For the sermon before a week of needed vacation, I’m quite happy. However there are a few details I want to correct or elaborate on. First, there are 39 Articles of Religion. Although the one I quote is the 29th, so perhaps we can assume that’s the basis for my confusion?
Second, for my fellow Church nerds, the 29th article of religion reads
XXIX. Of the Wicked, which eat not the Body of Christ in the use of the Lord’s Supper
Articles of Religion, 1801
The Wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth (as Saint Augustine saith) the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and drink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing
If anyone is made nervous by the full text, please contact me. We’ll find time to talk. In short, Saint Augustine and I do not agree on all matters. But I do think that ‘carnally and visibly press with their teeth’ is the Anglican translation of ‘gnaw.’
I worked most closely with John 6.51-58.