By Nancy Karpenske
One little typing error. Instead of Communion meditation, if you hit one wrong key, you type Communion medication. Medication: a substance used to treat, to heal, or cure a disease. Meditation: a process used to focus one”s thought on a particular idea. Communion is a time where we stop to meditate, to focus our thoughts.
The Communion emblems, the bread and the juice, are not medicines. Consuming them doesn”t heal you. They do, however, have a therapeutic effect. Touching and tasting the bread and the juice provide a visible reminder to refocus our minds and hearts past the emblems to what they represent: the body and blood of Jesus, our Great Physician, our Healer, our Savior.
We are all contaminated. We are all infected with sin. The prognosis would be terminal, no cure. But 1 Peter 2:24 says Jesus bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that by his wounds we have been healed. The act that caused Jesus such terrible suffering is the same act that saves us from our terminal condition.
In dictionaries, the word remedy is followed immediately by remember. Communion is a time designed by God himself so we who were once desperately ill with the sickness of sin can remember that the remedy for our sin problem is already prescribed for us. We don”t need to search for just the right medicine. We don”t need to experiment to see what will get results. The Great Physician has chosen the best treatment available. The price is very high””insurance companies would never agree to cover it””but no need to worry. The Doctor has donated his services.
“Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed” (Jeremiah 17:14). As you receive the emblems, remember the remedy for your sin sickness. Look into the face of your Doctor and thank him for his personal investment in your cure.
Nancy Karpenske serves with the staff of LifeBridge Christian Church, Longmont, Colorado.
Dear Ms. Karpenske,
I modified your More than Medicine meditation and used it this past Sunday. Several people were very complimentary and I am writing to thank you for the idea.
Below is what I said as I served at the table of our Lord at Boones Creek Christian Church in Johnson City, TN. http://boonescreekcc.org/home
Thank you and God Bless you, David Johnson
Communion Meditation June 8
As a biochemist I teach young doctors how the body works and how some medications are used to alleviate disease. Interestingly, there is only a one letter difference between the words Medication and Meditation.
Communion is a time where we stop and meditate, to focus our thoughts.
The emblems are not medications and they will not heal our bodies. They do, however, have a therapeutic effect.
The bread and the juice provide a visible reminder to refocus our minds and hearts on the body and blood of Jesus, The Great Physician.
We are all infected with sin and the prognosis is terminal.
However, 1 Peter 2:24 tells us that “He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did it so that we would die as far as sins are concerned. Then we would lead godly lives. His wounds have made you whole. ”
Jesus”™s sacrifice saves us from our terminal condition. Communion time is when we remember the price paid to heal us from sin. There is no charge for His gift of healing. The Great Physician has donated his services.
Jeremiah 17:14 “Lord, heal me. Then I will be healed. Save me from my enemies. Then I will be saved.”
We now have an opportunity to thank God for sending Christ to heal us and for giving us hope for tomorrow.