February 24, 2012
Anemic
Once when Bill went shopping for grape juice for Communion he compared
labels and price and purchased the generic brand. There was a significant
savings and he was quite proud of his bargain shopping skills. That Sunday when
the Communion tray was passed the juice looked rather anemic. It tasted overly
sweet, but yet watered down. We later inspected the juice label and read that
it contained mostly apple juice, with a little grape juice added to the mix.
Webster’s defines anemic as, ‘Lacking
force, vitality, or spirit; lacking interest or savor’. I couldn’t help but
wonder if sometimes when we partake of the emblems, we too may be guilty of
watering down the blood of Christ. “Therefore, whoever eats the
bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to
examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” (1 Cor
11:27-28 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Is there any way not to eat and drink in an unworthy manner? Has anyone ever found the end of their sinfulness? Has anyone ever come to the day they live the remainder of their lives in complete perfection? No. All men are still false. But not all men desire to be false. My thinking keeps returning to the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked what good deed he must do to have eternal life. When Jesus said he needed to keep the commandments - specifically - don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, or lie, but honor your mother and father, and love your neighbor, he replied he already was doing these things. He should have felt reassured and gone to do them more. But that was not enough. He felt need to be doing more. In fact, if he was going to enter heaven by doing works, he needed to do everything exactly right from the time of his conception. So even if he had eagerly acted upon Jesus’ further suggestion to go and sell all he had and give it to the poor, he would still have felt the need to do more. He couldn’t go back through his life redoing what he messed up before. Doing things just won’t get us into heaven or make us right. And if we chase that rabbit down its trail we will fall into the same pit this rich young man did.
-----So what are the appropriate observations we should find from this examination of ourselves so that we will be eating and drinking in a worthy manner? I think if the rich young man had thanked Jesus and done those things He said in the first place, when the word of Jesus’ eventual death, resurrection, and payment for sin came to him, he would have joyfully received forgiveness in as much faith as he had received Jesus’ first instruction. In short, though the trail of our sin disappears over the horizon of our temporal future, even more does the faithfulness of God’s mercy. Knowing that we are going to be stepping upon that trail from time to time as we walk forward calls us to a confessional attitude. Since I am yet false in my temporal life, my mind needs to observe the truth about it so that I will recognize the truth about God. This is the substance of the blood - the truth of God‘s love, the faithfulness of His mercy. We are not righteous in our being today, so we must observe in us a process towards righteousness: desire to be right humbly acknowledges to God failure Who faithfully forgives which weeds out space within for the soul to shape up a bit more into what is right; then over again; and again; and again till death readies even our bodies to receive the perfection given our spirits. We are never worthy to eat and drink according to what we do. But we are worthy according to the process of our desire meeting His forgiveness.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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