COMMUNION: The Lord's Supper

Communion has been a part of my life as long as I can remember.  But it hasn’t always been a part of my life I understood.  For many years it was just ceremony. 

Growing up a Mormon it was served with white bread and water.  It was something that only a Priesthood holder could lead (if you don’t know the LDS priesthood view, I’m not going to explain it here).  There was something special about it.  While I recognized this, I didn’t truly know why.

I also experience the Catholic version through my Grandmother who was very passionate in her faith and even more passionate in me having my own faith, not just parroting hers. 

In the years of my transition out of Mormonism into Christianity I didn’t go to church or take part in communion.  As I was exploring Christianity trying to find a religion that was actually Biblical, communion wasn’t something I thought much of.  It held no importance to me.  I was so focused on the cerebral theology of it all that I missed the obvious blessing of what Christ had instituted. 

Eventually I did find a religion/church that was Biblical.  And it was a church that was passionate about truth, but also about the sacrament of the Lord’s supper (communion).  It took me by surprise the first Sunday when the Pastor “fenced the table” and warned of taking communion in an unworthy manner.  Talked about things like being a ‘member’ of a Bible believing church.  And then they served wine… in Church..  growing up Mormon this was very odd to me…

It took me a while to understand the Biblical warnings regarding communion.  But it didn’t take long for the significance and power of communion with Jesus, with his sacrifice for me to take hold of me.  Nor did it take long to appreciate the importance of communion in the manner Christ instituted it (bread and wine).    

To hold the bread of His body and cup of His blood even for a few moments, to understand the depth of my sinfulness, the price paid by a Holy God, a sinless innocent man, on my behalf, became the most precious moment of my life each week.  A time when the distractions of life are gone and it’s just me humble and grateful before God that for some reason beyond my comprehension, He chose me before the foundation of the earth.  That even though I had just spent a week in sin, He only saw me through the blood of Christ, cleansed and Holy.  It truly is just a few moments of time, but a time I looked forward to every week. 

I’m a cerebral, logical passionate thinker.  Many would call me cold and without emotion.  But through the Sacrament Christ prepared before His death, I’ve come closer to understanding my relationship with God, than through all the countless hours of study I’ve spent in God’s Word.  It truly is food for the starving soul in need of salvation.  It brings the sacrifice off the pages into your hands and then into your body and soul.    

For 4 years now I’ve lived in a place where at best, the frequency of the Church offering sacrament to its members is once a month and at worst quarterly or semi-annually.  The argument is that if you have the Sacrament weekly it becomes less special.  An argument that still just baffles me.  How can the meal instituted by Christ as a Holy Sacrament to remind us of Him be made less special? 

And so the blessed meal that I had grown to love each week was not available here. 

Starving is the only word to describe the hole this has left in me these four years.  Because even at once a month, you could miss that week and now it becomes two month, or longer.  And I can say with all honesty that my walk with Christ has suffered because of it.  My acknowledgment of my need for Christ has diminished absent of the reminder that Christ provided.  

Now I am engaged in church plant.  Soon Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church will welcome into membership its congregation and we will partake in the glorious sacrament of communion.  And then week after week, that precious moment where I sit and remember how much I truly need Christ as my savior will once again be a blessing in my life.  And I pray that God will continue to bring me to my knees in reverence by His Grace and grow my understanding of the depth of my need for Salvation.

“This is the body, was broken for you, this is the blood that was shed

This is the body now risen to glory, this is the wine and the bread

This is the body now wounded for sin

This is the blood that did flow

This is the body, now risen eternal, this is the seed that was sown

‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’

Remember His work and His life and His sacrifice

‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’

Remember His joy and His pain all for sinners gain

These are the scars on Your hands and Your side, this is the now empty tomb

This is the garden You suffered alone, will of the Father to do

This is the wood of the cross raised up high

These are the nails of Your hands

This is the body, was broken for you, Lord, Son of God, Son of Man

‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’

Remember His work and His life and His sacrifice

‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’

Remember His joy and His pain all for sinners gain”