Page 132 - Through New Eyes

Breaking Bread: The Rite of Transformation 127
they will evaluate what they hear. The people are com-
mended if they evaluate carefully (Acts 17:10-11).
6. Assuming they find it good and profitable, the people will
take the message and inspiration with them as they leave,
and integrate it into their lives, finding enjoyment therein.

Not only is the performance of the rite in worship the heart
of liturgical piety, but it also restores us to true practical piety.
Jesus gives us the pattern we are to follow in all of life. Because
of His work we can, in Him, lay hold on the fallen creation (no
matter how perverse it has become), give thanks for it, and go to
work on it, restoring and transforming it progressively to the
glory of God.
By transforming (in a mystery) bread into His body, Jesus
provides a paradigm for the entire nature of the Kingdom. The
Church is also called Christ’s body, which means that as men are
brought into the Church, this is parallel to the transformation of
bread into Christ’s flesh. Men are broken, cut in half by the cov-
enant Word (Hebrews 4:12), and restructured into the body of
Christ.7 Eve (the Bride) is cut off from her one-flesh relationship
with Adam and restructured into one-body (by the Spirit) with
the New Adam. The fallen first creation, whether bread or peo-
ple, is transfigured by death and resurrection into union with
Christ. Indeed, since all things are in Christ, not only men but
also the entire cosmos is progressively transformed by being
restructured (repositioned) into the “cosmic body” of Christ
(Colossians 1:17-23).
Thus, the structure of liturgical piety and of practical piety is
the same: the six-fold action. The redemptive key to both is
thanksgiving in Christ. Liturgical piety serves practical piety by
(a) setting the basic pattern in the Lord’s Supper, and (b) trans-
ferring men into union with Christ and then sending them out to
transform the world after that same image.
The distinction between the Christian and the rebel thus lies
at the point of thanksgiving. It is not possible to take hold of the
world with the intention of sinning and still give thanks to God
for it. A man cannot load a gun intending to murder his boss,
and then give thanks to God for it.