19 October 2006

Quote of the Weak -- Communion

"What we do in our bodies and in our physical, mundane lives does matter, both for sin and grace."


"Many Christians look for signs and miracles. But there is no more miraculous sign than what happens during Holy Communion. Many Christians look for religious experience, but there is no experience as vivid as tasting. Evangelicals talk about 'receiving Christ', something that happened way back at their conversion. But in the Lord's Supper, as we are brought back to the Gospel again and again, we can continue to receive Christ.
Contemporary Christianity tends to be all internalized - a matter of my feelings, my inner life and my personal opinions... the Reformers stressed how salvation is extra nos, outside ourselves, accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Contemporary Christians tend to be all spiritual. They often scorn the physical realm... reasoning like Gnostics that what they do with their bodies does not affect their spirits. They often construe God as being in their heads, and they treat Jesus like some imaginary friend...
What we do in our bodies and in our physical, mundane lives does matter, both for sin and grace."

-- Gene Edward Veith

No comments: