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Come, union
How does your church celebrate Communion? Brass-plated trays passed across the row once a quarter? 2-in-1 cups containing wafer and juice together, drive-thru style? It's time habit and sheer logistics stop trumping intimacy at the Lord's Table. It's time we engage our Savior in this sacrament with our souls and bodies. The incarnation is a mystery – God choosing to enter earth, embracing finiteness and physicality. It's a mystery the way human and divine intertwine in the person of Christ, not only as he walked this earth, but also as he sits enthroned in heaven. It's a mystery that continues as he ministers to and through us. It's a mystery…
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Remember Jesus!
Camel caravans will cover your roads, young camels from Midian and Ephah. All the merchants of Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing praises to the Lord. (Isaiah 60:6 NET)
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Liturgy and the Lord’s Supper: A Virgin Experience of Intimacy
Reverence and expectation fill the sanctuary. I take a seat on a pew and trace the prominent grain of its oak with my forefinger. A candle fidgets nearby, flickering kerosene faintly from its flame. Sunlight prances through a stained-glass window that portrays a shepherd holding one sheep in his arms with another following afoot. “Hold me now,” I whisper. “I am that lamb. Tiny. Broken. Needy.” Woody notes from the pipe organ climax in a crescendo of crashing waves, kissing the shore of my sandy heart and carrying a week’s-worth of offensive images and words away in their undertow. I exhale. The minister steps forward to lead the congregation in…
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Around the Table: Why Gathering Matters
Gathering is nothing new. All throughout sacred history, women and men have been gathering around tables to celebrate, reflect, feast, and remember. From Israel’s inception the sacrificial system ushered people into God’s presence and then around a table as they often enjoyed a meal as part of their offerings and festivals. In the book of Ruth, Boaz sat around the table with his workers, inviting an unknown Moabite woman to eat of his bread. In Psalms David celebrated God’s banquet table. And in the New Testament, Jesus gathered around tables with friends and sinners, and then he instituted his memorial supper around over the Passover meal as he and…
