Yesterday, during worship at Newtown United Methodist Church, I assisted Dorry while she served communion to the congregation. As each worshiper came forward, Dorry tore a piece of bread from the communion loaf and gently placed it in the worshiper's outstretched hands, saying, "This is Jesus Christ, the Bread of Heaven." Then, I offered the communion chalice to the worshiper, saying, "This is Jesus Christ, the Cup of Salvation." The worshiper dipped the bread into the cup and ate. Again and again, we did this until everyone who came forward was served. But no matter how many times we repeated this ritual, it felt no less personal and powerful. Dorry and I were privileged witnesses to each worshiper's intimate encounter with the Risen Savior. There's a warmth, a radiance, a hum in serving communion that is difficult to describe.
I don't know how many times my father served communion over more than twenty years of ministry, but early in that ministry, at the first church he served after being ordained, he hit upon the power of communion in the life of the Christian. On one communion Sunday, his sermon began with a pair of parables told by Jesus: “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
-Mark 2:21-22 (NIV).
Dad then asked this question: "Is there any way in which you are guilty of trying to fit Christ into an old life that was not designed and arranged for him in the first place? In regard to your personal relationship with Christ, are you trying to put a new patch on an old garment or pouring new wine into old wineskins?"
He explained, "Jesus Christ is not someone who can be placed on one of the few empty shelves in your life to be taken down and dusted off for special occasions. He refuses to become a mere appendage or surface decoration. ... As we approach this [communion] table, we must confess how our Christianity (or, more accurately, our 'Church-ianity') often forms a thin veneer over our fundamentally unchristian attitudes and practices and aims."
"There is a radical dimension to Christianity that requires a man to make a radical departure from his past if he wants to be a Christian. You must free yourself from the score of things which consume your time and energy and and money and which serve selfish purposes in order to make room for Christ to operate freely. There must be that conscious decision to put the new wine into a new wineskin."
"This, my friends. is the beginning of conversion -- the change from old to new that you must experience if you are to name Christ as your Savior in any meaningful way. God is constantly reaching out to you, touching your heart in a hundred ways, calling you through people, through events, through the Church, and most importantly, through his Son, asking you to make that surrender that signals the end of the old and the start of the new. ..."
"Jesus Christ invites you to join him at this [communion] table. As you bow you are bade to remember that this sacrament is not a religious ornament to decorate your old, shabby life. Rather, if it is taken seriously, it signals a deep change in you, a re-opening of your life to a complete takeover by your Lord. No man or woman or young person should rise after receiving these elements [of bread and wine] and go away the same person. Miracles can happen here. It is really an exciting adventure. Come, and maybe for the very first time, or maybe as a wonderful recurrence, Christ will enter and give you new life."
Yesterday, as I helped to serve communion, I didn't witness a mere ritual. I witnessed new life in the making. No wonder it was such a compelling experience.
From "New Wine in Old Wineskins"
Mark 2:21-22
Preached at Adams Shore Community Church (EUB)
Quincy, Mass.
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