I Want the Blood! I Want the Body!

After the Divine Service today, I had to send this out. During the Distribution of the Elements, a child at our church was very insistent. He shouted, "I want the Blood! I want the Body." He couldn't understand why he couldn't also receive Christ's body and blood. Why does everyone else get to eat and I don't? As I passed him, I said, "In due time. When it is right."

I am not advocating young children participating in the Sacrament. What I do think that we can learn from this child is His insistence and persistence to receive what God offers. He really wanted it. He needed it. He had to have it. He was upset when he couldn't have it. I think as adults we have a tendency to lose that zeal, that desire for the Sacrament and what God offers. We are used to it. Holy Communion becomes sort of ho-hum. Been there, done that and got the shirt to go with it. We enjoy going up, but maybe we don't go with the same sort of zest and zeal for what is being offered to us: the forgiveness of our sins, life and salvation. May we learn from this little child and have a passion, a gut-level need for what Jesus is offering us: something out of this world. I want the blood! I want the body! Take care. Pastor Haugen