Presby-Musings

When I was a small child I remember sitting in the old wooden pews of the Fairfield Road Baptist Church in Greenville, SC while we passed the elements for communion.   My parents would take the crackers from the plate and the tiny cups filled with juice, and would pass them on without including me.  I remember smelling the scent of the crackers and juice, and wishing like the dickens that I could have some.  I seem to recall my stomach growling as well.  It had been a long time since breakfast, and our church services lasted for what seemed like an eternity. In the tradition within which I was raised, children who had not "accepted Christ," and been baptized by immersion (what we called 'believers baptism') were not allowed to partake in the Lord's Supper.  At the time I had done neither, so I got passed over.   The practice of excluding children until they are fully initiated into the faith, or are educated on the meaning of the Lord's Supper is ...

This is the third entry in a series of daily devotions that I am writing to support my church's October sermon series: "Red: Understanding The Hard Sayings of Jesus."  This week we are reflecting on the Lord's Supper as we respond to the "hard" saying of Jesus: Eat my flesh, drink my blood."   One question that sort of hovers over every conversation about the Lord's Supper is: How often should we celebrate it?   Catholics celebrate essentially every day, as do many Orthodox Christians. Most Lutheran and Episcopal congregations celebrate each week.  While a growing number of Reformed, and non-denominational churches have begun celebrating the meal every week, there are still many churches both denominationally affiliated and otherwise that exercise their freedom to celebrate the Lord's Supper  once a month, once a quarter, and even once a year. In my own tradition (Presbyterian) there is a long history of annual celebrations of the Lor...

This is the third entry in a series of daily devotions that I am writing to support my church's October sermon series: "Red: Understanding The Hard Sayings of Jesus."  Have you ever wondered why we call The Lord's Supper by so many different names?  Some Christian communities (like mine, for example) refer to it as Holy Communion, which comes from the Greek word koinonia, which roughly translated means "the sharing" or "holy community."   Some call it the Eucharist, which comes from the Greek word eucharisto, which is what Jesus did when he broke the bread during the Last Supper--he thanked God for it.   Some call it the Mass, which comes from the words often used at the end of the meal: "Go--you are sent out."  The Latin for this phrase is "ite--missa est," which over time transformed into the word 'Mass.' So, which is the "right" word to use?  This is a question I get quite often.  I think a bett...

This is the second entry in a series of daily devotions that I am writing to support my church's October sermon series: "Red: Understanding The Hard Sayings of Jesus."  This past Sunday, I preached a sermon on one of Jesus' most challenging sayings, which I'll paraphrase here: "The only way you are going to have eternal life is if you eat my flesh and drink my blood."   If you'd like to read the entire sermon, you can click HERE .  Or you can listen to it by clicking HERE .  Or you can watch it by clicking HERE .   Now that you've clicked all over creation, I hope that you're back so I can share some more thoughts on Jesus' strange words, and how the relate to Holy Communion--specifically focusing on the elements of bread and wine (or juice) that are at the center of each celebration of the Lord's Supper.   When I was in seminary, we had a spirited debate in one of my Worship classes regarding the importance of bread, and w...

I visited one of those so-called "mega churches" once on a day that they happened to be celebrating Holy Communion.  There was easily 5,000-6,000 people in attendance that morning.   It's almost impossible to serve thousands of people Holy Communion in under ten minutes--unless you do something altogether radical, which is what they did.  A basket of sorts was passed down the aisle filled with little plastic containers that were sealed with a "pull-away" top.  Under the pull-away top on one side of the container was a piece of cracker.  Under the other was a small portion of grape juice.   This is what it looked like:  It was like being served Holy Communion on an airline.  I remember just staring at it for a moment before opening it up.  The thought occurred to me then that there was something incredibly wrong about the whole process, but I couldn't put my finger on it.  It just felt wonky.   But the more I thought a...

This week we are launching a brand new sermon series, entitled "Red: Understanding the Hard Sayings of Jesus," a series that I hope both challenges and inspires us to learn more about what it means to follow Jesus, to be a Christian.   Let me begin by asking you a question:  What do you do when you hear something that absolutely rocks your world?  And what I mean by this is when you hear a truth, a new idea, something that when you hear it, you feel the reverberations of what you've heard  deep inside your soul?   What do you do when you hear something that challenges the way you thought about the world? About God? About everything?   I was at a conference for pastors and went to hear a talk by author and Christian activist, Shane Claiborne, who was promoting his newest book: Jesus For President .  Shane is one of those Christians that make us all look bad.  He developed a heart for the poor, so he gave up everything and went to live in o...

This Sunday I am preaching the final sermon of the series that I've been preaching for the month of June entitled, "Dusting Off Old Stuff."  This sermon series on essential Christian doctrines and why they matter has been an eye-opener for me. And a reminder that I didn't remember that much from what I learned in seminary. This is what happens when you drink from a fire hose, so to speak: you might get some  water down your gullet, but all you remember is the fact that you got owned by the hose. The topic of this sermon is The Lord's Supper.  Or Holy Communion.  Or the Eucharist. Lots of Christians call it different things.  And celebrate it in different ways. Which leads us to some questions that could use answering, at least in my mind.  First, If we say that we are celebrating the Lord's Supper, why does it always seem as though we are acting like we are at a funeral? Anyone else feel me on this?  Seriously, for most of my life I hav...