Forgiveness, reconciliation and self-denial as door openers for the Holy Spirit. By Klaus Reinprecht

Reading time: 5 minutes

During my walk in the forest on January 9th of this year, the scales fell from my eyes: I had been thinking for a long time about the great connection between causes and diseases, as described in the following section:

"So whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord... Therefore many of you are weak and sick, and a good number have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 11,27.30: XNUMX)

From the previous context, one could hastily reduce unworthiness simply to the hungry consumption of bread and wine. But what does unworthy partaking of the sacrament really mean?

The meaning of the Lord's Supper is on the one hand the remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice and on the other hand the previous searching of one's own heart. Participation unworthy means: not entitled to it. We have no right to forgiveness if we ourselves do not forgive or do not repent of sins. The washing of feet wants to remind us and admonish us that bread and wine (i.e. the sacrificial death and forgiveness through Jesus) only have their effect and fulfill their purpose when we ourselves are at peace with God, but also with our environment.

Asking for forgiveness, making amends, reconciling - this is our part in the Lord's Supper. Then - and only then - do we have God's assurance. If we do not do our part, we partake of the sacrament unworthily. Since God can only forgive us as we forgive our debtors, the guilt then remains with us and God's gift of forgiveness, His promised blessings, do not reach us.

So why are so many of us weak and ill, or even (apparently too soon) dead? Because God cannot pour out His blessings, the Spirit, the fruit, and the gifts of the Spirit, into our hearts in abundance.

Jesus forbade his disciples from any activism before his ascension. He gave them no concepts, no structure, not even the task of planting a church. He only told them to wait in Jerusalem until "the promise of the Father" was fulfilled (Acts 1,4:XNUMX). days? Months? Years?

The time was shared among the disciples to come clean, overcome pride, ambition, and self-actualization, and forgive one another. Then when all this was done, after 10 days, the Holy Spirit could be poured out. This event could have happened on the second day or decades later, depending on their willingness. But now the Spirit was poured out and the gifts of the Spirit were in abundance: the dead were raised, the sick were healed, evil spirits were cast out. Pentecost as the result of true conversion, a sincere mutual confession of guilt.

If today we perceive and experience the gifts of the spirit, but also the fruit of the spirit, only very, very sparsely, the reason is that we partake of the Lord's Supper unworthily, i.e. we don't do our homework. As individuals, families, communities, institutions.

This is another reason why there are so many sick and suffering among us, and a large number died prematurely. Of course, this is not the only reason for illness and suffering, but probably a much more important one than we assume.

We can still ask for the latter rain for decades - if we do not open ourselves to it, it will not come into our hearts.

We may well carry the picture of the Pentecost gathering with us as preparation for the next supper: the days of confessing, putting things in order, asking for forgiveness and forgiving are concluded with the washing of feet. Then we are ready to receive Jesus' sacrifice, His forgiveness, but also His gift - the Holy Spirit, His fruit, His gifts.