Kirkepiscatoid

“This is my blood.” Hmmm....O negative, the “universal donor”? AB negative, the “universal recipient”? Is it a compatible transfusion? Are there any antibodies? It’s true, I started thinking about blood banking and transfusion right from the start in the sermon Thursday.

Well, and let’s run with that one.

We have just spent the Lenten season contemplating everything we need to do better. It’s entirely possible this experience, every year, makes us a little “spiritually anemic.” If we’re smart, we try to fortify our “iron stores” by delving into the Scriptures, studying, adding something to our lives. But we usually also take something away during Lent (like, in my case, hot sauce!). It leads us to a place where perhaps, at the end of it, we are in need of a “spiritual transfusion.”

Yet, our sins, our doubts, our feelings of unworthiness sometimes get us in this mindset that we can’t accept this life-giving fluid.

Now, if you were profoundly anemic, would you be fool enough, if offered a transfusion, say, “No, I can’t do that. I think I’d rather be anemic, tired, short of breath, and out of energy??????” Of course not. You’d gladly accept the risks of transfusion for the benefit. Yet when we separate ourselves from God, that’s just what we’re doing.

Every week, at the Eucharist, we are offered the gift of a transfusion of the blood of Christ, and like a transfusion, it strengthens us. During Holy Week, on Maundy Thursday, we receive the Eucharist at what might be our most spiritually anemic time of year after Lent, a time where we are literally cutting ourselves open and bleeding out on the ground. This might be the one time of the year we are most “symptomatic” and in need of a transfusion, and the gift of Christ’s blood might be one of the most needed times for this life-giving fluid.

The wonderful thing is, we don’t have to worry what blood type we are, we don’t have to worry about unexpected antibodies or other dangers/hazards of transfusion.

The scary thing is, we still might have a “transfusion reaction”. But, unlike the medical version of a transfusion reaction (which generally is bad), this “reaction” is good. It opens our hearts to the reality of God. It leads us to new levels of sanctification in our own lives. It has the potential for a lifelong lasting effect.

We still have a few more days to bleed out, but by Sunday, we can plan on stopping the bleeding.