“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, … and run with endurance the race God has set before us,” (Hebrews 11:1).
I’d like to offer a few thoughts about taking communion — regardless of being Baptist or Presbyterian or Catholic or Methodist or one of those “we’re not a denomination” denominations.
At a recent church service, the preacher’s message focused on the encouragement we receive from the knowledge there is a “cloud of witnesses” cheering us on in our ‘race’ as followers of Jesus.
But what we experience when we take the bread and the wine is so much more than just an intellectual understanding; we really are deeply connected as people of faith, and, despite the challenges all of us face from time to time, we are absolutely not alone.
After the sermon, and as if to underline the Scriptures with a practical demonstration, people from all walks of life and contradictory political convictions made their way forward to receive — and to share — communion, publicly demonstrating unity in faith and purpose. Receiving the bread and the wine is always a powerful and emotional moment.
And then, adding more depth and resonance to the spiritual truth of the principle of community, our daughter attended church for the first time in a long time. In a very real sense, even though she was 670 miles away, we all sat at the Lord’s table together.
There is nothing so real, or so compelling, as the love of God and the way that love and unity is experienced in the body of Christ, the church. And for that I am so very grateful.
This is what Jesus told us: He said the world is hungry for the self-giving kind of love, the kind of love that tells the truth about who we follow.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty,” (John 6:35).
— DEREK
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