Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Thus begins our first reading today. But to whom is Isaiah speaking, and what is he talking about? The Children of Israel, have been in exile in Babylon for 70 years, waiting for God to act on their behalf. Waiting to go home. Over those long seventy years - what do they remember? What have they forgotten?
God does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted.
Waiting can sap a person’s patience. One grows weary, but God understands how difficult it has been. And so, He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
The God who for their sins allowed them be taken captive, has nonetheless stood by the Children of Israel and been with them. All they need is to be faithful, to be who they are, the people God has chosen as His own. It has been seventy long years, and now, finally, the prophet Isaiah is telling them that the time is at hand for those who have been faithful.
Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Truly, the God of Israel is all powerful, has not forgotten, and will rescue His children and bring them home.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
These questions could easily be directed at us today. We too are a people in waiting, and for us it has been over two millennium. A lot has happened to our beliefs over time. There have been divisions in the Church, heresies and schisms, and today, as secularism attempts to pull us from our faith, we may also wonder what God is doing and if He is still present with us.
This morning we celebrate Holy Communion, also, depending on your denomination, known as the Liturgy, the Holy Mass, the Lord’s Supper, and the Eucharist, the last of which means “thanksgiving”. It is a celebration of God with us, but in what way? How is God with us in Holy Communion? The loving Christian community has wrestled with this question for centuries. It’s amazing how much argument there can be within a loving family.
In the Early Church, and in Catholic traditions today, the belief is that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. The belief that the bread and wine change in some way into Christ’s Body and Blood is the belief in The Real Presence.
But we at Mystic Side are not of the Catholic tradition. What do Protestants believe? Early on, Memorialism was the belief. In that belief, the bread and wine remain as bread and wine at the Meal, and the Meal is only a memorial of the atonement purchased for us by Christ. However, this view observes a real absence of Christ during the Lord's Supper.
Today, Congregationalists believe that in the sacrament of Holy Communion, Christians hear, taste, touch and receive the grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ. That is, in a large majority of Protestant churches, Christians believe that communion is a symbol of Christ's death and that He is present spiritually in the elements of bread and wine, but the elements are not His Body and Blood
Though beliefs differ, at least the Body of Christ, the Church, agrees on one basic thing. There is a mystery that occurs during the sacrament of Holy Communion. Sometimes people say that they feel stronger or refreshed after communion, but feeling, emotional response, is not required. All we know for certain is that God loves us, and that in the Lord’s Supper something we cannot explain happens, and Jesus comes to us.
What are we to do with the awesome Love and the spiritual graces communion gives us, while we await Jesus’ promised return at His second coming?
In the epistle appointed for today, Paul gives us the answer. If I proclaim the Gospel . . .an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel! But this does not mean just talking about it. It means living it every day.
In today’s reading from Mark, Jesus finishes speaking in the synagogue and goes to His friend’s home. One might think that this would be a time to relax after the service, after speaking with authority to the assembled congregation. Instead, well into the evening hours, Jesus ends up performing many healing miracles. In the morning, He finally seeks solitude, in order to pray, to speak to His heavenly Father, to renew His strength. Then, with wisdom, He moves on to other towns, as He explains it, “that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
To proclaim the Gospel is to live a life of service strengthened through prayer and in communion with our Savior. Thus, we are sustained by God’s love, which, when we have opened our hearts in prayer and sacrament, flows through us. We are the baptized, and this is our calling.
Let us pray:
We do not presume to come to this Your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Your abundant and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Your table; but You are the same Lord whose property it is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, to receive communion, that through this holy mystery, we may continually dwell in Christ, and He in us. Amen.