Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Our communal response to what matters...
More thoughts from the series Phil and I are doing on What Matters: our communal response.
We believe baptism is our individual response to what matters.
Communion is our together response.
Jesus died for our sins. The most important doctrine is stated in community terms. He died for us all.
Loving God with everything we have results in us all being baptized by one Spirit into one body. I Corinthians 12:13
Communion is our participation together in his death. It is our unity statement. I Corinthians 10:16-17
Loving our neighbor begins with our spiritual family.
From I Corinthians 11:
Communion does more harm than good when we are divided and that happens when we are not sensitive to each other. It is about us, not me.
It is a together activity. They are rebuked for not waiting on each other.
Unworthy communion is not about examining your individual relationship with God. The unworthy manner that Paul condemns is about how we treat each other. So examine how you treat your brothers and sisters.
So communion is about life together. It is not designed to be done as a solo.
Communion is our church statement of gospel. We proclaim the Lord's death
Acts 2 indicates that the way that 3000 new Christians functioned together was to meet in big groups and small. Every day. Praise, study, prayer, and Communion were a big part of that.
We do it on the first day of the week because that is the day Jesus rose and it is a big deal. So at Southern Hills we do it at least every Sunday. And yes, I think they may have done it more often in the early church. But at least every first day of the week.
So...
There is much more in Scripture about communion attitude than communion action (how-to).
You cannot take communion while being selfish, thoughtless, hurtful, or hateful toward those you share it with.
It is about us together with God. It is not just about you and God. In fact, I am not sure communion is about you at all. It is about God, your family, and those outside who we want to become family.
So God, help our communion life to show our unity and our belief in your Son's death for our sins so that outsiders might someday be able to share it with us..
We believe baptism is our individual response to what matters.
Communion is our together response.
Jesus died for our sins. The most important doctrine is stated in community terms. He died for us all.
Loving God with everything we have results in us all being baptized by one Spirit into one body. I Corinthians 12:13
Communion is our participation together in his death. It is our unity statement. I Corinthians 10:16-17
Loving our neighbor begins with our spiritual family.
From I Corinthians 11:
Communion does more harm than good when we are divided and that happens when we are not sensitive to each other. It is about us, not me.
It is a together activity. They are rebuked for not waiting on each other.
Unworthy communion is not about examining your individual relationship with God. The unworthy manner that Paul condemns is about how we treat each other. So examine how you treat your brothers and sisters.
So communion is about life together. It is not designed to be done as a solo.
Communion is our church statement of gospel. We proclaim the Lord's death
Acts 2 indicates that the way that 3000 new Christians functioned together was to meet in big groups and small. Every day. Praise, study, prayer, and Communion were a big part of that.
We do it on the first day of the week because that is the day Jesus rose and it is a big deal. So at Southern Hills we do it at least every Sunday. And yes, I think they may have done it more often in the early church. But at least every first day of the week.
So...
There is much more in Scripture about communion attitude than communion action (how-to).
You cannot take communion while being selfish, thoughtless, hurtful, or hateful toward those you share it with.
It is about us together with God. It is not just about you and God. In fact, I am not sure communion is about you at all. It is about God, your family, and those outside who we want to become family.
So God, help our communion life to show our unity and our belief in your Son's death for our sins so that outsiders might someday be able to share it with us..
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How powerful for all of us if we truly waited on each other...everyone taking the bread and the cup, holding them, and then all taking it together...unified. I think that would be awesome. Sure, it might be 'harder' to have to hold your cup and bread for a few minutes, but I think the benefit outweighs the bad. Besides, no one ever said it should be 'easy'. Life isn't easy...but it's worth it!
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