Communion is served weekly at the church I attend, and the pastor offers a short exhortation -- a new one every week! -- about what God is doing in us, to us, for us, through us, by us as we partake in faith of the Lord's body and blood. I've appreciated discovering so much more -- celebration of grace -- in the Lord's Supper than just the very somber individualized reflection that has been so often encouraged in the church associations of my past. To illustrate what I mean by "celebration of grace," I've obtained permission by a teacher at our church, Ben Merkle, who filled the pulpit in place of our pastor a couple weeks ago, to post his particular communion exhortation here. (When he emailed it to me, it was all one long paragraph; I have taken the liberty to insert paragraph breaks, and some punctuation edits, where I see fit, to enhance readability and flow.)
by Ben Merkle:
In Hosea 6, God rebukes Israel, saying, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Jesus quotes this passage twice in Matthew. First, in Matthew 9, when the Pharisees are upset about the fact that Jesus has sat down at the same table as tax collectors and sinners to eat with them, Jesus tells them, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” And then again in Matthew 12, the Pharisees became upset at Jesus’ disciples because they had plucked heads of grain and eaten them as they walked on the Sabbath, thus breaking the Pharisees’ understanding of Sabbath keeping. Jesus responded by quoting Hosea 6: “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”
There are a couple of things that we should notice here. First, food is mercy. If all of this world speaks to us about God and his nature, if all of creation declares the character of God, and it does, then the purpose of food is to testify to us of God’s free mercy. "Here you go," He says to us, "eat up. Let me nourish you. Let me fill that cavernous emptiness inside of you. Let me serve you something hot to warm you up and make you feel better." Food is mercy.
Second, mercy terrifies the pharisaical mind. When grace is served up, free of charge, the pharisaical mind gets nervous and rushes in to tidy things up, to make some basic rules to reign the thing in, lest that mercy get out of control. Since food is God’s mercy, it should be no surprise to us that food and eating inspire a disproportionate amount of pharisaism in our flesh. It was at the dinner table that the Pharisees got uppity about the fact that Jesus was surrounding himself with tax collectors and sinners. And it was about on the subject of how the disciples ate that the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of having broken the Sabbath. But both times, Jesus corrected them, telling them that God delighted in mercy over sacrifice.
God prefers his people to be enjoying his nourishment with gratitude rather than heaping up man-made rules and pharisaical scruples. This is true with food in general, and this is particularly true at this table, the Lord’s Supper. This table is at the center of all of our eating. It makes sense that of all the rituals God could have chosen for us to celebrate Jesus’ death, God chose a meal. Here is the heart of mercy, the gift of the Son. And here we celebrate it by eating.
However, if all the man-made scruples about what can and can’t be done at the Lord’s Supper, which Christians have imagined up over the past two millennia, were to be published, the world itself could not support the pile of books produced. Here, at the heart of mercy, we are prone to become the most pharisaical. But you need to know one thing to come to this table. God desires mercy and not sacrifice. God wants you to know Him more than the burnt offering. So come to this table. God wants to fill you up.
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Showing posts with label Lord's Table. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lord's Table. Show all posts
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Communion Is So Much More
How often have we been expected, upon receiving the bread and grape beverage, to close our eyes and meditate somberly upon the painful process of death through which Jesus Christ went because of His love for each one of us? How hard does the pastor or administering speaker have to work to inspire an emotional response in the participating audience? I wonder if this is one of the big reasons why many churches do not practice communion more frequently. Imagine if you had to think of something new to say every week in order to help people understand the significance of eating a piece of bread, explaining it to be Christ's body, and of drinking a shot-glass full of grape juice or wine, representing Christ's blood.
I remember a story that Ravi Zacharias told of a minister explaining to him that the reason they didn't practice a particular event (such as communion) more frequently in church was because they didn't want people to lose the sacredness of it or to treat it too lightly. To which Ravi aptly responded, "Do you take the same approach toward collecting the offering?"
If you had to come up with a communion exhortation every week and if you're pretty sure that you would find it challenging to come up with something new after about the third week, then check these out. There are well over four hundred exhortations from the pen and lips of Pastor Wilson regarding "The Lord's Table." Perhaps if you do ever have to come up with something new, you can just steal one from there.
I remember a story that Ravi Zacharias told of a minister explaining to him that the reason they didn't practice a particular event (such as communion) more frequently in church was because they didn't want people to lose the sacredness of it or to treat it too lightly. To which Ravi aptly responded, "Do you take the same approach toward collecting the offering?"
If you had to come up with a communion exhortation every week and if you're pretty sure that you would find it challenging to come up with something new after about the third week, then check these out. There are well over four hundred exhortations from the pen and lips of Pastor Wilson regarding "The Lord's Table." Perhaps if you do ever have to come up with something new, you can just steal one from there.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Lord's Table
In some Christian circles, “communion” is more commonly referred to as “the Lord’s table.” This latter expression, I think, can be quite useful in helping us to better understand a number of very important Scriptural principles and their necessary applications. The reason for this is that we all know what a table is, we all have had dinner around a table, but we are not as familiar with the definition for communion. How many times in the past week or the past month or the past year have you used the word “communion” in your everyday conversation? And of those times, how many times did you use the word in reference to something other than a periodic church ritual where people partake of a pinch of bread and an ounce or so of some grape beverage?
Sadly, however, the nature of the Lord’s table even may be less understood than it was fifty-plus years ago since families seem less likely to have frequent meals together in the dining room in the absence of a distracting television. Interestingly, we do see more and more consistency between our current culture’s approach to meals with family around their table and our current church’s approach to meals with the Lord’s family around his table. How often do the individual family members just grab a bite or two whenever they can and take it with them to their bedroom, downstairs in the den, in the car, or next to the computer? And how often do you hear it promoted from the pulpit for each individual to worship “as each one chooses”? How often have you been concerned about those who call themselves believers but are not faithful to attend church? Have you ever observed a lack of ... connectedness, comradeship, or perhaps a better word would be … communion among believers in a local church?
So as we begin our discourse about the nature and efficacy of the Lord’s table, you may need to use your imagination when comparing it to your own table. Better yet, may I provoke you “unto love and to good works,” – specifically, in this case, the good work of regularly eating with your family around the dining table in your home – and “not forsaking the assembling of [yourselves] together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Sadly, however, the nature of the Lord’s table even may be less understood than it was fifty-plus years ago since families seem less likely to have frequent meals together in the dining room in the absence of a distracting television. Interestingly, we do see more and more consistency between our current culture’s approach to meals with family around their table and our current church’s approach to meals with the Lord’s family around his table. How often do the individual family members just grab a bite or two whenever they can and take it with them to their bedroom, downstairs in the den, in the car, or next to the computer? And how often do you hear it promoted from the pulpit for each individual to worship “as each one chooses”? How often have you been concerned about those who call themselves believers but are not faithful to attend church? Have you ever observed a lack of ... connectedness, comradeship, or perhaps a better word would be … communion among believers in a local church?
So as we begin our discourse about the nature and efficacy of the Lord’s table, you may need to use your imagination when comparing it to your own table. Better yet, may I provoke you “unto love and to good works,” – specifically, in this case, the good work of regularly eating with your family around the dining table in your home – and “not forsaking the assembling of [yourselves] together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
No Discord at the Table
Throughout the Holy Scriptures, we can observe an association between expressions of gladness and moments of feasting. The two naturally go together. Conversely, animosity and isolation go together. How long do you think it would take the members of a family who are bearing grudges against one another to start making excuses as to why they “will not be eating around the table tonight”?
When there’s been a rŏw in the Rauch house right before dinner time, we do not ask the Lord’s blessing or take a bite of food until reconciliation has taken place. Several times, we have been called to the table and sat down, then Dad has to repent of some sin against another family member or I, as the head of household, have to require confession and forgiveness to be expressed among the children for some recent discord.
When the church gathers to worship the Lord and partake of the Lord’s table, the Head of such table also desires and requires an attitude of fellowship and glad harmony amongst those who expect to share of Him. Proverbs 6:19 lists, as one of seven abominations unto the LORD, the man “that soweth discord among brethren.” Then Christ says, in Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
So our coming to the table, eating, and drinking, expecting to be sustained and satisfied, is a declaration that we have “a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men” (Acts 24:16). How many of us are telling lies at the table? How many of us should be fasting instead of feasting, at least until we have been reconciled to our brother or even our Father? Perhaps this is why so many churches have communion only rarely.
When there’s been a rŏw in the Rauch house right before dinner time, we do not ask the Lord’s blessing or take a bite of food until reconciliation has taken place. Several times, we have been called to the table and sat down, then Dad has to repent of some sin against another family member or I, as the head of household, have to require confession and forgiveness to be expressed among the children for some recent discord.
When the church gathers to worship the Lord and partake of the Lord’s table, the Head of such table also desires and requires an attitude of fellowship and glad harmony amongst those who expect to share of Him. Proverbs 6:19 lists, as one of seven abominations unto the LORD, the man “that soweth discord among brethren.” Then Christ says, in Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
So our coming to the table, eating, and drinking, expecting to be sustained and satisfied, is a declaration that we have “a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men” (Acts 24:16). How many of us are telling lies at the table? How many of us should be fasting instead of feasting, at least until we have been reconciled to our brother or even our Father? Perhaps this is why so many churches have communion only rarely.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Evidence of the Testator's Death
Within his last will and testament, a man has provided specific directions regarding what is to be done, upon the event of his death, with those particular things and persons for which he was responsible during his life. Now the beneficiaries should not be surprised that, when the estate is to be settled, the executor might require evidence of the testator’s decease.
The LORD says, within the writings of Jeremiah (31:31-34), “Behold, … I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, … not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers …, which they broke. But this shall be the covenant that I will make …, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. … I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” The Hebrew writer recalls these words before he goes on to write (in 9:16-22) that “where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood … and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.’ Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. … And without shedding of blood is no remission.”
Every time we partake of and pass the communion cup, we are acknowledging our assent to the Lord’s proclamation that “This cup is the new testament in [His] blood, which is shed for [us]” (in Luke 22:20), for by partaking, we “do show the Lord’s death till He come” (I Corinthians 11:26). When we partake of and pass the cup, we thereby testify that the Testator has died. When we pass the cup, we “do show the Lord’s death” to one another, testifying, “He did die. Look here! This is His blood.” When we partake of the cup, we testify that the new testament is therefore in effect – specifically that God’s law is written in our hearts, He is our God, we are His people, our iniquities are forgiven, and our sins will be remembered no more by Him.
The LORD says, within the writings of Jeremiah (31:31-34), “Behold, … I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, … not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers …, which they broke. But this shall be the covenant that I will make …, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. … I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” The Hebrew writer recalls these words before he goes on to write (in 9:16-22) that “where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood … and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.’ Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. … And without shedding of blood is no remission.”
Every time we partake of and pass the communion cup, we are acknowledging our assent to the Lord’s proclamation that “This cup is the new testament in [His] blood, which is shed for [us]” (in Luke 22:20), for by partaking, we “do show the Lord’s death till He come” (I Corinthians 11:26). When we partake of and pass the cup, we thereby testify that the Testator has died. When we pass the cup, we “do show the Lord’s death” to one another, testifying, “He did die. Look here! This is His blood.” When we partake of the cup, we testify that the new testament is therefore in effect – specifically that God’s law is written in our hearts, He is our God, we are His people, our iniquities are forgiven, and our sins will be remembered no more by Him.
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