From Pastor Johnson: Looking at the future
Dear Peace family,
Over the past couple of months, the Congregation Council has been thinking about the future. The Council has decided to embark on a long-range planning process to look at the next five years or so, and make some plans for where we hope to go as a congregation, and how we hope to get there.
The last time we had such a process was about seven years ago. At that time one of the things that came out of the process was a decision to proceed with planning a new Fellowship Center. What a wonderful vision that was, and how blessed we are to have brought it to fruition!
This time I anticipate we will be considering a rather different set of goals. While I have no definite plans with regard to retirement, the chances are pretty good that I’ll be ready to retire within the next five years or so. That will mean some big changes for our congregation. This current long-range planning process won’t be dealing specifically with the details of that, but it is surely a factor that they will have in their minds as they contemplate the future.
We are in the process of organizing a committee to work on this plan. David and Gloria Baker have agreed to serve as co-chairs, and they have met with the Executive Committee of Council to talk about who else might effectively service. We hope to announce shortly who the committee will be.
The committee will be giving regular reports to the Council over the next six to nine months. There will also be some opportunities for congregational involvement in discussing and dreaming, and I hope you will take advantage of those opportunities when they are announced.
A long-range planning committee has no authority to do anything; it is simply given the task of helping us all think about our future together. We want to figure out where God is calling us to go as a congregation. Wherever it is, it will be exciting!
On another matter, let me urge you to plan to attend the special congregational meeting on June 13 at 10 a.m. There is one item only on the agenda—the proposed adjustment of the property line between us and our neighbors to the east. You have received complete information about this, and some of it is included in this Tidings as well. It isn’t a very glamorous issue, nor (we hope!) a very controversial one, but we do need a quorum to authorize the Council to proceed with the adjustment. Please try to be there!
Peace to you,
Pastor Richard O. Johnson
Classic Prayers
Almighty God, supreme Governor of all, incline your ear, we beg you, to the prayer of nations, and so overrule the imperfect counsel of human beings, and set straight the things they cannot govern, that we may walk in paths of obedience to places of vision, and to thoughts that surge and make us wise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
–President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)
Liturgy Notes: “The body of Christ, given for you.”
It is remarkable how important a few words can be. The simple statement made to each person as he or she received the bread and wine of Holy Communion is full of meaning – and through the centuries, it has sometimes been full of controversy!
The earliest records we have suggest that some statement to communicants goes back to the very beginning of the church. In those first centuries, the “formula of distribution” (as scholars call it) was very simple: “The body of Christ. . . The blood of Christ.” The words were intended as an affirmation that what was being given and received was not mere food and drink, but the body and blood of Christ. This affirmation was then echoed by the communicant, who would respond with “Amen.” “Amen” means “let it be so”; so the communicant was really saying, “Yes, I believe it is so! This is the body and blood of Christ!”
During the Middle Ages, there was a subtle change in the wording used at the distribution. The priest began to say, “The true body of Christ preserve thy soul.” The difference seems slight, but in effect there had been a transformance from an affirmation of faith by the communicant to a blessing given by the priest. This was one more instance of the medieval tendency to emphasize the spiritual power of the priesthood.
At the time of the Reformation, there were different opinions about what words should be used for the distribution. Some of the Reformers, in their efforts to simplify everything about worship, advocated complete silence at this point in the liturgy. Luther did not object to the traditional words, but it may have been he who added the phrase “for you.”
In Germany during the 19th century, quite a controversy arose over the formula of distribution. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III tried to force a union between Lutheran and Reformed churches in his realm, requiring them all to use the same liturgy. One of the objections Lutherans had t this liturgy was the wording of the distribution, which was: “Jesus said, This is my body.” To us it may seem like a minor point about which to argue, but for the Prussian Lutherans, the proposed wording side-stepped any affirmation that Christ was truly present in the bread and wine. Many pastors went to jail rather than accept what they believed to be misleading words.
The words currently prescribed by the Lutheran Book of Worship go back to the early church’s “The body of Christ” and add the Lutheran “given for you.” In those simple words, however, there is a lot of meaning. The first phrase continues to affirm our belief that in the bread and wine, we receive Christ; these are not mere symbols, but means of grace. The second phrase embodies our Lutheran tradition of making personal these great theological doctrines. Martin Marty puts it this way: “The plural is singular now.” We have joined with the great congregation in confessing our faith, we have prayed “Our Father” and sung “Lamb of God, have mercy on us.” But now the plural is singular. The body of Christ for me. The blood of Christ for me. What a powerful and wonderful moment.
The communicant may say “Amen.” That’s the suggestion in the Lutheran Book of Worship, and it’s a good one! When we have received a wonderful gift, we want to respond, we want to say “thanks.” But “thank you” seems almost too little a response to the gift of Christ himself. “Amen” is more than thanks – it is an affirmation of faith and trust that we have, indeed, received Christ. Perhaps we could paraphrase the Catechism and say that Christ is truly present here without any need for response by us, but we confess in this “Amen” that he is truly present with us, and in us, and for us.