The Lord”s Supper: We Are What We Repeat

 

By Ethan Magness

 
• This article is no longer available online, but articles about the Lord’s Supper that appeared in the July 12/19, 2009, and June 10, 2007, issues of CHRISTIAN STANDARD–plus more–are available for purchase as a single, redisigned, easy-to-read and easy-to-use downloadable resource/pdf (a fuller explanation is below).

 

 

The Lord’s Supper: A Memory and More

Item D021535209  “¢Â  $2.99

If you keep doing something often enough, long enough, it will change you. Take, for example, the Lord”s Supper.

If we practice the Lord”s Supper in a meaningful way, week after week, it will change us for the better by helping us grow closer to God. If we treat it as a ritual largely devoid of meaning, however, it can damage us by causing our faith itself to become a meaningless ritual.

In this 14-page resource, eight writers look at the Lord”s Supper (Communion) past, present, and future””its power, purpose, and promise.

As one writer puts it: “Nothing delivers the death of Jesus like the Lord”s Supper!”

The articles previously appeared in CHRISTIAN STANDARD (primarily in the issues of June 10, 2007, and July 12/19, 2009).

 

All downloads include permission to reproduce material up to 10 times for ministry and educational purposes.  To sample the first few paragraphs of Ethan Magness’s article, continue reading below . . .   

 

 

 

Meaningless repetition can be a dangerous thing.

Meaningless repetition can be a dangerous thing.

Meaningless repetition can be a dangerous thing.

Meaningless repetition can be a . . .

There is some truth to the cliché “you are what you eat,” but it”s even truer that “you are what you continue to eat.” As any diet book will tell you, an occasional dessert will not hurt you and pepperoni pizza with extra cheese is fine for special occasions. But if you permanently replace fruit with ice cream and salads with chocolate pudding, it will catch up to you.

The same is true with positive behavior. Yearly moderate exercise won”t do much for you. Done daily, however, it will change your life for the better. In the long run, I believe it may be true that you are (or you will become) not what you eat, but what you repeat.

 

IT JUST KEEPS HAPPENING

 

This is why Communion is such a powerful part of Christian formation. It just keeps happening. Baptism is certainly more exciting””it has more splash””but it happens once in the life of the believer. Communion, however, is shared every time we gather. Communion is repeated over and over again.

There surely was great excitement on that birthday of the church when 3,000 were baptized. But then everyday life began: meetings for worship and breaking bread together daily. Baptism into Christ made them all new creations in Jesus. Breaking bread together made them one church, his body. If you keep doing something often enough, long enough, it will change you . . .