World Communion
Posted by bransonsheets | Tags: bransonIt’s hard to imagine everyone in the world agreeing on anything. Nations, governments, families and individuals stand at odds with each other on almost everything. How could there ever be true communion? For true unity to occur, there would have to be something pretty important as the basis.
Actually, once a year, on the same day all over the world, Christians celebrate their oneness. Yes- Roman Catholics, Orthodox believers, Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals and even Methodists all join together on the first weekend of October to celebrate our common faith through The Lord’s Supper. We may not agree on many things, for in the world there are wide variances on how we “live out” Christianity, but we all agree on one thing: Jesus died on the cross and God raised him from the dead and He is LORD!
Theologian N.T. Wright has written that when we celebrate the Eucharist, (the Lord’s Supper) we are doing more than telling the world that we are going to heaven or have found a personal relationship with Jesus. The message of the Holy Communion is a radical declaration to the whole world of God’s powerful, loving revelation of redemption: Christ died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Therefore, we align ourselves with Christ Jesus who was, is and is to come. We belong to HIM, and we celebrate what he HAS done and what he is still GOING to do, both in us and in the world!
On World Communion Weekend, all Christians of every stripe celebrate Jesus. Every Christian agrees. One thing is central–the death and resurrection of Jesus–and we celebrate it at the same time.
For most of us, it’s just another weekend, just another time to go to church. Please know that it’s so much more. We are joining together with Christians all over the world to say Jesus is Lord! He was broken for our sins. His blood was shed to make us clean again. He died, but more than that, He got up from the grave. Nothing will ever be the same, and not even the gates of Hell will prevail against the movement that His resurrection started.
And we all agree on that!
I can’t wait to celebrate the Risen Lord Jesus with you and millions of others this weekend!
Branson
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Tom Freed says:
Branson, thanks for printing the words from Theologian Wright "Christ died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." They remind me of some of the liturgy so familiar to me from the church I was raised in. Those words can sound so simple, yet they are so powerful when you consider the meaning. I choose to humble myself at communion time, acknowlege that I'm sinful and ask for God's forgiveness, then bathe in the healing, forgiving grace that comes to us through the resurrected Christ. The words may be simple but the power of his grace and forgiveness is 'life giving". Yes sometimes I tear-up at communion, sorrowful for missed opportunities, or past-mistakes, and I have to remind myself that through Christ I'm freed (no pun intended with my last name!). I look with joy to this weekendand appreciate you highlighting the significance of World Communion.
Connie Landen says:
The same power that conquered the grave lives in us……..and we get to celebrate together what He did for us. This is a great communion video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8iwFiUaQ1M
Kevin_Shirley says:
This is indeed exciting and as Wright has said before the eucharist is God's way of saying that the world and its systems and divisions have met their match. In the body of Christ their are no divisions and "table fellowship" is to be enjoyed by the whole family regardless of the typical labels we place on them (race, creed, nationality, ethinicity, gender, education, etc., etc..). No system or organization devised by man or the "principalities and powers" has been able to comletely erase the lines of division between human beings. When these "powers" in this fallen world observe the family of God enjoying true fellowship and unity then they know that their time is up and they have been trumped by the power of God's plan, his covenant. Only God can really bring us all together, in his body. That is a mystery but a fact.
It is also good to keep in mind when partaking of the eucharist that it is the New Testament form of the Old Testament passover meal which has now been redefined around Jesus himself, his broken body and his blood. And just as the Israelites would be thinking of liberation from slavery (Egypt) and "return from exile" (the Kingdom) when eating the passover so we too as the body of Christ should look both back in time to Jesus' death and resurrection and forward to that ultimate liberation of God's people with his second appearance and liberation of all of creation itself from it's "bondage to decay" as in Romans 8. So the eucharist points us to that ultimate Exodus which awaits.
Yeah, this is exciting stuff…..