Communion

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 Good Friday is here, that means many people are going to church sometime this weekend and many will be take communion to honor the death and resection of Jesus. Taking communion for a celiac can be a difficult task and even embarrassing, because we know that if we take the bread we will regret it later, but if we refuse to take it we may be looked down upon. Some churches carry gluten free crackers and if you go to a church like that, that is great, but not all churches do. As nice as it would be to take the bread and be part of communion like I once use to, I don't mind that my church doesn't offer gluten free communion crackers.

At first it use to bug me. I would take it anyway only to feel sick later, so I stopped and just took the cup, and I tried not to let the odd looks get to me. Jesus knows and understands why, so I shouldn't worry about what others might be thinking. I am now on the media team for my church and we serve ourselves or someone takes it upon themselves to serve the rest of us. So now I'm kinda free to do communion my way. I always try to bring my own crackers, but I always forget. Then I realized I was putting too much focus on the physical bread and not the bread. Let me explain.

		The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
		In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
		For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
		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.
		For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
		That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
		But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.

~1 Corinthians 11:23b- 31

What Paul is trying to say here is that when you mindlessly take communion and don't really meditate on what communion truly represents you are hurting yourself. God is still the same God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. All those great amazing things that went on in the Old Testament can and do still happen today. So not taking communion seriously is a big problem. King Saul did things his way when it came time to do the sacrifices God required, and because he did it his way - in a half-hearted attempt to please God - God rejected him as king (1 Sam 15:23). That same God reigns today.

So when it comes time to take communion I take time to ask God for forgiveness. I name all the sins that I know that I have made and confess them, then I ask God to search my heart for any that I have missed. Then instead of taking the bread I think about the bread, i.e the body of Christ. I visualize how Christ's body was broken, beaten, flesh torn and hung on a cross to die for my sins. That should be my body up there, it should be my body beaten, broken, and my flesh torn for my sins. Then I thanks God for taking my place on the cross and taking away my sins. I think about that scene in The Passion when Jesus is being beat by the soldiers and the cat of nine tales rips his flesh. By the way the actor who played that role, really did have his flesh ripped by the cat of nine tales, that was his own flesh being ripped that you see in the movie. When it comes time to take the cup, I do the same thing. I think about how they pierced his side to check if he was dead yet. I think about the verse in I John 5:6-8. I think about how Jesus fulfilled the covenant. 

Have you ever taken the time to read Leviticus? It's a book about a bunch of rules the Jews had to obey when it come time to offer their scarifies to God. It can be kinda a dry read, but if you take the time to think about what all has to be done for each kind of offering and all the different kind of offerings there were, it's really puts things into a new perspective. Those priests were like butchers. They had to know how to kill and take apart many different animals. They had to be strong enough to life those bulls and rams up onto the alter, and they had to know how to preform each offering just so or else, Lev. 10:1-2. We often picture these men in fine white robes and looking grand, but that is the Sunday school version. Those guys were a bloody mess. Before they go into the most holy place in the temple they had to wash up. This was serious business and if Jesus had not come and died for our sins and the sins of the whole world, we would still be required to make those kind of offerings. There were offerings for sin and all the different kinds of sin, there were offerings you had to make after sex, child birth, and arguments with neighbors. Then there were the offerings just to give thanks and friendship offerings, for the harvest and so on. I don't know about you, but between the giving thanks offerings and the sin offerings, I would be back at that temple every two hours. Ok, that might be a bit of stretch, but you get the point. I am thankful that Christ came so I don't have to butcher an animal to make atonement for my sins. I can just simple ask and it is done.

The important part about communion is remembering what Christ did and all that he went through just for us. He didn't have to, but he did. So whether or not you can take communion crackers at your church, the main thing is to keep the focus on Christ and not on what you can and cannot do.