"YES, IT IS SO!"

We've said a great "Amen" to conclude the Eucharistic prayer.  We're moving toward the table.  But first we begin with the Lord's Prayer, the prayer all Christians share, the prayer that marks all kinds of moments.

Here, it is a sign of unity, words that we all can say or sing by heart.  From this part of the Service onward, it is especially clear that what we are doing is the assembly's work, not the presider's.  The words of the Lord's Prayer belong to us all.  They sum up the basics of our life: praising God's holiness, praying for the reign of God, asking for our daily bread.

From the Lord's Prayer we move closer to communion.  Our focus returns to the table.  The body of Christ is broken for all, the blood of Christ is poured out for all.  We sing of the Lamb of God, praising Christ over and over for taking away our sins, begging again and again for mercy and for peace.

We move to the table, singing again as another sign that we are one body.  And here, in a morsel of bread and a sip of wine is a feast to satisfy our deepest hunger and thirst.  Our deepest hunger and thirst; mine, yes, but my neighbor's, too, and indeed the whole world's.

When the minister places the piece of bread or the cup in our hands and says, "The body of Christ," "The blood of Christ," we say "Amen."  That "Amen" means "Yes, it is so; Yes, I believe."  St. Augustine told his congregation something else about the Amen: "It is your own mystery you receive.  Say Amen to what you are!"

What you are.  Here worship and mission meet so strongly, so clearly, that we can hardly miss it.  We are the body and blood of Christ.  Our Amen sends us forth to live as Christ's body and blood in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our neighborhood, our world.

Seventh in a series of articles on worship and mission.  Contributed by Bishop Robert A. Rimbo, Southeast Michigan Synod.