There are a few words that are very deep for me. What I would like to do here is to post a word and talk about it a little and then ask you to add your thoughts and comments about the word.

Eucharist

We didn’t really call it that…we called it the Lord’s Supper. If we were talking to someone important or someone we thought was really smart we called it Communion.  It was something we did maybe once a month at church…not all that important or central to church or being Christian.

In my Christian “he-man” group we just finished reading a book by Rob Bell  and Don Golden called Jesus Wants to Save Christians. In chapter 6 he describes where we get the English word Eucharist…

“The Greek word for thankful is from the verb eucharizomai – the Greek word eu which means “well” or “good” and the word charizomai, which means “to grant or give”…

the “good gift”…Jesus is God’s good gift to the world. 

God has made peace with the world through the Eucharist, the good gift, of Jesus. And so Christians take part in a ritual, a meal, a reminder of the Passover, called the Eucharist…as a way of remembering and returning to who God is and what God has done in Christ.

God gives the world life through the breaking of Christ’s body and the pouring out of Christ’ blood. And God continues to give the world life through the body of Christ – who Paul tells his friends at Corinth is them.

They are His body. The body of Christ.

The church is a living Eucharist, because followers of Christ are living Eucharists.

A Christian is a living Eucharist, allowing her body to be broken and her blood to be poured out for the healing of the world.

The Eucharist is ultimately about what we do out there, in the flow of everyday life.

When did most churches stop the Eucharist from being every week? WHY did we stop the Eucharist from being every week?

Is it not at the heart of Christianity? Real and living Christianity…

What does Eucharist mean to you?

I got hung up on this story in John 12 where Jesus stops off on His way to Jerusalem, in a town called Bethany. You see, there in Bethany, live some of Jesus’ closest friends;Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Most everyone in the story thinks this is kind of a routine trip until Mary breaks out this very expensive (one years wages) perfume and starts poring it all over Jesus feet.

I think a lot of us have heard or remember the story. But what strikes me is that of all the people around Jesus…apostles, disciples and such, the only one that really gets what is going on is Mary. She somehow knew that Jesus was going to Jerusalem and was going to be killed there. Nobody else figured that out?

After pondering on that story for a couple of weeks now…here are two things that are becoming clear to me:

*Mary was close enough to Jesus, so much so, that she felt the pain and anguish that He was feeling. Her spirit picked up on what was going on in His.

*When she realized that He was going to die for her…there was NOTHING that was expensive enough to love him back in the measure that he was loving her.

This is an emotional week for the people that really believe that they are Christian…

I have never really been that good at confession.

Always found it odd to see people in the movies go to confession in the catholic church. That was usually the time in the movie that the we learned some juicy details about the plot or began to unravel the mystery of the story. Also wondered…what did the priest do with all that information? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that priests are the writers of some our current sitcoms. Do people really confess everything to the priest in those little closets?

A couple of weeks back I started leading kind of an impromptu Wednesday night service for our non-denominational church during this season of Lent. Last week I included a corporate confession of our sins during the service, which I stole from my new favorite book The Book of Common Prayer. This is what we said…

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against thee
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved thee with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we earnestly repent.
For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in thy will,
and walk in thy ways,
to the glory of thy Name. Amen.

 Anyway, as I have dug into this Lenten process…I have realized it is so much more than giving up something like junk food or chocolate. Saying and thinking through the words of that confession woke me up. Evidently it moved a few others because last week one of them sent me an article that I need to share with you. This is an excerpt from that article written by Ruth Haley Barton (the whole article)…

“Confession is good for the soul—and everyone around us. Without the ability to face ourselves honestly and confess not only our sin and bad behaviors but also the shadow that drives them, we become dangerous to one another in the human community. We project our own darkness onto others rather than dealing with the darkness within ourselves and the weight of that is too much for any of us to bear.  Lent is the season for coming out of the shadows and coming clean.”

That makes a lot sense to me. It is extremely easy to see how the sins of others does damage to the innocent in their lives and how for some reason they don’t see it. Men seem to have a real knack for this. Not that women don’t sin or have a need to confess…I just see it easier in the men. More than likely because I think like they do. I know there are a number of different beliefs on how you are to confess and who you are to confess to…not really wanting to debate that here.  

Just want to say…I am beginning to see the sin in my life, and feel the need to confess. Do you?

In the Evangelical churches that I have attended I never remembered the Nicene Creed being a part of what I was to believe. I admit, they could have been saying it between the Sunday school report and the hell, fire and brimstone preaching…but I don’t remember it. Even after I stepped out of the denominational infighting churches and switched my church going habit to the liberating Non-denominational brand, we still didn’t hear much about this creed deal. I guess it’s because the creed is not in the Bible and we all know God ONLY speaks to us through the Bible? Really?

I have a confession, I have been quietly attending the early Eucharist at a neighborhood Episcopal Church for the past six months and it has been very refreshing and very worshipful. Entering the service quietly and in prayer is a great way to prepare your heart to be with God. It’s not passive…I get to kneel and pray out loud. They have this book called The Book of Common Prayer and it is full of these sayings and prayers. This Nicene Creed is one that we seem to say a lot…this is how it reads…  

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

If you read it fast please reread it slowly thinking about what you are saying…is that rich or is it just me? Come to find out it was written a few years ago (325AD) by some pretty smart and holy men. I am humbled by those words and I am humbled by reciting them with other believers in worship. Now that you know that I am a closet Episcopalian…let me say that I firmly believe in the Nicene Creed…do you?