Loving the church: {Day 22} The Supper
Before we all head off to church tomorrow, I wanted to share a few thoughts about the Lord's Supper. I hope that you will have a chance to take it tomorrow.
The Lord's Supper never had any special meaning for me until about five years ago. Until then, I saw it as a mysterious church ritual. I had a vague sense that I was supposed experience emotion of some kind around the Supper, but I wasn't sure how to achieve it. Some churches we've been in celebrated the Supper once a month, some every couple of weeks. I never imagined that I would one day long for the Supper each and every week, and would feel acute sadness if ever I were to miss it.
Several months after our youngest child was born, I experienced a time of depression. Life was all darkness. I couldn't pray or get anything from sermons. I could barely speak about how I felt. I was weak, so weak, and desperate. In that season, the Lord's Supper became intensely meaningful to me. Taking the body and blood of Jesus was all I could do. I couldn't pray; but I could walk up to the front of the sanctuary and take a piece of bread and a little cup of wine. I could take Jesus to myself because he was on offer (as our pastor says!). He freely gives his very life to me, for me, so that I might have more of his life in me. My weakness is all he requires. In fact, he was and is most available to me -- and to you -- in the deepest part of the valley. During the months of depression, I clung to the Lord's Supper for my very life.
Here is something we read from time to time just before taking the Supper together:
Minister: Christ calls the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood.
Congregation: Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that as bread and wine nourish our temporal life, so too his crucified body and poured-out blood truly nourish our souls for eternal life. But more important, he wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge, that we, through the Holy Spirit's work, share in his true body and blood as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in his remembrance, and that all of his suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins.
(from Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 79)
As you consider how to love the church, let us begin tomorrow by taking gladly the Lord's Supper together. Take a big piece of bread; you need a lot of Jesus. There is plenty to go around. Take as much as you need for your weakness, your neediness, your wanting, your longing, your sin, your pride, your desperation. These are all you will bring to the table tomorrow. In exchange, you will be fed with the Lord himself, fed with food that gives life everlasting, and life for the week ahead. I pray you will be satisfied in him, that he will meet you tomorrow. I pray that we would all be desperate, not about our lives or circumstances, but desperate for more Jesus. Let's look forward in hope as we contemplate our invitation to the great Supper of the Lamb.
This is the 22nd part in a series. Go here to read the series from the beginning. Go here to read over 700 other 31 Day series on all kinds of topics.
The Lord's Supper never had any special meaning for me until about five years ago. Until then, I saw it as a mysterious church ritual. I had a vague sense that I was supposed experience emotion of some kind around the Supper, but I wasn't sure how to achieve it. Some churches we've been in celebrated the Supper once a month, some every couple of weeks. I never imagined that I would one day long for the Supper each and every week, and would feel acute sadness if ever I were to miss it.
Several months after our youngest child was born, I experienced a time of depression. Life was all darkness. I couldn't pray or get anything from sermons. I could barely speak about how I felt. I was weak, so weak, and desperate. In that season, the Lord's Supper became intensely meaningful to me. Taking the body and blood of Jesus was all I could do. I couldn't pray; but I could walk up to the front of the sanctuary and take a piece of bread and a little cup of wine. I could take Jesus to myself because he was on offer (as our pastor says!). He freely gives his very life to me, for me, so that I might have more of his life in me. My weakness is all he requires. In fact, he was and is most available to me -- and to you -- in the deepest part of the valley. During the months of depression, I clung to the Lord's Supper for my very life.
Here is something we read from time to time just before taking the Supper together:
Minister: Christ calls the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood.
Congregation: Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that as bread and wine nourish our temporal life, so too his crucified body and poured-out blood truly nourish our souls for eternal life. But more important, he wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge, that we, through the Holy Spirit's work, share in his true body and blood as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in his remembrance, and that all of his suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and paid for our sins.
(from Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 79)
As you consider how to love the church, let us begin tomorrow by taking gladly the Lord's Supper together. Take a big piece of bread; you need a lot of Jesus. There is plenty to go around. Take as much as you need for your weakness, your neediness, your wanting, your longing, your sin, your pride, your desperation. These are all you will bring to the table tomorrow. In exchange, you will be fed with the Lord himself, fed with food that gives life everlasting, and life for the week ahead. I pray you will be satisfied in him, that he will meet you tomorrow. I pray that we would all be desperate, not about our lives or circumstances, but desperate for more Jesus. Let's look forward in hope as we contemplate our invitation to the great Supper of the Lamb.
This is the 22nd part in a series. Go here to read the series from the beginning. Go here to read over 700 other 31 Day series on all kinds of topics.
so good, Kit. thank you. (We only celebrate communion once a month, so yet again you've made me miss CTK Cambridge. Seriously, you need to stop it!) :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for teaching me, by just being you and talking about it, how to "take a lot of Jesus" at the Supper.
I always feel a little awkward when I accidentally tear off a big hunk of bread. I think, now, I'm going to do it more intentionally.
ReplyDeleteI love that you love the church, and I love you back. Heading to Relevant this week, then I think I should just plan to drive to Massachusetts one of these days and meet you. Thoughts?
Heather, we miss you, too! Today the Polks were at church and it was so fun to see them all!
ReplyDeleteNancy, it is part of my mission to make sure that people take as big a piece of bread as they have need of Jesus. Sometimes I have intentionally waited til the end so I could take a really huge piece. True story.
Yes, come visit! Yay!
Kit! I didn't read this until this morning (Monday), but I actually noticed the huge chunk of bread you took yesterday and it encouraged me greatly as I walked down the aisle. I took a big piece too :- ) You are absolutely right - we need a lot of Jesus.
ReplyDelete