Series: Communion Meditations

The Privilege I Anticipate

By Bryce Jessup I remember telling my dad at the age of 9 I wanted to become a Christian. I recall my older brother saying, “All he wants to do is be able to take Communion.” There was quite a discussion that ensued between my dad and his two sons! After studying for a number of weeks under my dad”s direction, I went forward to commit my life to Christ and be baptized. It was a wonderful time of celebration and hope for the future. I remember my uncle pouring some water into the baptistery from a vial he filled

May 3, 2012

Backward, Inward, and Forward

By Bryce Jessup Communion points us in three directions. We look backward, inward, and forward. First Corinthians 11:23-29 was written for troubled people who needed repentance, forgiveness, and acceptance in order to go forward with their lives. The same need exists for us today. The backward look is to Jesus when he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me” (v. 25). Communion is looking back to the cross and seeing the One who died so that we might live. He hung from the cross not because of

April 28, 2012

Born into His Family

By Bryce Jessup One of my most memorable Communion times was sitting with my family circled in our campsite at Yosemite National Park. The day before, a number of us had caught our limits of trout. Half Dome was visible, the morning sun was warming us up, and we were rejoicing in our family vacation time on the Lord”s Day. Before we communed, my father invited each of us to share a verse of Scripture or some event wherein we had felt the touch of a loving God. Each of our children shared briefly, as did my wife and I.

April 21, 2012

The Place of Victory

By Bryce Jessup John Wooden, who died June 4, 2010, attended Shepherd of the Hills Church in the Los Angeles area. He is the only person to make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. He won 10 NCAA Championships. He was named “Coach of the Century.” Few are aware he carried a wooden cross in his pocket. He would hold it in his fingers when things didn”t go well during a game. A reporter asked him if it was a religious ritual for him, and his answer was “no.” He said that

April 14, 2012

Forgiveness, Love, and Hope

By Bryce Jessup As a 20-year-old student in Bible college, I heard a sermon about the cross that I will never forget. The preacher told us the x in our English language was but a tilted t from ancient times. He went on to say that the t was one of the early symbols for the cross. His application was memorable. He said, “Isn”t it interesting that when you make a mistake with a typewriter (this was long before the computer age, but some will remember), you correct it by typing over it with a lot of x“s?” In other

April 7, 2012

The Host of the Table

By William Baker The original Lord”s Supper took place at a table (Luke 22:21, 30). The host was Jesus. He sent Peter and John ahead of the group to make the necessary arrangements with the owner of the house to eat at his large table of his second-floor room. However, the disciples being led to the house by a man carrying a jar of water on his head, as Jesus predicted (Luke 22:10), reveals that Jesus himself had already set this up ahead of them. After arriving at the room, Jesus functioned as the host. As he reclined around a

March 24, 2012

Unwelcome at the Table

By William Baker The original Supper of the Lord took place at a table (Luke 22:21, 30). Devoted disciples ate with Jesus at this Passover meal. One, however, left before the meal was over. Judas ate the wine-soaked bread Jesus offered him but immediately left to do his dirty deed of informing on Jesus to the temple authorities (John 13:26-30). His pact to help them capture Jesus out of the public eye would be honored that night (Luke 22:1-6). In a few hours, Judas would lead the guard to Jesus and betray him with a kiss of death. Jesus

March 17, 2012

The Family Reunion

By William Baker The original Supper of the Lord took place at a table (Luke 22:21, 30). It was a Passover meal. It was Jesus” last supper with his devoted disciples. In a matter of hours he would be arrested, beaten, and crucified. He treasured these last moments with them because they offered a foretaste of the greatest family festival reunion of all time. They would be back together again like this””at another table, at another time. Next time, gathered around the table would not just be this handful of solemn believers. Next time, every tribe, tongue, and nation would

March 16, 2012

The Table

By William Baker The original Supper of the Lord took place at a table (Luke 22:21, 30; John 13:28; 1 Corinthians 10:21). Friends gathered together in a large second-story banquet room to share a meal. But they did more than eat; they talked and sang and celebrated. This was a Passover meal, a festival meal reliving God”s rescue of the Jewish people from slavery and infant genocide. They ate greens and bitter herbs dipped in a spicy sauce, along with flat, unleavened bread. They drank wine, sharing sips out of at least three passed cups. They ate meat, one of

February 15, 2012

Doug Redford

In the Garden

By Doug Redford Last summer our local newspaper featured an article about urban farming in the Cincinnati area. It described how people began growing gardens in various locations throughout the city, not only as a hobby but also as a way to provide additional food. One man was rather philosophical about gardening. “I started seeing how gardening made people happy,” he said, “how it started changing the whole community, and it just took my heart.” Then he added, “In a garden, you control your own destiny.” That last statement, to use gardening language, deserves some cultivation. It brings to mind

January 7, 2012

The Old Has Gone, the New Has Come!

By Victor Knowles Today is New Year”s Day, the first day of the year and the first Sunday of the year. What a good way to start the New Year! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Communion is a weekly reminder that in Christ we are a new creation. The old is gone. I remember singing a chorus in youth camp many years ago. “Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes my sins are gone!” The crimson cup reminds us that the old has gone. Jesus

August 27, 2011

Let All of Us Examine Ourselves

By David L. Eubanks The major focus of Communion is the Lord Jesus Christ. When he inaugurated it, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Lord”s Supper is not primarily about us but about him, what he did for us, and the life he gives us when we feed on him. At the same time, there is a definite element of introspection that goes with this feast. That was true of the meal at which Jesus instituted it. When Jesus told his apostles that one of them would betray him, they immediately began to ask, “Surely you don”t

August 22, 2011

A Memorial

By Ben Merold I walked up Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to get a view of the path of the first flights made by the Wright brothers. They gave proof to the world that a heavier-than-air flying machine could lift off under its own power, fly, and make a safe landing. This was the place of first flight, and a large monument marks the site. I found myself thinking that the entire area is, in one sense, a memorial. However, everything seems to focus on four large stones that mark the distance of their first flights. On

August 6, 2011

Discovering the Good in the Bad

By Eleanor Daniel G. K. Chesterton wrote a series of short stories featuring Father Brown, a little priest with amazing discernment and wisdom. He solves crimes and other puzzling situations easily. He dispenses wisdom freely. These are fascinating stories. In “Father Brown”s Secret,” the cleric explains how he solves the mysteries that regularly come his way. The priest says he imagines himself as the perpetrator of the crime””and that reveals the solution. When someone in the story objected that he could not carry out such evil, the priest observes that no man can know how good he can be

July 28, 2011

A Place at the Table

By Ethan Magness Many of Jesus” stories and parables center on parties and feasts. A consistent theme in these stories is that many who attend are unworthy. We see this in the parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:15-24). Many on the initial guest list refused to come, and so many others were then invited. And those invited later were people one would never expect to be invited to a noble event. The great parable of the wayward son (Luke 15:11-32) ends with a surprising feast. The elder son in the parable gives voice to our confusion when he

July 24, 2011

God”s Great Story

By Ethan Magness There is a great story to be told that the world needs to hear. It is a story of rebellion and loss, chaos and destruction, punishment and fear. It is a story of rescue and restoration, order and repair, forgiveness and hope. It is a story of great redemption purchased at great cost. It is the story of great sacrifice because of a great love. This is the story of God and all people and this is the story the world needs to hear. There is a great story to be told that the church needs to

July 17, 2011

Making the Father Known

By Ethan Magness Despite our best efforts and fervent hopes, God cannot be fully known. Our questions will never be fully answered. God’s ways are higher then ours and so, in some ways, God will always be a mystery. But God does desire to be known. Christ came, in part, to make God known. In Christ, we know God is good and kind. We know God cares about the lost and confused, the sick and the poor. We know God is love, not because of an abstract theological declaration, but because his love has been demonstrated and incarnated in Christ.

July 14, 2011

Outrageous, New, and Glorious

By Ethan Magness We are shocked by Jesus” words about the bread, “This is my body” (Matthew 26:26, author”s emphasis). We are shocked by the is. Much like the crowds who went away sad in John 6, we get lost in parsing verbs and miss the truly shocking nature of this sentence. The disciples were not shocked by the word is. The disciples understood stark metaphors. They were shocked by his use of the word my. This is because this meal already had meaning. The bread had meaning. The wine had meaning. The herbs had meaning. This meal was

July 7, 2011

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation

Memory Matters

By Ethan Magness Our memory matters to God. After a personal encounter with God, a pillar of rocks would be built so the mercy of God would never be forgotten. In response to the great saving acts of God, festivals were established so the people could celebrate and never forget. Pilgrimages and parties, feasts and festivals were held for the purpose of maintaining the memories that defined God”s people. When the Israelites entered the land, God gave them new disciplines of memory: doorposts and tassels, promises to repeat, stories to tell. All of these were so God”s people and their

May 26, 2011