Tag Archives: Restoring our Souls

The Lord’s Supper

Maundy Thursday

April 14, 2022

Scripture Reading:

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The Lord’s Supper seems a necessity of life for me as sharing in it with other Christ-followers whether in person or online restores my soul. We live in a complex and sometimes frightening world that Jesus, the Christ, left us to make new with his guidance and in his name. Indeed, he did not leave us alone surrounding us with the Holy Spirit in all phases of our lives and with comfort and awakenings as we interact with the Lord in our spiritual disciplines. Since COVID, my church has been using prepackaged communion cups filled with grape juice covered in foil with a small disk of bread on top covered with plastic. The challenge of accessing the elements in them is a new experience each Sunday but I have noticed that most people work hard to break the seals so they can once again eat the bread and drink the cup to remember who we serve and why.

Prayer: Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether

 Draw us in the Spirit’s tether,
  for when humbly in your name
 two or three are met together,
you are in the midst of them.
        Alleluia! Alleluia!
Touch we now your garment’s hem

As disciples used to gather
in the name of Christ to sup,
then with thanks to God the giver
break the bread and bless the cup,
        Alleluia! Alleluia!
so now bind our friendship up*.  Amen.

*First two verses of the Hymn Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether by Percy Dearmer see at https://charlesghose.com/2020/05/23/draw-us-in-the-spirits-tether/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Restoring our Souls, Restoring our World

Ordinary Time

February 9, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 1
Happy are those
   who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
   or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
   planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
   and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so,
   but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked will perish.

The wicked are hard to discern in our world today. They very craftily reshape reality to meet their ideology, through partial truths or outright lies. If they repeat it enough, people start to believe it. We definitely have a good supply of scoffers, at times leading to violence. The Psalmist above assures us that the wicked will perish in the judgment. My question is what do we do in the meantime?

While it feels like we are in dangerous times, and, indeed, I think we could travel down wrong paths long enough, as the nation of Israel did, that we might find ourselves in exile. I have a greater sense that we have entered a time in history when a major move toward the good is opening if we seek and take advantage of the opportunities that lie within it. God sent Jesus to challenge us to work together in oneness to actualize, make real throughout the world, God’s vision of all operating on the power of love and doing great and wonderful things, together. We all think we are not the wicked when to some degree as we foster divisiveness and self-righteousness, we all become wicked. Clearing out the cobwebs of our souls is a great place to start, fostered by a closer relationship with God.

Prayer: Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.

 Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm*! Amen.

*Fourth and fifth verses of Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by John Greenleaf Whittier  see at https://hymnary.org/text/dear_lord_and_father_of_mankind

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.