1 Corinthians 11:26

For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes.

One of the things I love about Christ Church Anglican is that we partake of the Lord’s Supper every week, and recite a liturgy reminder recalling aloud the event on which our existence is based.

The Eucharist, as it is called in some traditions—a word that means thanksgiving, is a memorial filled with hope. As one of my absolute favorite teachers, Luke Timothy Johnson, says: The early Christians were not celebrating a dead guy of the past, but a powerful presence NOW.

We usually need more reminding than we need instructing. And it is beyond good to be reminded, at bare minimum weekly, what…WHO we are founded upon. The Christian Church was birthed from the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

And we remind ourselves of this within the great hope that we will someday see him face to face, as real as we see each other today. We obey Jesus by participating in this symbolic meal with other believers until we meet him in person physically.

That’s gonna be so awesome.

It’s going to swallow up all the crap in this life which we give way too much attention and stress to. Remember, stress is kind of like praying for what you don’t want. So maybe try thinking more about meeting Jesus, or the fact that he is alive, than about political ridiculosity and people not behaving the way you want them to.

We are going to see Jesus someday.

And in the new heavens and new earth, what if, with a smile of gentleness, one of his questions is, “So what did you spend most of your time thinking about while on old earth?”