Are You Worthy?

Quoting from Pastor Charlie Henrickson's sermon titled "How Do We Receive It Worthily? The Reception of the Sacrament of the Altar,” posted on his Wittenberg Trail blog page:

“That person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’” You see, the right reception of the Sacrament is not a matter of how personally worthy you are in yourself. No. Indeed, Christ says this sacrament is “for the forgiveness of sins,” and that means you must be unworthy in order to receive it! You must qualify as a sinner! You must have sins to forgive--that’s the whole point! So a worthy reception is not based on how worthy of persons we are in ourselves.

No, a worthy reception consists in faith. And even that is not a matter of what we can muster up, how strong of a believer I am, how pious I feel on a given day. No, it is faith in Christ’s words. Faith has value only because of its object, and that object, the thing we believe in, is Christ Jesus and his words and his gift for us. It’s all about Jesus. He is our worthiness, from start to finish.