INTRODUCTION
When someone comes to my house for dinner, we eat—And because of my wife’s good cooking, it is always good eating. As we eat we talk, and we talk, and we talk… Our guests and my wife and I get to know each other much better. Today, in a few minutes, before we come to the communion table—I am going to give you a brief time to talk about one thing that communion means to you. I know there are many things each of us could talk about—But today we are a large, Forever Family, and I want to give as many as of you as possible a few moments to share your thoughts.
I typed the word “communion” into my word processor’s thesaurus and checked it in the dictionary—And I want to talk for just a few minutes about some of the variations of the meanings for communion that I found.
I. UNION
One of the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary’s definitions was: “A body of Christians having a common faith and discipline.” We come together in communion agreeing on the wonderful sacrifice of Jesus’ body(symbolized by the bread) and blood(symbolized by the wine) upon the cross—To provide sinful humans with eternal salvation from sin. We unite with Jesus in his death and resurrection.
II. FELLOWSHIP, ASSOCIATION, TOGETHERNESS
We really do, yes, we really do need each other! In the world we are surrounded with sinful non-believers, scoffers, ignorant, skeptics, rebellious people…(Hey, sounds like the church! But we want sinners to be welcome in our church. We look down on no one.) We must not isolate ourselves or others from a place for corporate worship, encouragement, guidance, friendship… Among our Forever Family we find a wonderful and safe place to encourage and challenge us on the first day of the week and to fill our loneliness with Christian fellowship. We are not alone. We are parts of the body of Christ. Our songs, our handshakes, our smiles, our tears, our words point us to Christ and hope. We are all needed and important at the table of the Lord.
III. AGREEMENT
By partaking of the sacrament, we state to each other and to the world that we agree with the gospel of Christ. We agree that he is Messiah and King. That he alone can forgive our sins. That Jesus is the only way to God.
IV. SHARING
As we participate we share our deepest needs, fears, questions, disappointments, and joys with the Savior. Communion is a vehicle of grace. It causes us to stop and to share.
But--Sharing is a two way street. We talk to Jesus—But we also take time to listen to him. When we do he may remind us of an area of sin in our lives that needs his cleansing. He may encourage our faith in a difficult time… He knows just what we need. We need to give him a chance to be heard.
V. ACCORD
Now I do not mean a Honda Accord auto. But we do get close with other Christians.(SMILE) At the table of the Lord we are one. We are in agreement with our brothers. Do you love your brother or sister in the Lord? Are you at peace with your forever family and with your Lord? Is all OK???
VI. SACRAMENT
Communion is not just a religious rite or ceremony. It is a means to grace. If we approach it with reverence and with an open mind and heart—Jesus will give us something. He is here. Take from him what he offers. Take the gift of eternal life.
CONCLUSION
Now that I have given you a few variations of the meaning of communion it is your turn.--To share a few of yours. One of the last words that came up on my thesaurus was “synergy.” It means an exchange, an interaction—Just what I want you to do. Now is your time to exchange information about Communion, to interact. In the next ten minutes we have plenty of time to listen to several of you share a paragraph or two, at the most, one of your thoughts about what Communion means to you. Please, briefly, exchange your Christian thoughts about Communion with us now. We will talk and then we will
eat…
(Ron Keller 5/02/04)
