Series: Communion Meditations

Reflecting and Reactivating

By Joe Harvey Remembering can be powerful! Yet it all depends on how we go about it. We can remember that something happened: “Yes, I did pay that bill.” That kind of remembering is functionally useful. It answers a question or settles an uneasy feeling. That is not what Jesus had in mind when he told his disciples to “remember me” during the Lord’s Supper, however. Surely, he was calling them to a different kind of remembering—one that involves reflection and reactivation. Reflection is simple enough. It means revisiting the past and regathering the meaningfulness of that remembered moment. Jesus’

August 7, 2018

Value Statement

By Joe Harvey Some people are collectors, some are not. Some folks consider themselves too practical to spend time building a collection of coins, cards, stamps, or other treasures. If they don’t have a practical use for something, they sell it, donate it, or throw it away. Noncollectors just don’t understand the remarkable prices people pay for collectibles—like baseball cards. A Babe Ruth card from 1914 is reportedly worth $517,000. Another baseball card, featuring Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, is worth $2.8 million. People say collectibles can be valuable if they are rare, in demand, authentic, and in mint condition.

July 31, 2018

Everyday Objects—Eternal Truths

By Joe Harvey Have you ever noticed the way Jesus took the most ordinary objects and attached extraordinary meaning to them? He talked about good seed and bad soil and the next thing we know, he challenges the receptivity of our hearts to the message of God. He talked about weeds to confront our priorities and treatment of others. He talked about catching fish, and he ended up calling his disciples to preach and teach the good news of God’s Messiah come. Over and over again, Jesus used everyday objects to teach eternal truths. When significance is added to the

July 24, 2018

Celebrating the Victory

By Jon Wren Good sportsmanship is one of the values we try to foster in our kids. From the time they start playing Little League, we encourage them to shake hands after a game. We talk about the virtue of humility when they win and being gracious when they lose. This value is so ingrained in our culture that many professional sports leagues penalize players who display poor sportsmanship, taunt the other team, or celebrate excessively after scoring. Good sportsmanship, in many ways, is an important character trait and value to live up to. Yet, according to the apostle Paul,

July 17, 2018

No More Avoiding

By Jon Wren In his later years, the playwright and poet Oscar Wilde lived in Paris, France. Wilde enjoyed life in Paris with one major exception . . . the recently constructed Eiffel Tower. Wilde considered the tower an eyesore and tried to avoid it at all costs. And yet, due to the tower’s height and central location, no matter where Wilde went, the tower was always in view. This especially annoyed him at lunchtime: He would constantly find himself sitting outside and having to look at the tower while he ate. Finally, after months of unsuccessful searching for a

July 10, 2018

A Meal That Reminds Us

By Jon Wren In the last chapter of John’s Gospel, Peter and John, among other disciples, encountered the resurrected Jesus early in the morning on a beach at the Sea of Galilee. Their meeting with him was the culmination of what surely had been a strange and confusing period of time. After spending years following Jesus through small villages and large cities, watching him heal the sick and the demon-possessed, hearing him teach and preach, and even watching him die on the cross, these disciples were sitting with Jesus on a quiet beach . . . and the Lord had

July 3, 2018

A Life in Contrast

By Jon Wren Several years ago in Maine, authorities arrested a 47-year-old man after catching him stealing food and supplies from a local camp. Upon investigating, it was discovered the man had a much more complicated and interesting story than originally suspected. Specifically, authorities learned the man had spent 27 years living in the woods in total seclusion, detached from all human contact. The “North Pond Hermit,” as he was called, sustained himself for almost three decades by breaking into and stealing from local campsites, restaurants, and businesses. His entire existence had centered around isolation and theft. Can you imagine

June 19, 2018

Care & Counseling Trauma

Our Link to Jesus

By Gene Shelburne In a very special way, Jesus is present in our pain. When Jerry Yamamoto was growing up as a Japanese boy in a mostly white neighborhood in California in the 1950s, he absorbed unimaginable abuse. He tried to explain to his playmates that he was innocent of Pearl Harbor, but none of them believed him. At times, he said, when the abuse got really rough, he went home and tried to wash his skin white. In early adulthood, Jerry faced a serious faith decision. Buddhism beckoned him to withdraw from the strife and struggle of this world

June 5, 2018

Care & Counseling Grief & Suffering

Blood Relatives

By Gene Shelburne The son born to Robert and Suzanne Massie was a normal baby in most respects. He had the correct number of fingers, toes, eyes, and ears. He was intelligent, probably a brighter-than-usual child. He cried, sucked, yowled, and wet his diaper just like other babies. Only one thing made Bobby Massie different. He was a hemophiliac. A bleeder. Little did Bobby’s parents suspect how crushingly cruel that difference would be—the abuse they would suffer from doctors, the fear that caused schools to refuse to educate Bobby and made the couple’s friends forbid their children to play with

May 29, 2018

Sinner Anonymous

By Gene Shelburne As God’s people, we have one common bond: All of us have brought our sins to Jesus. And that is what brings us around his table. How sad, then, that many of us spend so much energy trying to conceal our sinfulness! Why does the church often become an exercise in pretending we are perfect? The late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen said, “The modern world does not believe in sin. . . . It used to be that we Catholics were the only ones in the world who believed in the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

May 22, 2018

Battlefield Sacrifice

By Rick Chromey This weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer, but it’s also when we pause to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Since 1970, the last Monday of May has been designated as Memorial Day. It’s an annual sacred holiday to remember our fallen soldiers. Jesus taught his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Friends will do that for friends. A friend will honorably take a bullet for a buddy, but those who serve in our military often die for people they

May 15, 2018

A Passover Meal to Remember

By Rick Chromey It’s so easy to forget. Most often our memory fades with time. We forget how we felt. We forget details and even reasons. Our memory of something can become jaded, biased, foggy, or lost. Sometimes our memory is damaged by age. It’s not that we want to forget, but rather, we simply can’t remember. God understands the peril of human forgetfulness. Our minds sometimes need a little jogging through a metaphor, object lesson, or visual cue. Sometimes we need to re-create the experience. The ancient Passover meal was something God used to remind the Israelites of their

May 1, 2018

A Divine Springtime

By Rick Chromey Spring is a beautiful time of year. Flowers bloom. Trees bud. Babies are everywhere. Daylight saving time provides an extra hour of sun nightly. Barbecues, backyards, and baseball are back. Springtime is a testimony to God’s redemption. As temperatures warm, the snow and ice melt, the days lengthen, and a new world emerges from winter hibernation. What was dead now has life. What was brown now is green. What was dark now is light. It’s no wonder God used the spring of the year to release his final redemptive act to mankind. The Easter story is perfectly

April 24, 2018

Prayer Worship & Prayer

Three Prayers

By Jackina Stark A few years ago, Anne Lamott wrote a little book on prayer titled Help, Thanks, Wow. Many of our prayers can fit those informal labels. It is not surprising that Help is first in the list. News outlets remind us the world is full of need. Help, Father. Children all over the world are being sold as labor and sex slaves. Help, Lord. Hurricanes and fires and earthquakes and mudslides and tornadoes and floods are taking homes; they’re taking lives. Help. Maniacs are shooting people at concerts and in churches. Help. Corruption and greed are ravaging the

April 17, 2018

Love’s Welcome

By Jackina Stark How do you come to the Lord’s Table? Surely sometimes we come weary and troubled, and we are comforted when we remember Jesus’ words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Maybe you don’t think of those words of comfort, however, if the source of your weariness is the weight of sin—that is, something that is not beyond your control. Has anyone come to the table today having had a fit this week, cussing a blue streak? Has anyone come having been greedy, the very antithesis

April 10, 2018

What You’re Looking For

By Jackina Stark When Lynn’s mom died and then her dad three years later, she inherited many good things from her parents, including a little 14-year-old dog named Gracie who is now 17. Gracie is nearly blind and deaf and is beginning to experience congestive heart failure. She starts and ends her days with eye drops and pills. But she, like most pets, is sweet beyond words and can prance to the door to go out like a puppy. Lynn and her husband consider caring for Gracie the last gift to Lynn’s parents and tend to her with love. Gracie

April 3, 2018

Culture & Public Square Politics & Government

Proclaiming

By Jackina Stark Abraham Lincoln issued several proclamations. Two have forever affected American history and culture. The Emancipation Proclamation, announced September 22, 1863, and effected January 1, 1864, shifted the foremost focus of the Civil War from preserving the Union to the moral issue of abolishing slavery. It made possible the long journey to “liberty and justice for all.” It is a revered document. The original is kept in the National Archives. Its pages are fragile and its ink is fading. It is so delicate it is displayed publicly only on special occasions. Despite its condition, it is considered one

March 27, 2018

‘I Have Seen the Lord’

By Jackina Stark John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus includes a tender story about Mary Magdalene that can take your breath away (John 20:1-18): The sun surely is rising—how perfectly symbolic—as Mary approaches the tomb with spices and perfume to anoint Jesus’ body. She is surprised and confused to find the “stone had been removed from the entrance.” Her heart beating furiously, she makes her way to the opening and looks in and is horrified to find the tomb empty. What travesty has taken place now? she wonders. As she runs to find Peter and John, she surmises what

March 20, 2018