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.

Isn't She Beautiful?

What if the world saw what the church, the people of God was doing and said, "Isn't she beautiful!" What if the church took seriously the life to which Jesus calls all disciples to reach out to the lost and be compassionate to the marginalized? What if the church stopped measuring itself by the three Bs, buildings, budgets and butts? What would the church look like?

Over the last two days, 2,000 people have been wrestling with this question at Mars Hill Bible Church, in Grandville, MI.

Lots of people have been talking about this in churches across the globe for the last several years. Walt Kallestad wrote a book called, "Turning Your Church Inside Out". I don't think that even starts to get at what these questions are asking because behind them are still concerns about the 3 Bs.

In the opening session, Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill said this, "The Church is the only organization that exists for non-members." Is that possible? Can we put our trust in the God of the cross to the point that we actually believe and follow this? Isn't it possible that discipleship is less about the number of people in a worship area or sanctuary on a Sunday morning and more about the number of lives affected by the gospel in their ordinary lives during the week?

I am going to be posting a number of reflections on what I took in from this conference over the next few days. I am not going to promise any answers because when I look back at my notes, there are probably 10 times more questions than there are answers, but I hope to create space for us as a community of readers, believers, humans, or what ever else we may be, to discuss what it might mean for us as humans, created by a God who comes to us over and over again, to engage and live faithfully in the world in which this God loves.

It's late, so this is it for now. Please join the conversation and ask your own questions!

Peace to your house.