Several years ago, our family hosted an exchange student
from Indonesia. It was during the summer, so we were looking for ways to
educate and entertain our guest. We made several day trips into New York
City, but on Sunday we suggested that he join us in attending the worship
service at our church. He agreed, expecting this to be an interesting
aspect in his learning about America. He was a Muslim by faith. His
name was Hari.
As it happened, one of those Sunday worship services was
Holy Communion Sunday, so I tried to prepare Hari. I wanted him to
understand the meaning behind this Christian ritual, and why we repeated it
every month.
Hari had already heard of Jesus Christ because in Islam,
Christ is revered as a great prophet. However, we stressed that we see a
much more important role for Jesus Christ in our Christian lives. We see
Christ as the Son of God. Therefore, that our Holy Communion is an action
by which we not only remember Jesus, but which nourishes our faith through the
action of Jesus himself.
As I explained it to Hari, on the night Jesus was betrayed
at the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus instituted what today we
Presbyterians call "Holy Communion". (Luke 22:14 - 23) He
took bread and wine, broke the bread, and said of it: "This cup that is
poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
We believe that Jesus was saying that sharing in these
actions of eating and drinking are ways of remembering him, and that by sharing
in these actions, we are proclaiming our belief in the teachings and
life examples Jesus left for us.
Hari said it was interesting that Jesus used the common
stuff of life ---- bread and wine ---- as the means to strengthen our faith.
I agreed with Hari. I said that as we eat and drink,
in the context of the church community and the preaching of the Word of God, we
believe we are nourished in our faith because it reinforces the benefits of
Christ's death on our behalf.
But, now I had to tell Hari about a very important basis of
our faith, but one that is hard for some people to grasp. That is, the
presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told us that although he would no
longer be with us physically as our teacher, he would leave us with the Holy
Spirit as a guide in our mortal lives.
Hari said he could relate to this need for a moral
guide. For him it was the Koran. I said we do use the Bible for
this purpose, but we usually need some help in the specific dilemmas of daily
life. While we exercise free will and can reject the Holy Spirit, it is always
there to guide us.
So, said Hari, in some sense Jesus Christ is thought to be
present in your service of Holy Communion. I agreed with Hari, that our
Communion is a "spiritual" eating and drinking that we receive
through trust in Christ's promises and actions. As we do this we find
that our faith is nourished.
I continued ---- "So, Holy Communion is much more than
a mere "remembering," simply recalling some distant historical
event. Eating and drinking in the covenant community is a joyful action,
full of praise and thanksgiving. I asked Hari, "Can you imagine any
more wonderful event than believing we are receiving the benefits of salvation
provided by Jesus Christ in visible, tangible ways? We are now properly
sorry for our sins, for all our offenses against God."
After the worship service, one of my daughters said to Hari,
"As we ate and drank in the Holy Communion, we were acknowledging the
amazing love of God in Christ. We were committing ourselves to live as
Christ's servants and disciples, serving him and others according to the will
of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit within us and among us in the church,"
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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some spiritual growth for you
this Spring.
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