This past Thursday night at CITNM was awesome...we're really beginning to gel now as a congregation and it's very exciting...pics from the service are posted on the CITNM Facebook page...here's a copy of the letter I sent out last week in case you missed it...
Hey! Hope you're having an excellent day!
I really think that last Thursday night was a turning point for CITNM...the Communion service was very, very special...I mean, Communion always is on some level, but what we experienced last week was something really extraordinary, in my opinion...
Here are a couple of things that Jesus said about His spiritual supper (I know I already shared Luke 22 from Luke In The Now with you last week)...
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Revelation 3:20-NLT)
When it was time, he sat down, all the apostles with him, and said, "You've no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you..." (Luke 22:14,15 - The Message)
Two phrases in these verses stand out to me...
“…we will share a meal together as friends”,
and
“You’ve no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you…”
Revelation 3:20 wasn't written to an individual, but to one of the seven churches in Asia Minor (Laodicea), and what strikes me about the way that it is translated in the New Living Translation is that Jesus says His desire is simply to "share a meal with them as friends". That's why He was knocking at the door of that particular church...just to be invited in to sit informally at the table with them...like friends!
Then, the way that Luke 22:14 is phrased in The Message appeals to me because of the way He says "You've no idea how much I have looked forward to eating...with you".
Even though these two verses are talking about two different things, they both show an interesting aspect of Jesus' personality which is universally relatable. He apparently wants to have friends to eat with.
I love all the Christian sacraments...I love to baptize people in water, I love to dedicate babies (especially when I am their family's pastor), I usually enjoy performing wedding ceremonies, and when there is a real connection, I even love to serve others as Jesus did when He washed His disciples' feet. But nothing is more significant to me than communion, or the Lord's Supper, and I especially enjoy serving it in an informal, almost primitive context, where it seems like a real meal shared among friends, instead of like a sterile, religious ritual.
When Jesus said to His disciples, "THIS is my body", He wasn't just referring to the actual bread that He was breaking for them. "THIS" meant many things on many levels. "THIS" meant those twelve men...that very diverse, somewhat rag-tag group of fishermen, tax collectors, anarchists, and misfits whose common bond was their connection to the Christ revealed through Jesus of Nazareth. The real communion wasn't the physcial bread and wine symbolizing his body and blood as much as it was the subliminal, indefinable connection of those people around that table. And on a deeper level, "THIS" also meant (and means) a meaningful exchange that is an event or a unique "Christ-moment" in time.
Anyway, last week was just that, and it was awesome...and I'm expecting tomorrow night to be evern better!
Please be in agreement with me that the giving will increase at CITNM. The first several weeks I mentioned that the ministry was already paying for itself, and now I wish that I hadn't done that because I think it negatively affected the giving. The bottom line is that someone sponsored it with some start-up money for the first month (payed the rent on the room), but that was just for that month...now it really needs to become self-supporting, especially before we find a permanent location.
I have a good word for you tomorrow night, so I really hope to see you there.
As I told you before, it's just not the same without you!
Peace and love to you,
JES
I appreciate meals and the connection of breaking bread together, with humility, I think more than the average bear. With All Respect for beliefs, I have a different interpretation of Communion. Much of the idea of Communion is based on the need for sacrifice, that each of us is somehow less than, and need a sacrifice, like animal sacrifices to be accepted.
ReplyDeleteThe animal sacrifices did not make a difference. Nor does human or Our supposed God sacrifice. The process is OK, just not required.
Cannibalism is a pagan ritual, drinking blood of the sacrificed and eating their flesh to become One with the sacrificed, with The One. That assumes that it is necessary to drink the blood and eat the flesh literally or figuratively. That assumes there is an inadequacy that can only be overcome by sacrifice, like Agamemnon, Golgotha, Abraham, Baal, Moloch, and many more around the world.
I understand the desire for blood and flesh, to overcome our own flesh and blood. I Am has from the foundation made that issue moot. It is OK to be cannibalistic in Spirit and Flesh, I Am allows for it. It is not required. This assumes sacrifice of the innocent covers the guilty. There is no guilty. Millennium before Jesus, I Am removed all inequity, (guilt) as far as the East is from the West. Those who did not accept it then, or before, still needed a sacrifice and I Am provided One for those who still did not believe in that paradigm, One they would believe.
There are many who do not perceive the need for sacrifice, because they already perceive that any guilt has been resolved from the foundation. I Am of Those.
I appreciate those who need the guilt, and the redemption process. Either way the result is the same. Freedom from the beginning or Freedom after The Event. Just know both are valid and true. The reality of Born Free is real. Live, Enjoy, Guilt Free = Born Free.