(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Oppenheimer & Holy Communion”, originally shared on September 6, 2023. It was the 275th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
The movie, “Oppenheimer” asks, “Do we have a
future?” The Christian faith asks, “Do we have a present?” Today, we’re going
to find out why.
Sally and I saw the movie “Oppenheimer” this
past week. We saw the movie “Barbie” the week before so, “Barbenheimer!” Or
“Oppie!” if you prefer.
If you haven’t seen either of them yet, and
you want to, I’d recommend seeing them in that same order, because you may want
to be thinking about whether we have a future before you are thinking about the
best one.
“Barbie” is politics. “Oppenheimer” is art.
“Oppenheimer” is an intense description of
the events that led to the production of an atom bomb and the subsequent
weapons of mass destruction that gave human beings the ability to quickly
destroy our world and everything in it. It is told without a lot of optimism
for the future, but in a way that leads you to appreciate, if regretfully so,
the ability of one person to change the world.
“Barbie” believes she is changing her
life for the better. “Oppenheimer” believes that he has changed the world
for the worse.
“Barbie” may lead you to reflect on what is
our best future. “Oppenheimer” may lead you to reflect on whether or not we
have a future.
Do you think that we have a future?
Henry Kissinger was once asked about the
weapons that would be used in World War III. He said that he didn’t know what
weapons would be used in World War III, but he did know what weapons would be
used in World War IV. Rocks.
But at least he believed that there would be
people around to throw those rocks.
What does the Christian faith have to say in
the face of the possibility of the destruction of the world?
When I was in seminary, I took a class on
futures studies. At the end of that class, I thought that with overpopulation
and diminishing resources there was no way that I would live past my early
50’s, yet here I am at 75.
Today, with all the concerns about extreme
weather and climate change, the most haunting reflection that I’ve heard is
that human beings may not survive, but the planet will be fine. We may destroy
ourselves, but the Earth will eventually recover, even after all-out atomic and
hydrogen bombs and who knows what else are detonated. Which they may.
While God set the rainbow in the sky as a
sign that He would never again destroy the world in a flood, we see in the
Bible’s book of 2 Peter, in 2 Peter 3:10,
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the
heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved
with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
Could that happen? Would a remnant of the
human race be saved, as in Noah and the Flood?
Would God step in and
begin the Last Judgement at the last desperate moment before it starts?
It’s not something that we haven’t pondered.
In fact, it’s central to our worldview, though in distinctly more optimistic
and purpose-filled terms.
Every Sunday, the vast majority of churches
throughout the world, confess together their common core beliefs in what are
called “creeds”, from the Latin word “credo”, “I believe…”
The two primary creeds are The Apostles and
The Nicene, and they include these words about the end:
Nicene: “He (Jesus) will come again
in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”
Apostles: “He (Jesus) will
come again to judge the living and the dead.”
A colleague once said that one of his
seminary professors summarized the Bible’s book about the end, Revelation, with
two words, “God wins.”
We have no need to fear the future. But we
are called, equipped, and sent to do God’s will in the present.
There
is a story, possibly apocryphal, about 16th century Church reformer
Martin Luther digging a hole for an apple tree in his back yard. A member of
his congregation stopped by to talk about the signs of the end-times. He asked
Luther what he would do if he knew that the world would end tomorrow. Luther
answered, “I’d plant my apple tree.”
But, what about now? The last judgement may
be today, or it may be a gazillion years from now. What has God given us for
the meantime?
I believe that God has given us himself.
In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus gives
instructions for how to handle conflict in the church. Yes, it happens. Jesus
witnessed it among his closest disciples. He ends this section by saying that
whatever we decide will be bound in heaven, and whatever two of His disciples
agree on on earth will be done in heaven.
Why? Do we have divine superpowers? No. We
are the Body of Christ. Whatever we decide or do, it is done in accord with
God’s will because who we are is a product of the living relationship given to
us in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human being. To act in Jesus’ name
means to act in His living presence. This passage ends with Matthew 18:20,
“For where two or
three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
I believe, and it is my experience, that
that presence is most clearly, purely, and regularly felt in Holy Communion.
It is Holy Communion that is God’s answer to
the despair of our times. It is God’s presence with us in a promise that will
never be broken.
Some Christians see the forms of bread and
wine as symbols of Jesus body and blood. They are part of a ritual, memorial
meal.
I saw a meme the other day advertising
“Communion Wafers, now in Pumpkin Spice”.
It was a fictional product. A joke. But it’s funny partly because I’m
sure there are some people who would prefer something to “spice” up what is to
them just an add-on, a time-consumer, an all too familiar and boring ritual,
not real presence.
Most Christians now and throughout history
have spoken of the bread and wine of Holy Communion in some terms of the real
presence of Jesus in the forms of bread and wine. Some say that these forms of
bread and wine change into the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans say that Jesus
is present in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine, and though the
forms themselves don’t change, that He is truly present in these forms.
In Holy Communion we encounter the living, transformational, real, presence of
God.
The Lutheran churches of our denomination in
our region send voting members annually for our “synod assembly”. I have been
in disagreement with decisions of that assembly many times. But the assemblies
end with a worship service of Holy Communion.
I can’t tell you how many times (every time)
I’ve had heated arguments with pastors and laypeople from the other churches
during the business sessions, but as I return to my seat from Holy Communion, I
just see brothers and sisters whom I love.
We believe that what happens in Holy
Communion is holy communion! We commune with the one true holy God in a
sacrament begun and commanded by Jesus Christ. In this sacrament, as 16th
century Church reformer Martin Luther writes in his Small Catechism, “we
receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. For where there is
forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”
If eating bread and drinking wine did that
by itself, we’d have a lot of restored and saved people in this world, but it
is not just eating and drinking. Luther says, “It is not eating and drinking
that does this, but the words, given and shed for you for the remission of sins.
[He puts those words in bold] These words, “he says,” along with eating and
drinking are the main thing in the sacrament. And whoever believes these words
has exactly what they say, forgiveness of sins.”
I don’t think that we can be reconciled with
one another at worship (the Passing of the Peace), receive Holy Communion with
God, know that our great sins have been forgiven, and see fellow believers as
anything other than people whom we love.
When we eat the bread (in whatever form) and
drink the wine (or grape juice) we receive something incredible. We receive
forgiveness of sins, life and salvation!
What does Jesus say he came to bring, in John
10:10?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Life. Abundant life. Eternal life.
That is God’s answer to despair about the
future. In fact, “despair” is what Luther said was the worst sin, because
“despair” says that nothing can be done, and there is always, and sometimes
only, hope in God.
Most congregations have gone to receiving
Holy Communion with greater frequency over the past decades. Some have said
that every Sunday communion is the church’s best defense against a bad sermon. 😊 But the need to
receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation has to be up there, too.
We
long for the end of history in the final judgement as people saved by grace
through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, we experience God’s
everything in Holy Communion.
It is also something that we talk about
regularly, sometimes every Sunday. Its origin is in the shadow of death, on the
night he was betrayed, and we are not afraid. In fact, we celebrate it!
When our son was in grade school, he came
home one day with a flier announcing to parents that his school would be
holding an active shooter drill in the coming week.
We thought about what a terrible time this
is when children have to be afraid of someone coming onto their school property
with a gun and malintent.
Then we thought about the times when we were
that age. We had nuclear war drills! We were told to stay away from the windows
to avoid broken glass, to not look at the direction of the explosion, as if
that would help, so that our retinas wouldn’t be burned away by the light from
the explosion.
We were taught to go down to the school
basement where there were no windows, but where there was food and water
stored. It was there in case our parents couldn’t come to get us for a few
days, or worse, or until it ran out. The room where it was stored had a civil
defense symbol on it. We walked by it regularly.
The Christian faith is fed by another kind
of food and drink. It is the real presence of Jesus, God for us, with whom we
commune in the forms of bread and wine in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
An op ed piece in last Sunday’s (September
3, 2023) Los Angeles Times said that the director of “Oppenheimer”, Christopher
Nolan, “believes J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever
lived. ‘By unleashing nuclear power,’ the film director concludes, ‘he gave us
the power to destroy ourselves.
I would suggest someone else.
My candidate for that distinction would be
Jesus Christ, not just because he was the Creator (not one thing came into
being without him), but because he brought about the redemption of all people
after the perfect harmony God created fell apart through human rebellion
against God. He brings forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in himself, in
his real presence.
One person can make a difference. As Paul
writes in Romans 5:18-21,
18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to
condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification
and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were
made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made
righteous. 20 But law came in, with the result that the trespass
multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so
grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
One would like to think of a movie like
“Oppenheimer” as a warning and a call to action. But, our human track record
for acting for the benefit of all people to ensure our self-preservation is not
particularly encouraging.
Our hope is in Someone more reliable and
trustworthy. In the living presence of the one true living God and the relationship
with God for which we were created, for which we were redeemed on the cross.
As for the End, we don’t know what
the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future.
To paraphrase a quoted line from the movie,
“Jesus is become life, the Savior of the world.”
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