Revisiting the Lord's Supper Part 7 Taking

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’s Supper  Part 7  Taking 

Many churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper as their main service.  Others stay strictly in the Word.  But in one form or the other the Lord’s Supper is presented somewhere in their worship schedule.  For those who have it more frequently it is meant to be the way we live Jesus, a lifestyle launching pad into our waking, walking, working week.  It’s a spiritual launching.  Practically speaking, it’s how we have come to view Sunday. (As an aside, we need to remember when the early Christians got together it was mostly in houses.  So, while Sunday became traditional, early disciples gathered whenever they could.  It was a far more intimate experience.  Something we miss in today’s culture unless we meet in home groups.)  On Sunday we pack teaching, worship and a social gathering into a time allotment, but again, there’s one necessary ingredient missing, intimacy.  However, the real impact of that Supper takes place before and after it.  How we prepare ourselves before, what we open ourselves to in it and the attitude we have after, are what count.  What do we expect to happen there and what is our focus after we leave? 

Those questions hit the door of reality exposing our personal approach to life in general, the way I really feel, the real reason I go and what I really do after.  Apply that to how we treat every day.  When Jesus delivers those four action words, take, thank, break and share, they draw us up short if we are thinking ahead, thinking forward and thinking spiritually.  So, we begin with take. Taking has two dimensions, vertical and horizontal, the shape of the Cross. 

Vertically, we take ourselves into a worship experience.  But what are we really taking into that worship experience?  Keep in mind, unlike Jesus, we are sinners. Since the heart of Jesus’ mission is the heart, we have to be aware we are taking the moments of our attitudes about people and events that come from our heart into the worship of the One whose heart is totally pure, Jesus.  And if we are honest about what we are taking to Him, what is the condition of our heart?   This where our sacrifice begins (Rom.12:1). 

When Jesus went to the Cross it was His perfect heart’s sacrifice obeying His Father’s will. Where have we been in the fallen world in the past days and what effect has that had on us, especially in terms of the attitudes that were ignited from one day to the next?  Are we ignoring them, actively pushing them aside, pleading good intentions, hoping we can do better---or---are we taking them consciously to a forgiving Savior? Living sacrifice. 

Our taking is the beginning of our being a living sacrifice, an ongoing process not limited to a worship service but to a Lord who wants to know it all while we are on our way.  The worship gathering is really a relational honesty gathering where we gather with other forgiven sinners to rally around the Lord as He blesses us with His presence in the Spirit.  He reassures with His Word when we repent that we are forgiven reminding us of who He is and what He has done to save us personally.  The physical bread and wine are the signs of His Real Presence among us.  There is singing to Him, prayers that praise, thank and ask.  There may be words of knowledge, inspired personal prayers, both joyful and tearful expressions of lives having been touched by the Spirit.  What happens in the gathered meeting can happen in our ongoing life every day.  But it’s taking ourselves like we are in expectation and assurance the Lord is speaking and acting when we gather.  That is certainly true when we gather in small home groups sharing what has been happening to us since we last met.  The whole exercise of worship is learning how to be a living sacrifice extended into everything we think and do.  Jesus is the model. 

Horizontally, we take what the Lord has given us in worship and home group sharing into the relational world where we are located.  Because the world will demand something different from us it will be a sacrifice to act led by the Holy Spirit.  So, the Lord’s Supper is not only a worship service for believers, it’s a lifestyle we carry into the world. We don’t only take what our mind learns, we take a forgiven and renewed heart and look forward to meeting with all kinds of people along the way.  In the process of being in the Body of Christ we discover our spiritual gifts, we are given new spiritual insights from the Word, we are led by the Spirit into all kinds of situations to exercise faith in His leading.  We are given grace, the truth in His Word and His love to take with us.  We take what we receive which becomes how we worship while we are on the way to work, to be with family and friends and to meet new people guided by the Spirit.  Bottom line is we take ourselves to Him and He takes us on the way of personal sacrifice, acting in faith not fear, love not avoidance, spiritually seeing and perceiving others as Jesus did and does.

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