Now to return to virtual communion and the recommendation for Eucharistic fasting during this divine judgment on our social greed. Let\u2019s take an exemplary proponent, Lutheran theologian Prof. Deanna Thompson, who is now at St. Olaf College. She is a personally credible interlocutor on the question of \u201cvirtual\u201d ministry, as she writes out of her excruciating experience of life-threatening cancer in the prime of life. She\u2019s published a book, The Virtual Body of Christ, in which she makes the case for employing the new social media technologies just as the Lutheran Reformation employed the Gutenberg press. I agree with much of this, as I said above. Nevertheless, I respectfully and yet sharply disagree with her urging in the present pandemic crisis that people at home should set up bread and wine, as if to participate via the Internet in the live streaming of the Lord\u2019s Supper liturgy. As I\u2019ve listened and pondered the arguments being made in favor of this proposal, I have come to a certain realization which I would like briefly to argue here.<\/p>\n
Let me begin, by affirming that Christ is \u201creally\u201d in the preached word which can be conveyed through these media. He is really present to offer himself in his righteousness, life and peace for the auditor\u2019s sin, death and disease. Long ago, however, I discovered that in the Lutheran confessional writings what was at stake was never this so-called \u201creal\u201d presence but rather the \u201cbodily\u201d presence of Jesus Christ according to his word and promise. What difference does this apparently subtle distinction make? Answer: historically it excluded the so-called \u201cspiritual\u201d (or \u201creal\u201d) presence as the specific blessing or benefit of the Lord\u2019s Supper just as it excludes notions of \u201cinvisible\u201d church as the \u201creal\u201d church as opposed to the visible assembly gathered around Word and sacrament. By the Holy Spirit the word of the gospel awakens faith and if we want to speak of \u201cspiritual presence,\u201d we are talking about this ministry of the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus Christ \u201creal\u201d to us. But what differentiates the Lord\u2019s Supper is the promised presence of Jesus Christ personally in his own body-and-blood, so that the blessing is not merely privative, the forgiveness of sins, but also positive: life and salvation on account of this specific union with Christ that consists in physical eating and drinking in the common meal of the Lord.<\/p>\n
Why does this specificity of Jesus\u2019 bodily presence matter? For one thing, it concerns the identity of Jesus Christ as the very body born of Mary and crucified under Pontius Pilate but vindicated and exalted to be present in his glorified body for the gathering of his faithful. This act of identification is precisely what the Lord\u2019s Supper liturgy depends on, the specific act in the gathering as the church when a specific loaf is picked out with the words, \u201cthis is my body given for you….\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n I was like \u201cI\u2019ll log back into twitter to catch up on what I missed today\u201d and now I\u2019m depressed. So here\u2019s a link I was coming here to post about virtual communion from a Lutheran standpoint but for similar reasons I agree. (Mainly \u201cest\u201d not \u201csignificat\u201d) https:\/\/t.co\/XVt1IEYLYd<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Marshall (@marshman503) April 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n