Revisiting the Lord's Supper Part 8 Thanking

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’s Supper  Part 8 Thanking

 Thanking, that’s our next re-running thought.  We want to expand what that means for us while we are on the way.  Anytime we celebrate the Lord’s Supper there is a lot of thanking to be done prior, during and after.  Every breath we take is a gift from the Lord.  Starting there we jump to the family and friends for whom we are thankful.  We move to our church and the larger spiritual family in which we have brothers and sisters in the faith.   Thank you, Lord.  Then we have been born in a time and place with the ability to relate, produce and build relationships.  The very universe, that broad expanse, is made for us to search.  Our particular planet is one of lushness and fertility bursting with potential to feed all people and sustain life with its productivity in mind.  Thank you for all of it, Lord.  The Lord said that we were to “rule the earth (Gen.1:26)” obviously under His authority and direction.  That is our environment enabling us to be an image of God looking forward to being creative within it.  God created it all with His images to be creative within it.  We thank Him for the ability to be uniquely creative.

 Personally thankful, being images of God, we have a mind, heart and spirit.  We are gifted by the Lord with a sense of unique individuality that has meaning, purpose and significance.  We are spiritual beings able to relate to our Creator God as Father, Lord and Spirit and to be sharers in the mission and ministry of Jesus.  We are relational beings enabled to love, share and develop meaningful and growing ties, deepening the bonds between persons.   Thank you, Lord.

 Spiritually thankful, we have been given spiritual abilities, the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit, to exercise sharing spirituality with His spiritual beings, believers and non-believers alike.  Spiritually thankful, He has brought us into a spiritual family introducing us to a new kind of experience, intimacy---intimacy on a trusting and emotional level.  That can’t be found any other place than in Jesus.  Do we make mistakes?  Obviously, but the keenness of His love is the ability to forgive when we say we are sorry and open ourselves for His Spirit to inspect, correct and direct us.   Thank you, Lord.  Instead of guilt that hinders, stops us in our tracks and keeps us immobile, the Lord frees us to get on with His program.  “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal.5:1).”

Now think of the blessings we have received, situations of peril from which we were delivered, insights that helped others, healings we have experienced, learning His presence through hardships.  We learn a new way of approaching the pitfalls of self-pity, having my way, wanting an easy ride through life.  Now we thank Him in the midst of the pitfalls for His presence, His grace and love sustaining us. 

 We know the devil lays traps for believers and most of those traps are subtle.  The devil observes our weaknesses and fires his darts at the soft underbelly of our tendency to sin.  He seems to know what areas will be laden with self-justifying reasons and excuses and ‘good intentions.’  Isn’t it a reason to be thankful when we hear what the Lord told Paul when he was pondering why he was suffering from a thorn in the flesh, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2Cor.12:9)?”

 Just think, He provides a spiritual meal to give us strength, to fortify us for the spiritual challenges we’ll be facing from one moment to the next.  Is it any wonder the Lord Jesus tells us, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me (1Cor.11:23-25)?”  The Lord’s intention for us is often.  After all a meal may be a meal but aren’t meals eaten frequently? 

 It seems, as believers, we need frequent reminders to be thankful for the fact Jesus is the bread of life and that His blood shed on the Cross is an ever present reality which is why the Cross is worn by so many.  Again, to be thankful that the Lord’s Supper is more than just a nice memory of Jesus doing something special with His disciples 2000 years ago.  It is a command with a purpose, recognizing His presence wherever and with whomever we are in contact.  It is a spiritual feeding that the Holy Spirit fills with the mind, heart and power of Jesus.  It’s His teachings, His miracles and all around lifestyle that pop into our minds at the moment of need.  This is why many churches call it the Holy Eucharist (Holy Thanksgiving, literally from Greek, eu-good, charis-grace, which came to mean gracious offering).

Thanking is something we need in our mind’s vocabulary not only as a word but as a way of thinking, using our mind before we think, speak and act.  Thank the Lord for breaking through our self-centeredness with a word-thought to keep us on track.  Thank you, Lord for your presence in every next moment.

So, we have two more words to ponder, break and share.  They come next.