We are the Eucharist: Isn't She Beautiful Part II

In the opening session of the conference, Rob Bell made the claim that as the body of Christ, we are the Eucharist. We have our bodies and our lives broken or given and our blood poured out for the sake of the world. This is a defining experience and activity of the Church. Paul explains this phenomenon in 2 Corinthians 4:10-12. As followers of Jesus, we give our life over to death for Jesus' sake, so that others may have life. In this way, the Eucharist, the good gift or the thanksgiving is not only a gift that benefits the Church, but it is made visible to the world through Christ's work in those who participate in the Eucharist. If this is indeed the case, then we are joined to Christ's suffering, we are commissioned by God through the elements to respond and join ourselves to the suffering of the world.

Martin Luther takes this notion of joining Christ one step further in his treatise "The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods". "The significance or effect of this sacrament is fellowship of all the saints...To recieve this sacrament in bread and wine, then, is nothing else than to receive a sure sign of the fellowship and incorporation with Christ and all the saints...This fellowship consists in athis, that all the spiritual possessions of Christ and his saints (all those who believe in Christ) are shared with and become the common property of [the one] who receives this sacrament. Again all the sufferings and sins also become common property of [the one] who receives this sacrament."

We are incorporated in a mystical way into communion with Christ and all believers and are mutually included in the blessings, sufferings and sins of those who participate in this with us. In light of the fact that Luther was arguing for the proper understanding of the worldview of Christendom and today we are most certainly living in a world that has rejected the notion of Christendom, I would argue that our participation in the Eucharist places us in communion with the suffering, sins and blessings of the world which God desires to reclaim, reconcile and re-create anew.

So what does this mean? It means that in a very practical way, the Church is not fully participating in the Eucharist, and perhaps not even being faithful to Christ unless the members of the Church are in communion with those in our world that are suffering, poor, oppressed, rejected, neglected, abused, disempowered, discriminated against, etc. God uses the Church to bring hope, peace joy, love and wholeness to all the world because she is the body of Christ who has already experienced the power of the Gospel. The way that any of this happens is through the Church, the people of God.

More to come tomorrow.