Not Quite Finished

Today in our Sunday morning bible study class, we were digging into Mark 7 where Jesus rakes the Pharisees over the coals for putting their cultural traditions above those of God’s intended purposes. One of the pastors also taught on this from the pulpit today. The Pharisees  took what God had given them in His original commands, dictates, and laws, and reworked them to make them more beneficial to their worldly lives. As we unpacked that passage in class there were a lot of interesting thoughts and reflections brought forward. We honestly needed about three times as much time to thoroughly hash through it all. It certainly brought up a lot of questions and thoughts in my own mind and heart.

It didn’t take long, like maybe the first two minutes, before I began thinking about how we, as the church, have our own traditions that have been refined over a couple of thousand years. And since the church as a whole body, with untold numbers of denominations and offshoots of denominations, each have developed our own traditions and customs, I began to wonder how many of those would Christ be pleased with today. Even as I type these words, my mind is racing with musings about our individual forms of collective worship. Catholics versus Baptists, Presbyterians versus Episcopalians, or Assemblies of God vs Lutherans, all with their own statements of faith, orders of service, forms of worship, each just enough different from the others to often create a barrier between them.

And that doesn’t even take into consideration culture. Episcopalians in Africa worship way different, and often have differing beliefs, than those in America or Europe. While sitting on tree-limb benches in southern Sudan or Tanzania, the experience of worship there was nothing like what we experience in Florida – even though we are in the same denomination. While attending a baptism service in the Middle East we witnessed a profoundly different service than we had ever encountered anywhere else. I’m pretty sure that if middle easterners witnessed a Sunday morning baptism in a Baptist church in America they would be sadly disappointed and confused.

Today, as we participated in our church’s rendition of the Lord’s Supper, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable. I began to wonder if this was what Christ intended when he sat down with his disciples for the Passover meal. In Matthew and Mark it says, “As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.”. Luke and Paul add the words, “when you gather together do this to remember me”. So the question came to my mind, Did Christ intend this special time to be intimate around a table of believers or have we as the church turned this into a “tradition” for the whole body? The initial experience was a collective one – they shared the wine and bread. They didn’t have it picked up at the door in plastic containers with a piece of processed wafer and some juice. And then without even looking at each other we ate and drank as were directed. For the sake of time and finances are we becoming blasé about an important celebration?

So how could we as a large body return to a more intimate celebration of our savior’s incredible sacrifice? Perhaps in our Sunday morning bible study groups where we know each other on a deeper level? Have someone in the class bake a loaf of bread and someone else bring the representation of the blood. Having this intimacy while studying the word together as a small group could add a new richness to our relationship with Him and with others. And home groups are always a perfect place to experience this type of fellowship. I’m sure there may be other ways that I haven’t pondered – I’m just reflecting on the great class and sermon from today’s gathering of believers. 

I understand that it’s very challenging for a large fellowship’s leadership to bring this type of intimacy into the body. Yet as I was listening to the pastor, and to our class, today, I couldn’t help but be convicted of how we seem to have lost some of what I think Christ intended in that upper room celebration of the Passover. I recognize that my thoughts would certainly bring some scrutiny and opposition. I’m just glad that my thoughts are from my heart and out of a desire to walk closer to my Master.