Breaking a bad habit is hard to do, and the difficulty is directly proportional to how long the bad habit was indulged. The Christian church needs to break two bad habits when it comes to the Lord’s Supper. These two habits consist of looking in the wrong place as we meditate. The first place we …
Ritual of Life
This ritual meal is not demeaned through being a ritual. We do not say that it is merely ritual. After all, through rituals many remarkable things happen. A bachelor becomes a husband; a daughter becomes a wife. Through ritual, a civilian becomes a soldier. Through ritual, an Englishman becomes an American, or an American becomes …
The Whole Thing Is Beyond Us
How does anything happen? It takes very little reflection to conclude that the world, and everything in it, is quite remarkable. How can a kernel of wheat germinate in the ground? How is a child knit together in the womb of his mother? How is it that a plant can feed on inanimate nutrients, and …
Intimacy and Awe
How can intimacy and awe coexist? It is the work of God alone. The Holy Spirit enables us to cry out, “Abba, Father!” and the same Spirit is the one who teaches us to hallow God’s name as we pray to Him. The Holy Spirit is, after all, a holy Spirit. He could no more …
Waking Up in Time
When we come to this Table, we are not just coming to it, but rather learning how to come to it. This is particularly true of your children. The law of prayer is the law of belief. Lex orandi, lex credendi. The way we worship shapes the way we think. And the way we grow …
No Morbid Fascination
In Exodus 16, when manna first fell from the sky, the people called it manna for, as it says, they did not know what it was (Ex. 16:15). This is the way of the fleshly heart. God feeds us; He surrounds us with food, but we do not know what He is doing. We do …
Right Out of Central Casting
This is a covenant table. God has established Jesus Christ as the Lord of the covenant table, and one of the central features of covenant living is the feature of blessings and curses. The sinful mind and the foolish heart war against this. But God is not mocked—men reap what they sow. Of course God …
Breaking a Bad Habit
For many centuries, the Church has been cultivating the bad habit of seeing this time of communion a time of introspection. But if there is anything that is a barrier to communion, it is the self-absorption that we have come to associate with this meal. So, as you come, do not curl up into a …
No Ceremony for That
One of the things that we learn from this meal is that we are a kingdom of priests. Just as the priests of the Old Testament were ordained, and afterwards had access to the holy food of the sanctuary, so we are all ordained to the priesthood in our baptism. And consequently, we have access …
There Are Only Two Men in the World
As we eat and drink in the fellowship of God, we need to remember that in this time of worship and communion, God is constituting and forming a new society. He is not just encouraging us in our private lives—although this is one result of what we do. There are only two men in the …