Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 22 verses 19 and 20:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
This coming Sunday is communion Sunday in our church, and after a week where our divisions as a country have been laid bare, something in my soul is deeply longing to come together with my brothers and sisters to share together in the loaf and drink the wine -- Welch's wine that is.
Both the books of Ephesians and Colossians make astonishing claims about the reconciliation Christ has brought in his body broken and blood shed on the cross. In Christ, we are told, all division comes to an end and there is NOW reconciliation or atonement (at-one-meant) with God and with one another.
Read how the writer of Colossians put it and notice the tense, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross," (Colossians 1:19 and 20).
The tense is past perfect and conveys the notion of something having been done something continuing to be done. God has reconciled us to Himself and one another and God is continuing to reconcile us.
In a world where our divisions are so apparent, coming forward to take communion and share in the bread and the cup is a powerful symbol -- and a defiant one. On Sunday we will say, in spite of all that we may see and hear in the news, we are a people of hope. We are the people of reconciliation -- and we believe that it's not only to come but that it's already coming and even here.
This is the meaning of the one loaf and the one shared cup, and my soul is hungry and my spirit thirsty to partake. In other words, I need it.
I think we all need it.
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