Friday, August
3, 2018
So anyone who
eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning
against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating
the bread and drinking the cup. For
if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you
are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you
are weak and sick and some have even died.
But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this
way. Yet when
we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be
condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians
11:27-32(NLT)
Preparation is the word that comes to
mind for each worship service. There are
the questions of detail, such as: are
the bulletins printed; are the soloist and readers practiced; will the
communion steward have it all in place? But
these questions pale in comparison to the one about which Paul was concerned:
Have we taken time to be holy?
A normal response might be
that it’s only Friday…Sunday is still a few days away. And that would be a reasonable statement if
the ritual of Eucharist, the actual consuming of the bread and cup, were the
main issue; but that is hardly the case.
Paul brings into the
foreground that which is the meat of this meal – self-examination. To self-examine is to ruminate on our lives,
the substance of which is to be honoring to Jesus. If we are in-Christ people,
our living is to be consistent with the character of He who died for us. It is the same way we think (and behave) when
we take seriously honoring our father and mother. Mom and Dad used to caution us to remember
who we are…and Whose we are. The
family name is at stake when we are out in public, so behaving with
respectability becomes Job #1. When the family name of Jesus is at stake we
do well to remember it is not only our behavior, but our attitude that can
bring fame or shame to the entire family; it becomes an inside-out job!
Self-examination should not
begin when the time of holy communion appears in the bulletin. It is more an on-going, daily, never-ending
attitude of watching-over the stuff of our lives; it is holding every action
and thought up to the light of Christ’s love.
For a minister of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, it matters what others think; I am responsible to all to not
only preach with my words, but to preach with my life. And you are no different if you call Him
Lord.
Some people see the “ritual”
of giving a great thanks to God for those little wafers or chunks of bread, and
the grape juice or wine as perfunctory, a tedious segment of time on Sunday to
be endured. We want everything packaged
professionally and quickly these days.
But that is so in error…and we pay a penalty I learned on a diet.
Several years ago I
participated in a clergy health study that included all phases of well-being,
diet, monitored medical stats, emotional health, and professional habits. In the diet deliberations I found out I had
been blowing-it, not just with what I consumed, but how
I consumed it. I’ve always
been a gulp-it-down eater, blaming it on my time in the U.S.
Army when they gave you eight-minutes to grab your tray, wolf down the meal,
and vacate the Mess Hall to make room for the next eight-minute victim. The dietician leading us made a big thing of helping
us slow down and chew every bite slowly.
This was important because your brain is about 20 minutes behind your
stomach in getting the message as to how full you really are. If you stuff food quickly down the pipe, you’ll
overdo every time. When I tried slowing
down I discovered something I’d been missing for a lot of years…taste! When you chew long, and concentrate on the aroma,
texture, flavor, and “finish” each bite creates in your meal, you can truly enjoy
the time as a dining experience, rather than a check-off on the to-do
list (or even your wanna-do list).
There is that about self-examination
and holy communion; slow-down, look-deep, savor what the cross has done, and
how your life reflects what the cross has done.
Put it in perspective, and then come, eat…sinners, there is grace at
that table!
For You Today
If your church schedule is like
ours, communion will appear in this Sunday morning’s bulletin. But that’s just a printed piece of paper; the
real thing happens (or not) every moment of your life in-Christ.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
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