I have a couple of posts prepared this week on the Lord’s Supper, often referred to as Communion with a church setting. Today is the first of these posts and I want to focus on the consumption aspect of Communion.
We take Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Table, the Blessed Sacrament (whatever you want to call it)…as a body of believers in community.
We are to consume the bread and wine as Christ’s body and blood shed for our sake.
We are consumers of many (too many) things, but Christ calls us to become consumers of just these 2 things.
2 out of the past 4 days have been dubbed “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday.” Both are titles used to get us to spend money (I know, I should feel guilty for even talking about this after buying a tv).
Is there any doubt that the consumerism in our culture is progressively getting worse? I wonder if the celebration of the Lord’s Supper isn’t one of the most counter cultural acts the church does…
We consume Christ. Alone.
But ultimately Christ desires to consume our lives for the sake of his glory.
I love how Rob Bell talks about this:
The way of Jesus is the path of descent. It’s about our death. It’s our willingness to join the world in its suffering, it’s our participation in the new humanity, it’s our weakness calling out to others in their weakness.
As we celebrate the life and sacrificial death of Christ, we are calling ourselves to death, for that is where life is found.
We consume, only to be consumed, in order to be used by God.
Pingback: The Lord’s Supper: Thoughts on Community « Man of Depravity()