More on the Breaking of Bread (communion)

Recently I found a great blog called "See the World Through His Heart" through a comment someone left. He's got some amazing revelation on grace and recently wrote about communion. If you have time, read what he wrote and think about in which manner you come to eat and drink of the Lord's body and blood...

I believe that as we recover the worthy manner in receiving Jesus' body and blood, people's eyes will be opened more and more to the reality of the true gospel, and to the precious gift of God's righteousness given to us only by grace through faith. We need to get back to the simplest and most powerful expressions of our faith and allow the Holy Spirit to build his kingdom with supernatural power through us, and stop relying on our intellectual arguments and meager efforts.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

It's time to boldly come to the Lord's table and eat and drink without fear or shame, our confidence is not in our flesh but in Christ's. Our joyful confidence will be a sign and testimony to everyone who sees us and may we never apologize to any legalist for our boldness before God.

Guilt-free Breaking of Bread Song

Ok, so this probably won't end up being the real title of the song...but I think that the breaking of bread (or communion, the Lord's supper) has been dominated by a seriously fearful and ashamed atmosphere for too long. If we come to the Lord's table still hanging our heads with thoughts of sin swirling around in our heads, then we are in danger of eating unworthily. We would not be accepting the body that was broken for us, we would be equating his precious blood with that of a lamb or bull which had only partial or temporary power to allow us entrance into God's presence without absolute confidence of his mercy.

Recently I wrote this song, it's one of those songs that came with minimal work and head scratching. The recording is bad but who cares? I think you can get the general idea from it. I didn't set out to write a guilt-free breaking of bread song, but as I sang it I was struck with how perfect it would be for that and I felt like getting a bunch of people together to have a feast in God's awesome presence, enjoying food, each other, and celebrating God's infinite mercy and goodness to us. How amazingly he demonstrated his love in humbly coming to earth in human form, living in this sinful world as we do yet not sinning, taking up the cause of the poor, sick, abandoned, and despised, and ultimately sacrificing everything to save us and restore us back to the Father and then conquering our every enemy in his resurrection to make us sons representing him here and doing the exciting work of ushering in his kingdom on earth.

I can't believe I used to be afraid to take communion! I thought I had to be righteous enough by my obedience to God and a variety of Christian rules and regulations. Now I'm free to celebrate Jesus when the bread and cup come my way! I'm not righteous because of my actions and if ever ever I break bread based on feeling in any way worthy based on my performance, then I'm eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. The bread and wine IS my righteousness, if I refuse the body and blood of Christ, then I'll never be worthy but eternally condemned. So here's the song, let me know what you think (had to put it in video format to upload to blogger.)
Here are the words:

Be quiet now
Rest your soul
Lay your head down
Let go of control

Nothing you've done
Or ever could do
Can make you right
Or disqualify you

Jesus
You've done everything that we could not do
Jesus
We believe in you

Remember his death
His body and blood
We have been cleansed
Redeemed by his blood

We remember we're free
From guilt, fear, and shame
Risen with him
Up from the grave

Should We Be Cross Centered?

There's an interesting discussion going on over at Dan's blog (Life on Wings), where Peter Day has posted a great piece called "Overturning the Tables of Legalism" about how much we should focus on the cross as believers. The argument on the cross-centered side seems to be that Paul was cross-centered and seemed to use 'the cross' as short-hand for the gospel message as a whole. There's also a quote saying we shouldn't move on from the Cross, however my thoughts on that are that since there is no Scripture saying the same, it doesn't have much authority. On the other side, some are arguing that the throne or empty tomb would be a better symbol for Christianity.

I was sitting playing a mindless computer game when a thought popped into my head. Maybe from God? I think so but you can judge for yourself. What popped into my head was the story of the Israelites in the wilderness with Moses, the time they all got bitten and poisened by serpents and God instructed Moses to raise up a bronze snake on a pole so the people could come and look at it and be healed. (Numbers 21:4-9) What did they do with this bronze snake on a pole afterward? Turns out they decided to worship it, turning it into an idol instead of worshipping the God who saved them... (see 2 Kings 18:4) And there's connection between this pole and Jesus in John 3 v. 14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

Now to be sure, Paul did sometimes refer to the cross as a kind of short-hand for the work of Christ, and so can we. But I think there can be a danger of turning 'the Cross' into some kind of entity, we can do exactly what the Israelites did with their snake pole--we can end up putting our focus on the means of salvation rather than the person who saved us. I talked about this in my previous post as well, " Not Clinging to the Cross". Yes, we should always remember the death of Jesus, as we do every time we break bread together, there's a right time and and right way to remember the work of Jesus on the cross. But we remember the cross in a way that is life-giving, partaking of the body and blood of Jesus, being renewed and healed by taking his eternal resurrection life into our bodies. The breaking of bread NEVER ministers shame, guilt, condemnation, death, fear, etc...but ALWAYS the life-giving power of God's loving grace.

Another argument is that we need to center our lives around the cross in order to remain humble, but this argument is rooted in the idea that the cross is a reminder of our sin. I'm very sorry to say this (and I've said it over and over) but IF THE CROSS REMINDS YOU OF YOUR SIN THEN YOU ARE DENYING THE VERY POWER OF THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS, THE WORK OF THE CROSS. Once again, take a look at Hebrews 10 (which I also wrote about a while back in my post called "Knowing God Under the New Covenant" The work of Jesus on the cross totally washes all our sin away forever and we are no longer even conscious of it! That's right, if God has forgotten it, so should we. To the extent we live aware of and focused on our sin, to that extent are we living in unbelief, not trusting that the sacrifice of Jesus was enough to put us in right standing before our Father.

And out of curiosity, I went to Bible Gateway and did a few searches (not including the Gospels) just to give a basic idea of what the New Testament church might be centered on. I only found 13 references to 'the cross'. I found 89 references for "gospel", 470 references for "Christ", 345 references for "Jesus" (there is probably some overlap for "Christ" and "Jesus"), and 66 references for "Spirit" (with a capital 's'). In a general way, I think this leads me to believe that we should live Jesus centered lives, not cross centered lives. I think that by over using the phrase 'the cross' without clarying and teaching what we mean by it (we do the same thing with many many other words such as 'gospel', 'grace', etc...), we are not helping people to understand these doctrines well but are deceiving them into thinking that knowing the right terminology means they have adequate understanding and are well-taught.


[ I think it would be good for me to say, not necessarily in relation to this topic in particular, that I also think women need to be looking into these things and are not only qualified as well as men to do this, but are encouraged by their Father in the Spirit to do it! I am publicly, for my sake and for the sake of any and all daughters of the Kingdom of Heaven, renouncing the doctrines of demons in the church today that are trying to suppress, control, manipulate, and destroy women(just as their leader did in the garden many many years ago) and I'm specifically referring to the idea that women are not able to discern and study Scripture and doctrine for themselves by the Spirit, without any man. And we are released from the curse of Genesis 3 sisters! So be free!!!]

Excited to Break Bread?!?!

First of all, I've decided to stop calling the breaking of bread 'communion', since it's not really Biblical and sounds religious. Second of all, I'm not sure you all know or remember the issues I was having with the breaking of bread a while back, so if you care feel free to have a look at some of my other posts on this topic to provide context. Here's the main one: Communion...Meaningless???

Well we listened to a great sermon that actually changed me whole perspective on the breaking of bread and made me excited to think about the implications of the whole thing having very real and significant meaning. Even more, it actually accomplishes something in the spiritual realm--it's not just a sentimental ritual. (The Awesome Annointing Over the Breaking of Bread, May 6th 2007 Rob Rufus City Church International Hong Kong)

So yesterday I was visiting a church and they broke bread at the end of the service in the typical church way; everyone came forward to get their little plastic cup and little piece of bread in a serious thoughtful manner after contemplating whether they were worthy based on whether they had any unconfessed sin coming between them and God or them and a brother/sister. Can anyone related to this? Does it sound familiar?

It all fell into place for me in a way it hadn't before. It was all wrong! Our sin doesn't come between us and our Father exactly because of the one we are remembering when we break bread. I remembered Hebrews 10 that tells us it was the Old Covenant sacrifices that remind us of sin, not the perfect once for all sacrifice of Jesus. I wanted to shout out a loud Whooo-HOOOOO because while we were being encouraged to judge ourselves and our worthiness according to our sin or lack of sin (or whether we had confessed our sin and asked for forgiveness) God was freshly reminding me that there is no judgement left for me! Every sin that I will ever commit has already been put on the body of Christ and broken forever, and his blood has been poured out and has taken it all completely away. This is what we should be remembering when we break bread. We should be recognizing the Lord's body, judging ourselves truly forgiven and new, perfect in obedience because we identify with the Lord's body and blood instead of our own flesh. To eat without recognizing the Lord's body for whatever reason is to eat in an unworthy manner.

And so with great joy I received my cup and my bread because the answer to all my problems didn't lie in the particular method we use, but in understanding what exactly we are supposed to be remembering...

"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: 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. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment." (1 Corinthians 11:23-34)

***I just want to note that I'm not trying to judge the church I happened to be visiting. They are doing what is normal and the only way I've ever known 'communion' to be done. Just sharing my personal journey...