why is it worse in churches than in the world? Huh? Why? Is it so much worse in churches than in the world?

It can be. It can be. But I would say, in part, the answer is going to be because the devil is always trying to sow division and discord and disunity within the body of Christ.

You want a church to fail? It'll fail on disunity. And disunity is always at its core a failure to forgive and a failure to love.

Period. Because it's just like a marriage.

What is it that causes marriages to fail? Because I'm going to be blunt. I don't know a single person who's ever gotten married and experienced that honeymoon bliss for 50 years.

It never happens. What is it that makes the difference between a successful marriage and a failed marriage?

You want to know what it is? Ultimately, at the end of the day, can you forgive your spouse? Because to love makes you vulnerable and you're going to get hurt.

There's no way around it. So I take that back. It happens more often in marriages than in churches.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is the truth. But we're the bride of Christ. Yeah, this is where it gets fun.

We collectively, we'd be the bride. There's a marriage there somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the thing is, is that in church, when there are upsets, and there will always be upsets.

Period. In fact, I would be shocked. The only way that there couldn't be upsets is if everybody was out there.

They never have any problems. They never fight. Right, exactly. They never, it never happens.

So the idea is, you're always going to have upsets. The question is, how are you going to handle these upsets?

And this is going to require you to actually internally look at yourself and go, all right, what have

I contributed to this problem? And not behave like a three -year -old. You made me do it, it's her fault.

And go to a person, if they have something against you, and be reconciled.

Be a mature Christian and grow up. And say, I screwed up.

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. And as you've received the absolution, that person should then absolve you.

But the reality of the situation is, it's going to be all of five seconds before you're going to need to do the same thing. And that's how marriages survive.

That's how they survive. My grandfather, who I miss terribly, gave me one bit of advice before I got married.

And he always called me son. And the reason why he called me son is because he filled in for my father when my father abandoned me.

And literally just up and left the state and fled. And so my grandfather, almost his last words that he spoke to me, he said this, son,

I'm excited that you're getting married. One bit of advice. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

If you will do that, your marriage will last. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

And I'll tell you what happens. In families and in churches, there are upsets, and the upsets are never resolved.

There's never real communication. And as a result of that, things fester.

And sunset after sunset after sunset after sunset goes by. The issue's never resolved.

Nobody's acting in love or mercy. And if that continues, then you've got a full -blown, raging, gangrene, unforgiveness problem.

It seems customary that churches, when they have communion, they do the shaking of hands and wishing peace.

Is that scriptural, traditional? That's a tradition. That's a tradition, but it actually has an interesting...

In Lutheranism, it's actually kind of a big discussion point, is that they recognize that it is a beneficial practice.

And the purpose of it and why it even was brought up in the first place is because, and what it's called, it's the sharing of the peace.

That's what it's called. And so some guys don't like to have it. Some churches don't.

Some do, and they have a long tradition with it. I personally think it's actually beneficial.

And so I'm one of these guys who I like the practice a lot because here's what it does. We are going to have the

Lord's Supper together. This gives you the opportunity to look that person in the eye who maybe you haven't gotten along with, and you're supposed to share the peace with them.

Shaking hands and saying peace to your brother is a physical way of saying we're okay.

But if you can't, and here's the thing, if there's somebody in the congregation that you couldn't go to and shake their hand and say peace, now there's a problem.

What it does is it's a practice that gives you the opportunity to ask the question, is there anybody here who has something against me?

And it does so in a way that makes it so it doesn't single anybody out. You see what

I'm saying? So that makes it so that you can say, well, you know what?

We're not getting along. Maybe we shouldn't. I need to go and get that resolved. And that's in keeping with the gospel.

Now, is it mandatory? No, not at all. It's a human tradition for that particular purpose to make sure that there's still peace in the church.

But not knowing that makes it so that it just turns into something we all do because it's really cool. And, of course, little kids love it.

Yeah, go share the peace. Yeah, this is great. But, again, it's not a necessary thing.

So let's take a look then, reexamine that text in regards to the words of institutions.

1 Corinthians 11. We noted last week, 1 Corinthians 11, 27.

Here's our emphasis. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner.

So it is possible to have the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner.

And remember the context. This is a church where the rich in the ruling class had decided that for the

Lord's Supper they're going to keep all the elements to themselves and to make sure that the people in the lower class and the slaves were not going to get the

Lord's Supper. They consumed all of the elements, chugged the wine, so much so some of the people in the church were drunk.

If that isn't being uncharitable and unkind and unloving, I don't know what is. We're going to make sure that you guys over there don't get the

Lord's Supper. That's crazy. It's absolutely nuts.

But again, it's a church. So we say that makes all the sense in the world.

So Paul in his corrective then says this. By the way, what is it that's making them do this? They're not recognizing the

Lord's Supper for the holy thing that it is. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning, concerning what?

The body and the blood of Christ. To take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner is to literally sin against the body and the blood of Christ, which begs the question, how are you guilty of sinning against those two things if they're not present?

It doesn't make sense if they're not. So let a person examine himself.

And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning, and anoxios there could also mean recognize.

That's another legitimate way of understanding that word. Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

And that's the core issue. So I'm going to keep you kids from having the Lord's Supper. I'm chugging the wine.

And oh wow. The woozy afterwards by doing so.

I am not recognizing it for the holy thing that it is. I am treating it as mere wine.

And I'm treating the bread as mere bread. Not recognizing the body and blood of Christ that are present in them.

Yes. Yeah, exactly.

The Lord's Supper is for every baptized believer who believes these things.

The community in Rio is not a place for class warfare. No. It's not a place for class warfare.

It's not a place for identity politics. It's not a place for political parties or whatever. Only the

Republicans will be allowed to have the Lord's Supper this week. And you Democrats, if you don't repent, we're going to keep you from having it.

Huh? I said they might need more than anybody. Yeah. The Democrats need it more than the Republicans. I didn't say that.

So, you know, by recognizing it for what it is, the sacred body and blood of Christ, what you wouldn't if you recognize it for what it is, you would never have it in an unworthy manner, which is what they were doing.

And I would never dare to get drunk on the body and blood of Christ.

That is a blasphemy and a sin of a magnitude that I would hate to even consider.

But that's what they were doing. And then Paul goes on and he says, this is why many of you have become weak and ill and some have died.

God basically said, you're going to treat my body and blood like this? I'm going to kill you.

God exercised the death penalty for some of these people. That's how wicked their sin was.

This hearkens back to the wilderness wanderings of Israel when

God destroyed certain people and their entire families for defiling the holy vessels of the tabernacle.

That same punishment that God inflicted on those evildoers, God had inflicted on some of the members of the church of Corinth.

They had gotten sick. They were put on a sickbed. Some had even died. That's how holy and sacred this is.

This is why it's not merely a symbol because the text says so.

To take it in an unworthy manner is to not recognize the body and blood of Christ. Yes.

Yes. Yes. You'll note the AALC being a very, very, very, very tiny association of Lutheran churches.

We don't have the luxury like the LCMS of saying you have to have membership in our churches in order to be at the

Lord's table. So now it comes back to confess. What do you believe you're receiving? And for those of you who would take the

Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, we do have a defibrillator. So... But it's almost better that we don't make those determinations in the church body.

You have to be a certain member of a church body. It is what we believe. Yes. And I'll be blunt.

The fact that we don't... There are people that I know like in the Missouri Synod who are extremely heretical in their teaching.

And their practice is just like contrary to anything Christian. If they were to come and present themselves at the

Lord's table, I have half a mind to say no. No, because I can't...

I can't visibly be in unity with you as a particular person because I know of your false doctrine and your false teaching and practice.

You know, so I'm looking for... I'm looking for reasons to give the Body and Blood of Christ to people, not for reason to keep them from it.

First and foremost. So you come to our church and you are a baptized, penitent sinner and you confess that you are receiving the

Body and Blood of Christ in, with, under, how, we don't know how it works, with the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of your sins.

You need this. But if you're coming here and you are an impenitent sinner and you're teaching heresy and false doctrine,

I don't care what the membership on your church certificate says. What I care is what you believe and what you confess.

So we don't believe in what they call filing cabinet orthodoxy. You know what filing cabinet orthodoxy is?

Over and again I find this fascinating. I'll tell you a little story because I think it exemplifies it very well.

Is years ago, this is now 10 years ago this year, I was invited by Rick Warren to go to a purpose -driven conference at Saddleback Church on his dime.

I lived in Southern California so that wasn't much of a dime. But there was only two people that were given that, actually many people were given, only two accepted the offer.

Me and a fellow pastor from Minneapolis by the name of Bob DeWay. While we were there we actually met with Rick Warren.

And basically one of the things that Bob DeWay made a point of with Rick Warren was listen,

I know that you can point to your website and say that your church believes statements that are orthodox.

The problem is not your statement of faith. The problem is what's preached from the pulpit doesn't teach any of those statements of faith.

So when you have a church or a person who says, I subscribe to the Nicene Creed, I believe in the

Augsburg Confession, I can quote the Catechism to you, do you believe any of it?

Well, no. Or you have a pastor who says, I believe those things, we have a link on our website to that stuff and what comes from the pulpit never mentions any of those statements of faith.

That's an impossible thing to do by the way if you're preaching the Word of God. If you're actually exegeting biblical texts and teaching the full counsel of the

Word of God, every single, every single tenant of the

Nicene Creed, every single article of the Apostles' Creed, every article of the

Augsburg Confession and the small catechism are going to be covered with regularity from the pulpit because all of those creeds and confessions are summary statements of the scriptures.

And I always love it when a text comes up that gives me the opportunity to dig into one of our articles of faith.

So the one thing that somebody can't say is, well, that Kungsvinger pastor, they say they believe in, you know, that they believe in the stuff laid out in the

Book of Concord, but I never hear him say that. They can't say that about me. Go through my sermons with an open

Book of Concord, and you'll say, well, there's the Trinity. There's the creation.

There's redemption. There's the fall. Here's Jesus returning in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Yeah, it's all there. And you want to know why? It's not because I'm so smart. It's because I'm just dumb enough to realize that this ain't my church and these aren't my words.

It's not my job to preach my things. My job is to just give a living voice to the Word of God and help you understand what it says.

And by doing so, all of that stuff is covered. So there's no filing cabin orthodoxy. So all that being said, though, that there are people whom

I know of who are pastors who are filing cabin orthodoxy guys.

I wouldn't commune them. In fact, I'd be incensed if they showed up here. Really. With that being said, what would you say to somebody who came at you with the argumentation that what you're advocating for with this statement comes awfully close to the logical fallacy or guilt by association?

I don't commune associations. I commune individual people.

They individually present themselves at the altar at Kongsvinger. I'll give you another story.

A friend of mine in ministry in the LCMS, one of the mothers in his congregation has a daughter who's decided that she's going to come out of the closet.

And this daughter not only has come out of the closet, she's become a very, very outspoken activist for LGBTQ, XYZ issues and stuff like this.

And one time the girl came home for one of the holidays and they went to church.

And this impenitent young lady presented herself at the altar for the

Lord's Supper. He would not commune her. Despite the fact that technically she was a member of that church.

He couldn't commune her. Because the body and blood of Christ are given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

That assumes penitence. That assumes that you recognize that you're in need of the forgiveness of sins.

When you become an outspoken advocate for the recognition of sin in society, now you're working against God.

What you just said would kind of make a point of not having megachurches because now the pastor knows.

See, yeah. Yes. Yes. I propose something radical.

I think we should start the microchurch movement. I'll be blunt.

As the pastor, it is my job to know everybody in the congregation.

It really is. I may not get all the details right about, you know, some of the stuff in your family or your house, but my job is to keep an eye on you spiritually.

That's my job. And that requires me to know you and to interact with you and to not put myself up on a pedestal and keep you from talking to me by surrounding myself with my own security entourage.

Which, by the way, that's what a lot of these megachurch pastors do. When I met with Rick Warren, he had a very impressive security entourage.

And they were really well armed. I mean, really. And years ago, years, years, years ago,

I was the treasurer for the Republican Central Committee in the 43rd and 44th congressional districts in Southern California.

And I got to see some of the presidential candidates that were running the year that Dole ran against,

Bob Dole ran against Clinton. And I can say this without blushing. Rick Warren's security entourage was more impressive than Bob Dole's.

More. In fact, when I was talking with him, there was a guy who was literally in my line of sight.

He never once let me out of his sight. If I had went into my pocket to grab a handkerchief,

I'm pretty sure he would have pulled that Glock 17 out. Which means

Rick Warren doesn't know anybody at his church. Just saying. Now, last bit here then.

So we know what it then means to take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner.

But I wanted to show you one little thing in the liturgy that we follow when we have the

Lord's Supper. And that is after the words of institution, which, by the way, if you want to know the technical term for that, it's called the verba.

The verba. And so you're going to note, when we have the Lord's Supper, when I speak the words of the verba, because remember, which way

I'm facing kind of matters. If I'm facing you, I'm speaking on behalf of Christ.

When my back is towards you, I'm speaking with you as part of the congregation. When the words of institution are spoken, which direction am

I facing? Backward, yeah, that's right. So you notice our altar is against the wall.

I like free -floating altars that make it possible for the guy to stand behind it because it makes it a lot easier.

So for me, because the verba is Christ speaking to us, I need to be facing you for that.

And so I am. This is why I appreciate the help that we get from the deacons, because as many times as I said the verba, when

I'm put on the spot, I'll always choke. It's kind of fascinating. Now, another piece of this. So as often as we eat this bread and we drink this cup, we proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. And then listen to this.

There's a prayer after that, and this is called an anamnetic prayer.

From the Greek word anamnesis, which means remembrance. This is a prayer of remembrance. And watch my body language next time we have the

Lord's Supper. So consecrated elements are now on the altar. My back is towards you as I'm praying, but if you pay close attention,

I've been doing this since I got here. Once the elements are consecrated, that prayer isn't in this direction.

That prayer is prayed with my body towards the elements, recognizing the physical presence of Christ.

Now it's not just against the wall. By my body, I'm recognizing

Christ is present now among us. And so my prayer always takes place just a little bit askew, towards the elements.

You ever notice that? Some of you may have noticed, but I've done this since I got here.

We close our eyes when we pray. Yeah. Good answer.

Good answer. She closes her eyes when she prays. That is the best answer ever. And so now listen to the words of this prayer.

This is an anamnetic prayer. O Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the

Father, in giving us your body and your blood to eat and to drink, you lead us to remember and confess your holy cross and your passion, your blessed death, your rest in the tomb, your resurrection from the dead, your ascension into heaven, and your coming for the final judgment.

So you get a note. All of that is remembering the actual suffering of Christ. So the remembrance does remember the sufferings of Christ.

That's why it's evoked and brought back to mind. And it's brought back to mind in the form of a prayer with the pastor just skewed a little bit, praying towards the elements, which physically signifies

I'm recognizing that Christ is now among us in a way that is special. I'm not just praying towards the air or just towards the back wall.

I'm now praying where Christ, I can say with absolute certainty, is there presently for us.

And that's why I'm praying just a little bit askew. All right, any questions?

Yes. Yes. Yeah, it does.

But in a situation like this, though, when somebody is an impenitent, there's steps to that.

So there's like a soft ban at first where the pastor may be aware of somebody's sin that they are impenitent about.

And then what is imposed in that is kind of like an early stage of Matthew 18.

So if somebody is an impenitent, then there's a different paradigm in place because this is a gift only for the penitent.

And so pastoral care does have some oversight on it. Now, for most people, though,

I mean, I am never aware of the sins that you're going through, struggling with, or falling into temptation with.

And I don't need to know them. You don't need to enumerate them to me. And so then this last piece is where the majority time comes in.

So you have to examine yourself. You really need to consider all of these things yourself and then ask yourself, why am

I here? Am I here to be forgiven and assured and comforted? Am I presenting myself in defiance?

So your motivations now become part of it, but that's going to be the majority of it.

This is going to be the internal dialogue that you have with yourself and with God. And I'm not even aware of it.

I'm blissfully unaware of it. But you're going to note then that Scripture does encourage us, in fact, explicitly say to us that we need to examine ourselves in this manner.

You don't go to the Lord's Supper just because you've done it since you were a kid. Come to receive the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

Don first and then Nicky. Did you have your hands up? Just a bit of history. The verbiage that we use in our bulletin has been there for several years now, but it's derived from what was called in the

NALC responsible community. And the responsible word means two things.

It means that the church is responsible for telling the person in the pew, particularly the visitor, this is what we expect of our community.

And that it's the individual responsibility of the individuals to determine whether they fulfill that or not.

And ultimately at the end of the day, you always are going to run the risk that somebody's going to come up to the altar who really doesn't believe that they're receiving the body and blood of Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

They're just coming up because. And ultimately, I don't know any pastor who is capable in any sense of the word of keeping a person like that from the

Lord's Supper because that dialogue is all internal. And I failed every one of my psychic

ESP classes. I am not capable of reading anyone's mind or heart. I'm somewhat okay -ish at reading body language at times.

Most of the time I don't speak that language anyway. But you get the idea.

So there is a sense in which ultimately all of the responsibility is going to be back on you. Even your impenitence is on you.

It's like you don't want to be forgiven? Oh, come on. What are you thinking? I was just going to say with somebody who's openly impenitent like that, there is some responsibility on the pastor because if they commune someone knowing that you are openly impenitent, they are knowingly...

Yeah, and that actually harms the person but also can harm the consciences of the people in the congregation.

Because let's say we had a lesbian activist show up at Kongsbinger just to be an obnoxious person.

And she presented herself at the altar. Some of the people here, not even knowing that she was that, they would be incensed that I wouldn't commune her.

But if I did commune her, oh, good grief. There would be people here, why are you doing that?

Why did you give her the body and blood of Christ? It would scandalize them. And in that case, in a situation like that, it's a no -win situation.

It's a no -win situation. And I'm going to err on not giving that person the

Lord's Supper so that I don't scandalize the rest, but also for that other person's... I mean, yes, we have a defibrillator, but I don't think we want to use it during a service.