The Impact of the Lord's Table

The following was another communion meditation I shared with my church this past Sunday morning:
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"As we come to the Lord's Table, most Christians are very aware of the remembrance that takes place at the table. We remember the past, what God has already done for us in Jesus Christ. And rightly so, for Scripture instructs us to do this in remembrance of Christ. But...while there is a past reality to the table, I don't think we are often mindful that there is also both a present and future dynamic to the table celebration.

1 Corinthians reminds us that as often as we celebrate the Lord's Supper we continue to proclaim the Lord's death (present reality) until he comes again (future dynamic). We remember what Jesus Christ has done for us, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, literally doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. We proclaim and reaffirm, both individually and corporately, our complete faith and trust in Jesus as the only hope for our salvation. Finally, we live as people of hope, with confident expectation that He will return...and all who are in Christ will be united with him and share in the glory of God's presence.

The table reminds us to continually live in that hope. That is the kind of truth that will change your life if you allow it to sink into your heart, your mind, your soul. It will mess you up, your life will be ruined for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel."

Are you still amazed by God's grace?

I have been given the opportunity to lead communion at our church a few times over the past several weeks. We practice communion every week in this tradition. This portion of the service involves giving a brief meditation followed by the words of institution (typically 1 Cor. 11). The following was the meditation I shared a few weeks ago:

As we prepare to come to the Lord's table this morning, I want us all to examine ourselves and make sure that we dont go into "auto-pilot" mode just because we do this every week. I would like for each of us to ask ourselves a very simple question, "Am I still amazed by God's grace?" Or has it become normal, commonplace, perhaps even ordinary? Am I in danger of the kind of self-righteousness that begins to think that I am somehow worthy, deserving, or even entitled to God's grace?

The truth is we can never be good enough, we will never be worthy in and or ourselves. But the beauty of grace is that God knows all my sin--past, present, and future--my pride, selfishness, anger, laziness, greed, bitterness, sinful thoughts...all of it, and yet he still looks down from heaven and says, "My child, I love you, put your faith and trust in me. My grace is sufficient to cover all that!"

That is the grace of God, it is powerful. May we never cease to be amazed by it. So, this morning we remember and we celebrate the grace of God as we come to the table.