Pastor Jordan reminded us at the conference over the last couple of days that this meal is not only communion with Jesus, but it is also a volunteering to die for the sake of Christ and for one another. The bread particularly points to the fact that we are united in Christ, one body, one loaf. And the wine is the covenant in the blood of Jesus for the remission of sins, but also as our way of life, our new way of being human, the way of the cross, the way of sacrifice. This means that you cannot take up this bread and this wine, and then imagine that you will now be blessed with an easy, comfortable life. When you eat this bread, you are being knit into the body of Jesus throughout the world, and that body, that family is a safe place to be, but it is a body on a mission to put all sin and suffering and injustice under the feet of Jesus. And when you drink this wine, you are testifying of the death of Christ till He comes. You are saying this is the way we conquer, this is the way we carry out our mission. Through suffering, through sacrifice, through giving up yourself for your wife, for your husband, for your children, for your neighbors, for strangers you don’t even know. This is one reason why we greet one another in the Passing of the Peace. We are enacting all of this. We are hugging and kissing and blessing one another because we are family in Christ, and at the same time because we are family, we are offering to lay our lives down for one another. It is fun to greet one another; it’s joyful and glad, but do not forget what you are promising.
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