When I was a young boy, two main things entered my mind on the Sundays our church gathered around the communion table. First, I
knew it would be a long service because the pastor was not about to
give up sermon time. This meant Church would end no earlier than 12:15 —
instead of 12 noon.
The second thing I recall is a strange sense of fear. With
his deep voice, the pastor would always read and make a strong point
from I Corinthians 11:27-30 (the King James Version):
“Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread,
and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body
and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him
eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not
discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly
among you, and many sleep.”
Who wants to get sick or die?
Like most protestant pastors (following the lead of most commentaries
on I Corinthians), he stressed the need to be careful not to come to
the table with unconfessed sin. Thus the call to “examine ourselves”
lest we eat and drink “unworthily.” With this emphasis, the focus turned
inward as each person searched his or her soul for unconfessed sins. Keep Reading >>>
No comments:
Post a Comment