In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     As many of you know, our parish secretary, Terri Moore is on a month-long trip through Germany, and the British Isles. They do have a lap-top with them, and this past week, I got an e-mail from Terri. She wrote, "Yesterday Jason and I were in Brugge, Belgium. One of their cathedrals has the blood of Christ as its relic. Yesterday, it was out for veneration. In all the cathedrals we have visited in Europe, none of the relics have ever been out for veneration when we were visiting. I think this one was out because it was the 2nd day of the Pentecost holiday. Anyway, I'm now looking for a t-shirt for you that says, "My secretary has seen the blood of Christ in Brugge, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." And then, she ended with one of those "irritating" smiley faces.

     I thought that was an appropriate introduction today, given that we're observing the ecumenical, but not necessarily Lutheran, festival, The Holy Body and Blood of Christ. A festival day of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar was first celebrated in 1246, and was extended to the universal Church in 1264 when Pope Urban IV commissioned none other than Saint Thomas Aquinas to write the formularies for it. It's become known as simply, "Corpus Christi"-or Body of Christ, but the accurate title is, "The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ." This festival was not included on Lutheran calendars in the 1500's and beyond, because Martin Luther had a problem with the way that the Church had begun parading around the consecrated elements of the Holy Communion, offering the Lord's Body and Blood for adoration, in place of actually receiving the real presence of the Lord, as He intended, by eating and drinking! From several hundred years before Luther, because of penitential practices, the faithful rarely received communion, but adored the real presence of Christ from a distance, in the reserved Eucharistic host. Naturally, as Luther wanted both the Lord's body and blood to be offered in the Holy Sacrament, he also wanted people to commune regularly, as Christ intended-rather than just looking at the Sacrament from afar. Lutherans refer to this as the instituted use of Christ-that apart from the divinely instituted action-that of Christ feeding His disciples with His very presence in the Sacrament, there is no sacrament. Also quite naturally, then, Luther and the reformers downplayed the Festival of Corpus Christi, because in the middle ages, the big event of Corpus Christi was to have a great procession, not just around the church, but through the village or city, so that all might view the Lord's Body and worship and adore Him. Luther preferred that the faithful come to church and receive the Lord's Body and Blood, rather than only carry Him in procession. So, to eliminate this practice and encourage reception of communion, Martin Luther didn't put this festival on his church calendar. Unfortunately, what began as Luther's effort to re-focus attention on the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, has ended up a slippery slope which has dropped many Lutherans into a so-called "Protestant puddle", in which many of our pastors and congregations appear, at least, to no longer believe in the real presence. So, at our recent chapter retreat for pastors of the Society of the Holy Trinity, we decided to study the Lutheran understanding of the Real Presence, and review current Lutheran practices in light of the historic Lutheran understanding. And one of the papers we studied, from the Lutheran journal, Bride of Christ, said it all: "Is the Real Presence for Real?" In each of the papers we read, the conclusion was, Lutherans today, by their practice if not by their teaching, do not appear to believe the real presence of Christ, is for real! Lutherans by and large may believe that Jesus is somehow, someway, spiritually present among the believers-but they do not seem to believe that the Bread and Wine actually become, the very presence of Christ in the Sacrament. And how does this manifest itself? During and after the actual consecration takes place, a large number of Lutherans treat the bread and wine, like bread and wine-NOT as the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord, present at the altar. There is no respect shown and there is little care or concern for what happens to the consecrated elements that are not consumed-even to the point where consecrated elements are simply returned to the wine bottle or a plastic bag of hosts-to be mixed with unconsecrated elements. And how did this happen? I believe it has to do, in part, with Lutherans mistakenly thinking that Luther and Lutherans are opposed to adoring Christ in the Sacrament. As if adoring Christ, in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, could somehow be-idolatry. Now, granted, as we said, Luther was opposed to adoring the Sacrament, to the exclusion of receiving the Sacrament, but his goal was not to keep the faithful from showing respect to the elements-Luther wanted the faithful to show their greatest respect, by solemnly and faithfully receiving the Lord's precious Body and Blood! In our confessional document, the Formula of Concord, it states, "apart from the divinely instituted action.the sacrament is not to be deemed a sacrament, as in the papistic Mass when the bread is not distributed but is offered up, or locked up, or carried about or exposed for adoration." Without a doubt, Lutherans have believed that the proper purpose and intention of Christ for the Sacrament is for it to be distributed to the faithful! But the Formula of Concord continues, "of course, no one except an Arian heretic can or will deny that Christ himself, true God and true man, who is truly and essentially present in the Supper when it is rightly used should be adored in spirit and in truth in all places, but especially where his community is assembled." (for the mass).

     The truth is, in Luther's time, what was needed was less adoration of Christ's presence in the Sacrament, and more eating and drinking of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. What is needed today, is continued eating and drinking, but together with that, a return to adoration and reverence of Christ's presence, in the Sacrament of the Altar. And not so that we can be like the Roman Catholics-not because we secretly, yearn to be Roman Catholics-but because at the heart of Lutheranism is-a devout and heartfelt devotion to Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper! In the Augsburg Confession of 1530, in the Latin and German translations, our chief confessional document, "We are unjustly accused of having abolished the Mass. Without boasting, it is manifest that the Mass is observed among us with greater devotion and more earnestness than among our opponents. The people are accustomed to receive the sacrament together. This likewise increases the reverence and devotion of public worship.The people are also admonished concerning the value and use of the sacrament and the great consolation it offers to anxious consciences, that they may learn to believe in God and ask for and expect whatever is good from God. Such worship pleases God, and such use of the sacrament nourishes devotion to God.that the people may be drawn to the Communion and Mass."

     Like the woman in our gospel lesson, who lavished Jesus with her gift, not hesitating to anoint Jesus, not with a few drops of perfume, not with a clothful of the costly ointment, but breaking open the alabaster jar and pouring it over His head-like this woman, we are called to adore Christ, and praise Christ, and offer Him our all, in prayer, praise and thanksgiving. We are to hold nothing back-because as Jesus himself says, we will not always have him with us. Throughout our week, we may feel His presence at work, at school, at home-we believe He is with us, as He has promised. But in times of trouble, in times of trial, in times of sickness and grief, we aren't so sure. Like generations of Christians before us, when we are being assailed by life, by the burdens of stress, by the devil himself, we feel lost and alone, and can find ourselves crying out, "Where are you, Lord?" So, when we come together, God answers our cry, by making Himself present for us; bodily, corporeally present for us, to give us strength and comfort and courage, through our participation in the Sacrament of the Altar. So that when we see His physical, incarnate presence among us in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, we are like the woman in the house in Bethany, we are to be like the woman in the house in Bethany-we break open the costly jar of our selves, and lavish Jesus with our worship and reverence! We heap upon Him, all honor and glory and adoration.we reverence His presence in our neighbor-and we reverence His presence in the Word-but let us not neglect His presence, in His Holy Supper-as the bread and wine become, His Body and Blood, for us. In his 1523 treatise The Adoration of the Sacrament of the Holy Body of Christ, Luther wrote, "He who does believe (that Christ's body and blood are present in the Sacrament), as sufficient demonstration has been shown it ought to be believed, he can surely not withhold his adoration of the body and blood of Christ, without sinning. For I must always confess that Christ is present when his body and blood.His words do not lie to me, and he is not separated from his body and blood.for many people worshiped him on earth and he accepted it, too, such as the three kings, the blind man, and many others.Nevertheless, one should not withhold from him (in the Sacrament) such worship and adoration either, but freely give it, if the proper time and occasion presents itself."

     Now, how are we to adore and worship Christ in the Sacrament? How should we show proper devotion and praise? Certainly, reverence for the Sacramental Body and Blood are a given-proper treatment of the elements, bowing to the altar, kneeling in His presence at the altar rail if you are able-all show adoration and praise. Together with that may be appropriate silence and prayer in the presence of Christ, proper preparation before we receive His real presence, proper thanksgiving after receiving. But even more, Luther wrote elsewhere in the treatise on the Adoration of the Sacrament, "The proper way to honor the Word (incarnate), is to fix it in your heart. The heart is the real gilded ciborium". The ciborium is the vessel used in Luther's time, and in many churches today, to hold the consecrated hosts as they are being distributed. And Luther is saying, the heart, is the real receptacle for Christ's presence. The first and foremost way to adore Christ in the Holy Sacrament, is to cherish it, to hold it, to give it an honored place, in your heart, and in your life. And not just in a cathedral in Brugge, Belgium-not just in dried up, aged blood spots brought out on certain special occasions. We adore Christ in the Holy Sacrament, by receiving Him every Sunday morning-- by feasting on the Lamb of God, in Holy Communion-so that His real presence, will go, from stomach, to blood, to heart-where He will dwell with us, and we with Him-always! Let us ever adore the presence of Christ, in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, received by faith, through the Sacrament, into the heart-the real gilded ciborium, of Christ's true presence!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.