We have considered the importance of reading the story we are in. In doing this, we avoid the trap of being like brute beasts—like pigs under an oak tree, eating all the acorns, but never, ever, looking up. The acorns are just there, taken for granted.
But as we read the story, we must also take care not to “soar too high into God’s prerogative,” as one Puritan put it. We can tell what kind of story we are in, and we can know what we are doing in it, and we can know whether or not we are here in order to receive God’s blessing. When Cain and Abel departed from making their offerings, they both knew where they stood. That does not mean that they (or we) can know all the details involved. But we can certainly know the basics.
The basics are these. Christ shed His blood and His body was broken for all who come to Him in true humility and faith. As we break this bread and pass around the cup, God is knitting us together in love. Are there interruptions and obstacles? Of course. This is a sinful world. But God is determined to restore this world, and to do so by this means—by gathering a people to Himself, to be called by His name.
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As He does this, we are to look to Him, and not to ourselves. When we look to ourselves, we start to fail, or perhaps to panic. When we look to Him, we have it all.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.