> whether they’d let me take their communion. ... Sorry to get into the theology
Redneck, you are a gentleman and a scholar. The theology is what it’s about. Visit and talk to the pastor. That is actually the polity of the synod. And be open to what he tells you, if you can. The Lutheran position is both as simple and as profound as it can get. Simple because is means is, and profound because nobody can explain it. The Lutheran doctrine only wants to be the Scriptural doctrine held with respect (not doctrinal deference) for church history.
Luther was actually a theologian; Zwingli not so much. And you and I both probably are wary of the cruft (to say the least) piled on by the Roman church at least since Trent.
Smart man you are, Redneck.
Yeah... I’ve been going Baptist (and bible church before that) which is big on the symbolic side of the elements. But that doesn’t rule out the Holy Spirit being in them anyhow. The Lord is gracious about things we do not know, and if someone doesn’t even know what’s going on, He can’t find fault with them except for not knowing. “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” at the least. Having reason to know and still disrespecting the communion would have different repercussions.
I see it now that when one carries on as a believer, one becomes aware that spirit imbues everything one does, whether it’s taking a communion or visiting a neighbor in trouble or preaching or whatever. The airtight walls between spirit and material worlds that we might have envisioned before seeing the effects of spirit, don’t in fact exist.