This morning, I have to get something off my chest. Why is it that some folks feel if they have a piece of cracker and a sip of grape juice in their body on Sundays, they have met their religious obligation?
Ascending the soapbox, I can tell you that when Jimmy and I develop our worship program for Sunday mornings, we do not primarily consider the needs of the human audience. Our worship is toward God, to bless Him and praise Him for His majesty, holiness and grace. Developing worship is about lauding Him for His awesome-ness.
Because of that, I am near ready to demand that communion never again be served in the first half-hour of our worship assembly. It is too painful to witness the flight of some people from the assembly once the cracker and juice have entered their body.
Why does that happen? What spiritual significance is there in meeting in community for a short time, just to ingest a cracker and some grape juice?
Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 11.20 that though the Corinthian church was taking "communion," it was not the Lord's Supper (sometimes I wonder if the same charge could be leveled against us). Their selfishness, driven by their own agendas and schedules, had forced the true meaning of the meal to be lost. That is why Paul would go on to say: "A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup."
The blessing of the supper is not the ritualistic keeping of religious ceremony; it is the life-changing memory of the Lamb's life and redeeming sacrifice. In light of the Lamb, how could we ever short-change our worship of Him or our commitment to His community?
Is one hour and fifteen minutes every Sunday morning asking too much?
