“The day of the Lord’s Supper
is a joyous occasion for the Christian community. Reconciled in their hearts
with God and one another, the community of faith receives the gift of Jesus
Christ’s body and blood, therein receiving forgiveness, new life, and
salvation. New community with God and one another is given to it. The community
of the holy Lord’s Supper is above all the fulfillment of Christian community.
Just as the members of the community of faith are united in body and blood at
the table of the Lord, so they will be together in eternity. Here the community has reached its goal.
Here joy in Christ and Christ’s community is complete. The life together of
Christians under the Word has reached its fulfillment in the sacrament.” (Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Fortress
Press, 2015 (Reader’s Edition), page 97. [Italics
mine.]
This is the final paragraph of
Life Together, Bonhoeffer’s
concluding words, his goal, the culmination of his thought in Life Together. There is an inclusio in
that the book begins with life under the
Word and it concludes with life under
the Word reaching its fulfillment.
Life
Together reaches its fulfillment in the sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper, and yet the entire journey has been sacramental, for the essence of life together is receiving Christ Jesus
through one another – the nature of the Body of Christ is the nature of God in
Christ; the nature of relationship in Christ is receiving Christ from one
another. The Lord’s Supper is an affirmation of who Christ is, of who He is in
us, of who we are in Him, of who we are in Him in one another. We anticipate
the fullness of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb as we sacramentally participate
in that Supper.
We sacramentally participate
in the Supper, we sacramentally leave the Supper, we sacramentally live with
one another, we sacramentally live in the world and toward the world, we
sacramentally return to the Supper – and thus we travel this pilgrimage. God’s
presence is with us and in us; we are in the world but not of the world; we lay
down our lives for one another as Christ laid down His life for us; we love the
world as God loves the world; the Incarnation continues to work itself out in
us, Christ’s Body; the New Jerusalem continues its descent and outworking in us
and through us; and as we seek Christ’s daily appearing we, His people, are
transformed and conformed into His image and likeness for the glory of the
Trinity.
We “joy in Christ and Christ’s
community.”
“When all things are subjected
to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected
all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:28.
“And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will
live among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among
them…’ ” Revelation 21:3.
“For even as the body is one
and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many,
are one body, so also is Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12.
“…until we all attain to the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13.
“…the riches of the glory of
this mystery…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27.
Amen.
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