Our Proclamation To The World Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

- Speak on the goodness of our being together this morning

- This series called “We Are Better Together”

o Intentional in pointing our minds to unity as a church family and as part of the churches of Christ.

“I GOT THIS.”

In August of 2018, Therra Gwyn-Jaramillo was down on her luck. She was still reeling from having lost her husband to brain cancer. The British-born freelance writer was living in Atlanta, Georgia, and due to unpaid writing work and a broken water heater, she was nearly broke. “It’s just me who is responsible for taking care of everything now,” she explained in a long Facebook post, “the house, the property, four rescued dogs, two rescued cats, an elderly, blind chicken named Dixie, my disabled brother…and myself.”

On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Jaramillo got a lifeline from a friend in the form of a $250 gift certificate to Whole Foods—a place she can’t usually afford to shop.

Grateful but exhausted, Jaramillo drove herself to the store and did her shopping, but “my head hasn’t worked all month,” and only after she had put all of her groceries on the conveyer belt did she realize that the tab was going over the allotted $250. Then she panicked when she saw that her bags of dog food got mixed up with the groceries of the young man in line in front of her. She tried to tell the cashier not to ring those up, and as she was trying to remove some of the overage items, the man spoke up, “I might as well get it.”

Jaramillo politely declined, but the man insisted. “I said I got this. All of this. Don’t put anything back!” Then she realized he was talking about buying all of her groceries, not just the dog food. And he insisted. “I stared wide-eyed at this handsome young African-American man, this stranger, as if he’d just dropped through the ceiling like a black James Bond, like Batman.” (Did I mention she’s a writer?) “Then I started to cry.”

The man told Jaramillo that his name was Chris, and she hugged him and thanked him for footing the $375 bill. But “Who ARE you?” she asked again. “Just a person. Just a guy.” She kept thinking to herself, “Does he know he is an angel?”

Only later did she find out from the cashier that the man was better known as Ludacris—the Grammy-winning hip-hop artist known for hits like “Rollout (My Business)” as well as for his role as Tej in the Fast and the Furious movie franchise. Jaramillo described the rapper as “awesome run amok” and promised to pay it forward by telling her story. “He was just doing something kind for a disheveled, harried stranger. Showing the love in his soul. Shining a light in the world. What Ludacris had no way of knowing is that his quiet kindness and generous gesture came at a moment when my candle was out. He used his personal light to fire up my own.”

I tell this story because what Luda did for Jaramillo was to show the love we are all called to show in situations like this. Today we are going to talk about the meaning and purpose of Communion; the Lord’s Supper. When we gather for Communion, we should fire up each other’s candles.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth about their habits as a body and how they are not united behind the centrality of the Lord’s Supper, but there are divisions. Let’s read his message about Communion in First Corinthians.

READ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-34

17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”