The Lord’s Supper, but different… or not so different?

Let’s start with a Bible verse:

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread; 24 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.” 25 In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

What I find beautiful in that text is the part: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

When I look in the dictionary I see this:

~ Often: frequently.

But how frequent do we do that? How much do we want to remember Christ’s sacrifice? Because that sacrifice is quite something!

For years, I went to church, where we celebrated communion every single Sunday. Every Sunday morning there was communion, every Sunday afternoon there was a sermon. Every Sunday we consciously reflected on that enormous sacrifice of Christ for us. I sometimes miss that.

At the moment, we “wander” between churches every Sunday. We go from (multiple) Dutch online services, to an English-language service in the city where we live, and then again to a Russian-speaking church service in the city. Furthermore, we also travel quite a bit for our work, so the chance that we “get communion” on location is not that great. And we miss that enormously……

But how wonderful it is that you don’t have to wait until you are in church to have that communion. The word church is not even in the verse we just read. And how wonderful it is that we could celebrate the Lord’s Supper together with fellow Christians, on a visit during a trip, at someone’s home. Very simple: bread, wine, done. What a blessing that we can do that in all freedom, as often as possible. Why don’t we do that more often as Christians among ourselves? How wonderful it would be if that would be normal…

Wonderful Shepherd: (translated from German)

You are a wonderful shepherd, who leads me to sweet water. You have set so much the king’s table for me. For me.

You are my staff. And I wander through the dark valley, I fear no evil anymore because You are here with me. With me.

I come, I come to Your table! I come, I come, and I know for sure: You are my wonderful shepherd!

You have anointed my head with oil, filled the cup to the brim. In Your hand, my soul becomes still. It becomes silent.