One In Jesus

Luke’s account of the first communion service is fascinating. Jesus first shares the cup and then the bread. They then eat supper, and then Jesus again shares the cup.

It has often bothered me that the cup was before the bread or else that they took a meal between the bread and the cup. (But it gives me great comfort for the time, many years ago, when I presided over the Lord’s table and blessed the cup before the bread!) Continue reading →

Over 4,000 years ago, more than 2,000 years before Jesus, Abraham fought a war to rescue Lot. Abraham recovered not only Lot and his family, but all the goods and food of Sodom and Gomorrah, two very wealthy cities. Melchizedek, a priest of the God Most High, blessed Abraham and shared a meal of unleavened bread and wine with Abraham.

For 3,500 years, the Jews have celebrated the Passover, with bread and wine, to honor their deliverance by God from slavery in Egypt. Continue reading →

Unleavened bread. Fruit of the vine. These made up an ordinary, common meal in the First Century. But they became extraordinary because they were touched by Jesus. Just so, we were once ordinary and common, but we’ve also been touched by the Savior–and so we’ve become extraordinary as well.

[Our Father in Heaven, as we share in this fragment of bread, help us to see it as you see it, as extraordinary and uncommon, special and filled with grace. And help us, Father, to see ourselves as you see us by your grace: as extraordinary and uncommon, special and filled with grace.] Continue reading →

I’m planning on posting some thoughts on the Lord’s Supper, suitable for use as communion meditations. But first, a few thoughts on how to do the communion better.

The Lord’s Supper has always been important to the Churches of Christ. We take communion weekly. It’s so important to us that we often offer communion on Sunday nights for those unable to take it that morning, and we often take communion to our shut in members so they can share in it despite being unable to come to church. Continue reading →