Tag: Body of Christ

Communion 6-11-11


A couple of months ago, a new monument was opened in Washington DC . It was the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. The sculpture you see is in the memorial centre, and it is the work of a Chinese artist, who comes from Changsha in Hunan – the same town Mao Zedong spent his early days in. Martin Luther King Jr, as most of us know, was a church minister who was better known as a civil rights leader. Other than his “I have a dream” speech, another speech I like is about how people should seek to unite as much as possible, to always seek common ground. An extract of this speech reads like this:

… all life is interrelated, … somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

I have no doubt Dr King’s aspiration for people to work together, was borne out of his knowledge of our God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit as members of our triune God, are in a relationship where each member shares a common purpose with the other two. We are created in the image of God so we too, are to have a relational character which we exercise by sharing a common purpose. We are here every Sunday, to build each other up. Our lives are inter-related and we share mutuality and a common destiny. When one hurts all ought to hurt. When one rejoices, all ought rejoice.  When you are blessed, I am blessed.

Sometimes we hear the saying, “it doesn’t matter what everyone else in church does – we are here to worship God”. That may be true but only in part, and quite often a partial truth can be the worst kind of deception. We do not worship God in isolation. We are in a community of faith – we are one body. What one does or does not do, affects everyone else. We watch out for each other, we come here for each other.  Our plans and activities are always about the wider community of faith, not about us as individuals or even families or groups of individuals. When someone is not here, everyone else should be affected. If we aren’t affected by each other’s absence or pain, I guess we haven’t quite become one body yet. It isn’t just about whether something is good for my personal wellbeing and development or my family relations it is also about whether it is good for the community of faith and whether my plans and activities would benefit this community.

Thus we are not called to remember the holy sacrament just so each of us can individually remember the Lord’s death for us. Often in a communion exhortation, we read 1 Corinthians 11:24 & 25 to remember that it was the Lord’s command for us to commemorate His death that we eat the bread and the cup. The context of this passage however, is one where Paul chastised the believers in Corinth because each person was doing his own thing. It is the body of Christ which is in focus, and we are asked not just to do things which benefit our own walk with the Lord, but also to build each other up.

So this morning as we hold the bread and drink from the cup, can I encourage all of us to consider this fellowship of believers, as one body to whom we are accountable. As a body then let us each the bread together in remembering the death and suffering of our Lord Jesus. (pause). Let us now also drink from the cup together, as a body in common. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, when your Son was on earth, He prayed that all who believed in Him may be one, just as You and Your Son were one. Help us this morning as One Body, to come before You as Our Lord and God. Teach us to love and build each other up. Teach us to think as one, beyond just as individuals or even groups of individuals. Help us to be like you God, and be one. Amen.

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Is Mutuality Unreasonable?


I recently had a conversation which reminded me how challenging life can be for anyone starting out on a new phase in his journey. A new migrant was relating to me how one of his children miss their previous home, and how that child misses the parents’ stations in society. I offered some words of comfort and encouragement but I suspect what was much more needed was simply a listening ear.

Being present, being available was almost as useful if not more useful, than any practical advice I may have had to offer.

This morning we had an in-house sermon from a leader, who gave a warm, touching and challenging message. I believe the message spoke to many hearts and the experience of being in the congregation among whom the message clearly resonated, was palpable although obviously intangible. If only more members were present to listen not just audibly but also with the heart.

Being present amongst the congregation in that sense, was priceless.

I have been brought up to be present in church at every Sunday. In my past life I often missed church on Sunday when I travelled for work, or I was simply too engrossed with the things of this world to think about being there as a member of the community of faith. That was something I regretted badly and while I love to use my Sundays to enjoy the many things this beautiful country has to offer, my upbringing sees me in church on almost every Sunday, safe for the once or twice a year when we are away for one reason or another, usually because we are out of town during a holiday season.

It feels great when I turn up on Sunday morning and see many faces – familiar as well as new ones – being in church. Being present in itself, can be an encouragement to others. It can build others up. I feel deflated when I notice many not there. I tell myself I am in church to worship God but I am also there as a member of the community of faith, which doesnt quite work if we all dont have a mutual commitment to each other as members of that community, that it will be our priority to be there.

In this busy and stressful world we live in, there will always be good reasons to take time off to de-stress and re-charge. If we cant do that however, by coming to the Lord and leave our cares with Him and wait on Him for our souls to be refreshed and revived, we are shortchanging ourselves. If we cant be encouraged by others’ presence and mutual commitment to the body, there is work to be done in refining our understanding and commitment to this body.

Sometimes we absolutely need to be away. Sometimes in a place like Australia when summer sees a lot of people travelling, perhaps on a de facto basis that commitment becomes released and the expectations may then have to be recalibrated. Maybe I am old schooled but I would have thought that is perhaps the only time we can safely be away and where our mutual commitments and obligations to the body may be parked aside, because our presence is no longer expected, where we can expect our fellow sojourners can be refreshed and revived in their travels also.

Maybe I need to calibrate my old schooled expectations to take into account the dynamism and subjectivity of each person or families’ circumstances. Maybe the body of Christ as a whole also need to calibrate that expectation as given the countless permutations of perceptions of what is important and what is beneficial in each person or family’s lives, there can no longer be the expectation that we will all be there on Sunday to renew our relationships and covenants with each other.

Maybe that mutuality is no longer reasonable.