Eucharistic Meditation, Fourth Sunday of Lent

Hebrews 4:12-13: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews tells us that the word of God is a two-edged sword that divides joints and marrow. That is what has just happened here. Through Toby, the Lord has been dividing soul and spirit, exposing the thoughts and intents of your hearts. Through Toby, the Lord has been wielding a sword of sacrifice that dismembers each of us, and dismembers all of us as the body of Christ, and prepares us for sacrificial ascent.

Our worship, fortunately, doesn’t end with this dismemberment. Worship doesn’t conclude with limbs strewn around the room.

After God has cut us in pieces by His word, we are rejoined. The word is a sword, but it is also Spirit and life. The same word that divides joints and marrow is the instrument of the Spirit who raises up the dry bones in the valley, the breath of God that joins bone to bone, joint to joint, and raises up an army. The word kills and also makes alive, and thus prepares us to share in the meal of this table.

Each of us individually is dismembered and reconstituted, and we are dismembered and transfigured as a body. We symbolize this corporate resurrection by exchanging peace. Christ has united a divided humanity in Himself, making one new man, and as the one new man, we embrace each other, exchange peace, exchange the kiss of peace. This too is in preparation for the Lord’s table.

Yet, we don’t come to the Lord’s table just yet. As soon as we have been jointed together in transfigured fellowship as the body of Christ, we pray. We are in Christ, Christ is in us. God conforms us to Christ, so that we join with Christ in His great priestly service before the Father. We do as Jesus does, and intercede on behalf of the world.

We begin worship by separating ourselves from the world, but as we draw near to the Lord’s table, all the concerns, pains, imperfections, evils of the world return, and we offer them up in prayer.

That too is in preparation for this table. In fact, it’s more than preparation. It’s part of what this table is all about. We come here to be fed. But if that’s all we see here, we are missing the grandeur and scope of this moment. We come to this table as priests in Christ the priest, to gather up the whole creation, all humanity’s sickness, death, pain, failure, and especially all of God’s righteous works to heal this world – all of it, we bring here to this table, to gather it up in one great act of thanksgiving, one great Eucharist.