The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Lord’s Supper (Page 12 of 15)

First Sunday

August 17, 2011 / / 2 Comments

It got weird for me during communion on Sunday. And it happened so fast that I’m still not really sure what it was.

Our first Sunday here at Central as the new preaching minister was a swirling blur of brand new people and faces and names, exciting experiences and Spirit-filled worship, and undeniable proof that we have made the right decision in joining this group of believers up here in the panhandle. It began before Bible class as Carrie-Anne and the girls and I jumped in to help serve breakfast to more than a hundred of the needy and poor of this downtown community at Central’s Upreach Center. And it ended with an area-wide worship assembly at the Southwest Church of Christ where the singing was inspirational and the fellowship divine. In between, there were two meals shared with two different groups of new friends, roughly three hundred handshakes and hugs, and a thrilling chance to address our new congregation and thank them for their warm hospitality and friendly welcome.

But something happened during communion.

As we were sharing the bread and the cup with our new church, my thoughts went straight to our former church. If I were communing at Legacy, I would have felt John’s hand on my shoulder from the pew behind me. I would have heard Tom’s whispered “Thank you, Jesus” from my left. I would have made a funny face at Shannon and Audrey to my right. And I would have smiled as I watched Tommy and Drew and Valerie and Sebrina pass the trays in front of me.

This Sunday, it was all new. It was Craig sitting behind me. I had hugged him before church began and I could hear him singing. It was Steve and Judy sitting next to us, exchanging smiles. “The body of Christ broken for you.” “The blood of Christ given for you.” I found myself making faces at little Elise two rows up.

I stared up at the massive wooden beams that rise from the tops of the walls to the center of the stained glass dome of our worship center. It’s beautiful. It’s stunning. People who have been here a long time jokingly refer to it as “the vortex.” Some say it makes the outside of the building  look like a sombrero. But I love it. It speaks to the transcendence of our great God. It expresses our desires to reach him, to offer ourselves to him, to be near him. I think it also conveys our hopes for unity: every person in every corner of the room, brought to the Father and united to one another in and by and through the One True and Living Way.

Looking around at all of this, taking it all in, soaking it all up, my eyes welled with tears.

How great is our God?!? How amazing is this heavenly Father who somehow has deemed me worthy? Despite my inadequacies and shortcomings and failures — my sins! — he thinks I am valuable enough to make me his partner in this new work in this new church. (This new church that’s been in this same spot in downtown Amarillo for over a hundred years!) Our God is doing a new thing here, an exciting thing, a Kingdom thing. And he’s got me right here in the middle of it. I can’t believe it. It’s truly incredible! All these new people. All these new works. New opportunities for service. New avenues for God’s mercy and grace. New places to find God’s forgiveness and salvation. New ways to share his spectacular gifts of eternal life. And he’s got me in some kind of a leadership role here!

I don’t deserve it. I can’t fathom all these blessings. I can’t begin to comprehend all the good that’s coming my way. I don’t know why God thinks he can use me to fulfill his eternal purposes here. It makes no earthly sense.But he does. He really does.

And I just became overwhelmed.

He has forgiven me. He has lavished his great love on me and called me his child. His son. That is what I am!

Carrie-Anne looked at me and asked, “Are you OK?”

Through my tears I said, “No, I don’t think I am.”

And she said, “Do you want a mint from Coleman?”

Carrie-Anne reached into her purse and pulled out a familiar individually-wrapped peppermint from the Legacy candy man. Coleman Archer has been the candy man at Legacy for decades. Mints and Peppermint Patties and Krackel. Sometimes he would throw them at me across the concourse. Usually he would hand them to me along with a kind and encouraging word.

I popped the mint in my mouth and my thoughts raced back to our old church.

I was blessed there, too. More than I could ever possibly ask or imagine. Much more than I could ever hope to deserve. I didn’t know what I was getting into there when I first started at Legacy. But it was good. It was very good.

Of the hundreds of people I met after church here at Central Sunday on this first Sunday, one of the firsts was Pattie Archer. Coleman’s daughter-in-law. She and her husband Kelly, Coleman’s son, have been here at Central for a long time. Pattie didn’t give me any candy. But she gave me a smile and a hug and told me how glad she was that we were here.

Yeah. Me, too.

Peace,

Allan

Party Practice

June 21, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Jesus is at a fancy dinner party in Luke 14. He’s dining in the home of a “prominent Pharisee.” Fancy people in their fancy clothes telling fancy stories about their sophisticated lives. Scripture says Jesus is “being carefully watched.” Jesus notices and heals a sick man. Then he uses the sick man as sort of a sermon illustration:

“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.”

And then, I’m assuming, there was a long period of some really awkward silence. You don’t just walk into a fancy dinner party with lots of fancy people and tell the host and the guests that they’re doing it all wrong. “Why would Jesus tell us to invite losers to our parties?” You can almost hear a nervous cough. Imagine the sound of a lonely fork scraping against a dinner plate. Things are really awkward.

Finally, in order the break the tense silence, some guy blurts out, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”

And Jesus immediately begins telling another story about another feast, but with the same guest list: the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.

Jesus is making the point — and he made this same point every day of his ministry — that the Kingdom of God is a big party with a bunch of losers you wouldn’t be caught dead with on a Saturday night. This is God’s idea of a great time. God takes a bunch of losers, he fixes them, and then he breaks out the roast beef and wine. Revelation says we’re all going to eat and drink with Jesus forever. We’re going to take our places around the table with him at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

What we do when we come together on Sundays is a warm up. It’s party practice. It’s like the chips and hot sauce before the fajitas and enchiladas. It’s at these dinner parties in the Gospels where Jesus shows us what the world looks like when it’s fully healed. When everything is finished, when the Kingdom has finally come in all its fullness, when all of creation is finally redeemed and restored to its original Garden of Eden intentions, it’ll be like this. Our Christian gatherings on Sundays anticipate that huge wedding bash. We’re getting ready for the massive celebration, not just on Sundays, but for all eternity. For all of us.

Isn’t it cool that the Church’s number-one liturgical act is practiced around a supper table? The Lord’s Supper. His meal. And we’re all invited. All us losers have a seat at the head table with the risen Lord of the Universe. A salvation party with a bunch of sickos. Again, that’s God’s idea of a really good time. And Jesus showed it to us all the time.

Peace,

Allan

Trust the Word

February 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

[Allow me just a couple of more postings about Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Eric Metaxas’s latest biography.]

Preach the Word. Preach the Word. How many times I have been told, “Preach the Word!” Jimmy Butler here at Legacy exhorts me with, “Preach the Word, brother!” at least a couple of times every week. People write that to me at the ends of cards and letters and emails. I’ve written it and said it — even texted it —  to my preacher friends countless times. In California, I’ve heard it shouted from the congregation as a preacher takes the pulpit.

Preach the Word. Yes. That is our call as ministers of the Scriptures. Proclaim boldly and courageously the Holy Word of God. Faithfully. Without compromise.

Bonhoeffer certainly pushed his students to preach the Word. But he encouraged them to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian proclaimer when he urged them to “trust the Word.”

In 1932, Bonhoeffer told his young seminarians at his illegal underground training school at Finkenwalde, “We must be able to speak about our faith so that hands will be stretched out toward us faster than we can fill them. A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a fine red apple or offering a thirsty man a cool glass of water and then saying, ‘Do you want it?’ Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God’s Word, but testify to it. Trust the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity.”

Trust the Word. What a powerful idea.

We must understand that when the Word of our God is presented it will shake people, it will wake people, it will completely undo people. The Word of God has the power within itself to cause people to see their great need for salvation from God in Christ. If the Word is truly preached, the answers to the deepest needs of mankind will be received without all the baggage and camouflage and add-ons of “religion” and false piety and denominational hogwash. The grace of God, without filters and arguments, will touch people.

We don’t have to try to make it relevant. It is eternally relevant!

We don’t have to worry about it being powerful. It is supremely powerful!

And we preachers need to trust it. Trust the Word.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has promised us that not one bit of his proclaimed Word will ever return to him empty. Trust that great promise. Trust the Word.

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The Packers and Steelers arrived in North Texas yesterday and brought snow and ice and temperatures in the teens and minus-zero wind chills with them. The roads are all completely iced over after an all night sleet and freezing rain and flurry fest. Schools are out today. The church offices are closed. Ditches are littered with abandoned cars. Tree limbs are snapping. Power lines are sagging. Nobody’s outside.

It was sunny and 75-degrees Saturday and Sunday. It’s 16-degrees right now, snowing, with 30-mile-per-hour north winds. I’m really interested to watch all the national shows tonight and read all the national press tomorrow to see how DFW fares in the eyes of the global sports media.

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I’ve added another great link to the “Around the Table” page on this blog. It’s a click to several communion meditations by Jay Guin. I recommend checking them out. Instead of beginning your table talk this Sunday morning with, “When Howard called me last night and asked me to do the Lord’s Supper…” how about starting it with some theology? Some inspirational Scripture? A short illustration that ties what’s happening at the table today with Jesus’ meals from two thousand years ago or that great wedding feast of the Lamb to come? I invite you to read these meditations. And use them.

Peace,

Allan

A Table in the Desert

January 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

“Can God spread a table in the desert?” ~Psalm 78:19

The psalmist asks if God can really provide a feast for his people out in the middle of the remote wilderness. Is it possible? Can provide nourishment and life where there is none?

The answer gushes from a rock. Streams flow abundantly. Water in the desert. Thirst-quenching life in the midst of certain death.

The psalmist sees the water. And he follows up with, “But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?” (Psalm 78:20)

And the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth opens up the skies to rain down manna and quail. The grain from heaven, the “bread of angels.” He “rained meat down on them.” They ate “till they had more than enough.”

“He sent them all the food they could eat” (Psalm 78:25).

Yes, our God can spread a table in the desert. He can open up a 24-hour-all-you-can-eat smorgasbord right in the middle of your desert. Right in the middle of your driest condition. Right in the darkest part of your worst night. Down in the depths of your deepest valley. He can shine light into your scariest situation. He can bring life from your dead-as-a-doornail, going-through-the-motions rut. Absolutely. Yes, he can.

My God prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And I eat with God in complete communion and perfect peace. Protected. Provided for. Saved.

My God is sufficient. He is able. And he covers me with his tent and promises I will hunger and thirst no more.

Peace,

Allan

The Presence of God and the Joy of His People

January 12, 2011 / / 2 Comments

I don’t believe you can find a single communal meal in the Hebrew Scriptures that is eaten in sadness. When God’s people eat together, two things are true, without exception: 1) they eat in the presence of God and 2) they eat with great joy.

Sacrificial meals and covenant meals were a regular part of daily life for God’s people. At the ratification of the Mosaic covenant, to inaugurate the priesthood, at the conclusion of vows, at the renewal of commitments, at the inauguration of kings, when the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem, to celebrate the end of plagues, to give thanks to God, at the dedication of the temple. The list could go on for pages.

Eat and rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God (Deut. 12:4-7), eat in the presence of the Lord…rejoice before the Lord (Deut. 17-18), eat the offerings in the presence of the Lord (Deut. 14:23), eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice (Deut. 14:26), eat in the presence of the Lord (Deut. 15:20).

At the table, God’s people were “joyful and glad in heart for the good things the Lord had done” (2 Chron. 7:10). They celebrated “with joy…because the Lord had filled them with joy” (Ezra 6:22). Nehemiah told them “Do not mourn or weep…enjoy choice food and sweet drinks…celebrate with great joy” (Neh. 8:10-12).

Sacrifices cleansed the people. The blood spilled on the altar was sprinkled on the stones, on the ground, on the people themselves, to clean them, to sanctify them, to take away their sins. Sacrifices were intended to make a place or a people holy so God could dwell there. God’s eternal covenant with his people is that he will live with them and they will be his people and he will be their God. Sacrifice made that dwelling possible. Without sacrifice, there could be no righteous relationship with God. Following the sacrifice, intimacy with God is not only possible, it’s realized and experienced.

And it’s always celebrated at the meal. At the table.

Peace. Fellowship. Communion. Koinonia with God and with one another because of the sacrifice. Now, that’s something worth celebrating with great joy. Right?

So….

Why do our Lord’s Supper observances on Sunday mornings tend to be quiet, solemn ceremonies marked by individual introspection and feelings of sadness and guilt? Why aren’t our communal meals with our God and one another characterized by interactive expressions of uncontained celebration and overflowing joy?

Have you tried singing upbeat, uptempo songs of praise and thanksgiving as you gather around the table? Instead of burying your nose in your Bible, have you ever tried sharing that special passage with the person seated next to you? A neighborly “clink” of your cups with the people on your pew and a shared “Thank you, Lord!” can express that much-needed communal joy in a simple, yet powerful, way. Try something. Try anything. I just urge you to stop “doing” the Lord’s Supper by yourself in that room full of Christian brothers and sisters and stop being so sad about it.

The Lord’s meal is shared on Sunday, not Friday! He’s not on the cross anymore, praise God! The tomb is empty, hallelujah! The Lord Jesus Christ has paid for your sins and mine! We stand today — right now and forever more! — in a righteous relationship with the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth! He has removed our sins. He doesn’t remember them or hold them against us! It’s as if we’ve been perfect from day one! Because of what Christ already did at the cross and what the Holy Spirit already did at the garden tomb, we belong to God! It is finished! We are his people and he is our God!

Seriously. How in the world are we able to eat the bread and drink the cup without breaking out into huge grins?

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I’ve updated the “Around the Table” page with tonight’s lesson outline and handouts. As you’ve already gathered, the focus tonight is on the presence of God and the joy of his people at the meal. Click on the green “Around the Table” tab in the upper right hand corner of this page to access these class materials and to find the assignment for next week’s session.

Peace,

Allan

Around The Table

January 5, 2011 / / 0 Comments

The Lord’s Supper is the central, communal, corporate act of the Church. Instituted by our Savior, passed on by the apostles, and practiced for centuries by God’s people, our communion meal has historically served as the primary reason for Christian gathering and the climax of the Christian assembly. The high point. The pinnacle.

My great desire is to see it returned to its rightful place of prominence in our Church of Christ assemblies.

Starting tonight I am teaching a 13-week class at the Legacy Church of Christ on our Lord’s communion meal. And I’m very, very excited about it. I see the aims of the study as three-fold:

1) to more fully understand the meaning and function of the Lord’s Supper
2) to more fully appreciate the multiple and varied facets of the Lord’s Supper
3) to restore / renew our communion traditions and practices

Together we will read and pray; discuss biblical passages and ancient practices; consider history and context, custom and command. And, by God’s grace, we will arrive at a deeper and stronger Communion theology for our church.

I’m adding a new page to this blog that will be dedicated to this class. You can find this new page by clicking on the green “Around the Table” tab in the upper right of this homepage. I intend to fill this new page of the blog with Lord’s Supper and Communion resources. I’ll post there all of our lesson outlines, charts, handouts, articles, bibliographies, and links. I hope this new section of the blog will take on a life of its own and become a nice place to study and discuss the Lord’s Supper.

The “Around the Table” page is still taking shape. Today you can find the class schedule, a bibliography, the first night’s complete outline, and a couple of handouts. And it’s all still kinda weird. You actually have to click on what you want and then click again on the next page that opens up before you get to a download box. I intend to have all of that fixed before the end of the week. Be patient. You can get what you need if you just keep clicking. I’ll let you know every time I add something. It will be at least a couple of times every week.

I pray that you will benefit from the things you discover on the page and that God will use the resources to his glory. And I trust these studies and reflections will lead to our gathering around the Lord’s Table not looking inward to our own souls, but around us to our Christian brothers and sisters and to our surrounding communities, and beyond ourselves to Christ, who meets us at the table and continually prepares us for the coming Feast.

“They saw God, and they ate and drank.” ~Exodus 24:11

Peace,

Allan

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