I knew I knew where to plug in the new IP address on my desert spirit's fire blog, but evidently not. I'll phone the domain place and this time I'll Five Minute Friday here on my scripture blog and copy-paste over there later.
News break. Breaking day. Day break. Water main break. Lunch break. Break dancing. A break in the routine. Break a bone. Relationship breakup. Break bread. Don't break your promises. God doesn't! I want to write about all of those!
Our host Kate begged for a break in school shootings (others, too) that have become routine.
What's my focus this time?
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
As Jesus breaks bread and blesses wine, he tells us to "do this—in remembrance of me."
Bless and break bread, pour out wine? "Do this" blood of the new covenant announcement?
Re-membering means re-collecting pieces and putting them back together to restore a broken whole that weaves together past and present.
When the church obeys Jesus by breaking bread and pouring out wine in his memory, part of the liturgical action includes retelling the story of God's people from creation through redemption in order to make it part of our own history. This remembering becomes about all of us throughout the history of the cosmos. We recollect how God has led us, how even those hard days didn't last forever… we again trust God whose final answer always is resurrection from death that breaks lives, shatters dreams, looks as if it annuls promises.
Do we need bread and wine to remember Jesus? Well, throughout the records of Jesus' life we find Jesus feeding strangers and feasting with friends; Jesus tells us people will come to the banquet from the east and the west, the north and the south … and about giving his broken body for the life of the world. The Welcome Table, the Calvary Cross, and the Reign of Heaven are tightly bound together.
When Jesus breaks bread and blesses wine, he tells us to do what he does—"in remembrance." Do we need bread and wine to remember Jesus?
We are breakout people! Wherever we go we become a living and a life-giving memory of Jesus. In us, Jesus again becomes alive in the world and we become a living connection to the heaven of God's reign on earth. Will people recognize us as the body of Jesus Christ when we break open our hearts, share our substance, and pour out our lives? I hope so!
3 comments:
Good food for thought.
Thanks for sharing.
Breaking bread and drinking wine,
every Sunday it's the same,
but the routine's really fine
'cause we are gathered in His name.
Maybe wine is grape juice,
and maybe bread is really Ritz,
but whatever elders choose,
still, the whole thing fits.
Maybe you're a Catholic,
transubstantiation is your thing,
but that don't matter, not a lick,
for together we can bring
a unity in Jesus Christ
in the body that was sacrificed.
I can never grow tired of this remembrance and act of corporately and individually breaking bread to remember His salvation and love. And tonight of all nights we remember this last supper. Thank you. Happy Easter. Dawn #27
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