They say that on any given Sunday any professional football team may beat a superior team. If you have been a fan of football for any length of time, you know this is true. It is also true that on any given Sunday a church may have a division or trouble within the community of faith. These struggles are difficult and are often used as an excuse by those who don’t believe to not be a part of a church. However, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 shows that Paul understands this and even more there are spiritual ramifications. It is interesting to me that in 1 Corinthians 11:19, Paul tells us that there are differences, but why? He goes on to say that it is an opportunity for us to see who is approved by God. The Corinthians came together to eat the Lord’s Supper and they went ahead and ate their meals and did not wait on some of their brothers and sisters. Paul gives us a good directive in this passage about what the church is all about. It is not about individual or cliquish groups. The Lord’s Supper is about the whole body of Christ coming together and even waiting for the other if necessary and finding restored relationships with each other and God. Maybe one of the spiritual gifts that we need to learn is how to view the entire body and not just a few. On any given Sunday, we have an opportunity to be approved by God by participating in forgiveness, patience, mercy, and by coming together as one body focusing on the sacrifice of Christ. On any given Sunday, we take the bread and drink the cup and proclaim the death of Christ until He comes again.
Posts Tagged ‘Communion’
Day 257: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 — “On Any Given Sunday”
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010Day 136: Luke 22:63-23:12 — Cheering Death?
Sunday, May 16th, 2010We all have different ways to focus during the Lord’s Supper. I believe it is the most important few minutes of my week and I assume that you probably feel the same too. A chance to commune with God…how humbling, how wonderful. The question I pose to you this week is — what do you think about?
I’m sure we all think about different things. I try to remember the sequence of events leading up to the Cross. I try to put myself in the moment — to hear the sounds, see the faces and feel the intensity in the air. I have often thought about that the same crowd that shouted a triumphant return to Jerusalem is now the same crowd that is cheering his death. I think about Luke 22:63-65 and how my Lord and Savior wasn’t even treated with common decency before his death.
If you read anything at all about serial killers or people being executed, you will probably notice that it usually draws a crowd. When Ted Bundy was executed in 1989, there was a crowd outside the prison chanting and cheering his death. Timothy McVeigh of the Oklahoma City bombings was executed to the echoes of cheering outside the prison walls. Yet neither was beaten and mocked on the way to the gallows.
Jesus suffered far more than just the cross. He looked into the eyes of the people he came to save and saw their hatred for him. He listened to them mock him and scream for his blood.
Praise God that Jesus loved me enough that he still carried out God’s plan. That’s what I think about.
Day 133: Luke 22:14-20 — The Last Supper
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
The Last Supper has come to represent an image in a recent movie of a conspiracy of the church to hide Jesus’ wife and children. It has resulted in arguments between churches over how often you take it. I have often heard discussions about the mundane repetition that is not entertaining…in other words, it is boring. I am always surprised by these points of view. The Lord’s Supper is a historical fact that has been an integral part of worship since the early church. In today’s world of entertaining worship, it would be sacrilege not to have a praise team perform. However, to follow Jesus’ command to eat the bread and drink the cup of the new covenant is boring. How things have been turned upside down and our forms of worship ignores a command of Jesus to replace it with our worship desires. To ignore the Last Supper is to refuse to stand in the presence of mystery and wonder. It is disdain on the body of Christ. Have we forgotten its foundational message of what God has done to correct our broken relationship with Him and our neighbor?
The act of eating together paved the way for Jesus’ fellowship with his disciples, the crowds, and the outcasts in Galilee on various occasions and Luke emphasizes the meal scenes of Jesus’ ministry. Instituted at the time of the Passover meal, the Lord’s Supper also embraces and fulfills the celebration of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we declare that the Lord whom we worship is also the God committed to the deliverance of His people today. In the early church, the Lord’s Supper was observed in connection with a fellowship meal. The risen Lord becomes known to the early disciples in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30-31). The early Christians broke bread at home (Acts 2:46), they gathered on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7), and problems arose when the meal did not express the oneness and fellowship of the church (1 Cor. 11:17-22). The supper, therefore, relates the community of believers physically and spiritually to the Lord, who laid down his life that we might live. It is a commemoration of the life and death of Jesus, a celebration of his real and spiritual presence now, and an affirmation of the hope that we shall eat and drink with him in the kingdom of God. I look forward to this Sunday, the next Sunday, and the next Sunday to take the Lord’s Supper and remember my Lord’s death until He comes again. I do not find this mundane, nor do I find the banquet in heaven something that I choose not to participate in. Each opportunity to take the bread and drink the cup is an opportunity to live the gospel and experience the grace of God that invites me to salvation.
Day 47: Leviticus 6:24-30 and Matthew 26:26-29 — Holy
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010I was reading our daily bible reading and we have these two passages from Leviticus and Matthew. The first focuses on the holiness of the offering that was to be used for the sin offering. It could be eaten by those who were holy. However, it could not be eaten if it was used for atonement in the Holy place. It would have to be burned with fire (Leviticus 6:24-30). The second passage is the account of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. He instructs his disciples to eat the bread and drink the cup of the new covenant (Matthew 26:26-29).
Each Sunday, we come together to eat the bread and drink the cup. We read about the holiness of the offering in Leviticus. Holy does not just mean special or pure. Holy means set a part or dedicated to God. The priests had been sanctified to serve God. They were allowed to participate in eating the parts of the offering that were not used in the Holy Place.
Questions:
How much more special is the sacrifice of Jesus for the atonement of our sins? How holy is the bread and the cup that we take each Sunday? How blessed are we to be the priests of God that can now participate in the Lord’s Supper? How much preparation is made in our lives to take Holy Communion? Do we profane the Lord’s Supper by not taking it when the Lord’s Church gathers together? Do we profane it by not getting our lives right with God and each other? What do you think?