Holy Cross Lutheran Church Communion Statement
 

Our Lord bids us to joyfully receive the Lord’s Supper here today. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, comes to us fully here at this altar in His Body and His blood which He so graciously gives us to eat and drink for our salvation. Jesus' true body and blood, which is given in, with, and under the bread and wine was instituted by Christ himself for our benefit. By eating the bread from Heaven, that is His own flesh, and drinking from the cup of immortality, that is own blood, our sins are forgiven, our faith is strengthened, and Jesus binds us to Himself and to one another. Where this meal is offered there is life and salvation.

While we truly wish that all people would be able to join us at this blessed feast (and we pray continually for that day when all divisions will cease), we also understand that the apostle Paul warns us Christians that there is judgment for those who eat this meal unworthily (1 Corinthians 11:27-29). To eat this meal worthily means that one is baptized, has faith in the triune God, and firmly believes that Jesus is truly present in this the Lord’s Supper and that He gives us His real body and blood to eat and to drink.

  All members of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod have publicly confessed this and are encouraged to communion here. Other guests who wish to receive the blessed gift of Lord’s Supper are asked to wait and speak with the pastor before they commune. To go to this altar shows unity of faith, teaching and confession with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (1 Corinthians 10). 

We really do wish for you to commune with us, for we all are in need of this holy meal as we journey through the wilderness of this sinful world. If you are asked to refrain, know that it is not because we are not brothers and sisters in Christ, for we are justified by the same Lord, Jesus Christ, but rather it is because we hold so highly the gifts of our Lord’s body and blood and wish to show unity in doctrine and teaching. We hope and pray that you'll join us in the understanding of just how great and wonderful the Lord’s Supper really is and what it means for our salvation!