2.22.2012

Different levels of importance in doing Communion


We could do Communion differently. You could come forward and receive the elements up front.  We could use a common cup, or unleavened bread from time to time. These are minor issues we can deal with when the pastor gets a wild hair.

Then there are confessional issues, or things that define us as a church: we believe this is a covenant renewal ceremony that involves our children. We really commune in a spiritually nourishing way with the person of Christ at this table, but not physically in the bread and wine.

Finally there are core Gospel truths this meal re-presents: Jesus’s body was torn, He bled, He died, He laid down His life to give you food and drink from the tree of life. Adam’s race needs this food and drink, since we died spiritually after grabbing for ourselves food from the other tree. Our misery is greater than we know; our deliverance is more than we can understand. Our gratitude grows each time we partake.

But as we partake, receive one another in the Lord. Discern His Body of believers communing around you. Live Gospel guidelines: receive as brothers those who could be or are your enemies. Give them food and drink, needed words, tangible love.

6/26/11

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