Sun 9:30a Class; 10:30a Worship; 11:35a Communion
Bible Bites
Sunday Dinner With Christ
If there’s a place in the world where people gather, a place where God is admired and praised, this should be the place. If there’s a gathering where God who gives grace, generates joy, and provokes praise from the richly blessed, this should be such a gathering. And if there’s a gathering where a God is sought out by troubled souls, it should be this one in this place.
A day may come when we will fix our eyes on the strength of the enemy and the vast number of its legions, on the skill and ruthlessness of its commanders, and on the way such an enemy has swept the human race into hopelessness—but it will not be this day! For this day we have gathered to admire the Great God, to tell stories of him and learn of his faithfulness down through the ages, a faithfulness that stretches from one end of eternity to the other and expresses itself in Jesus, whom we know as the returning King in whom we have a living hope. And we will, this day, in the name of Christ, speak to our morbid fear with power, commanding it: Sit! and it will obey.
A day may come when—due to many disappointments, due to felt needs not provided for, due to pains long endured that make no sense, due to failure despite many brave attempts to accomplish something fine and good —we will resent God for not being there to make a visible difference, resenting his refusal to even explain his absence. That day may come, but it will not be this day! For this day we have gathered at his bidding, trusting in his strength, gathered to tell him that we are his companions wherever the war leads and however long it takes. And we will not turn back!
A day may come when life in this chaotic world persuades us that there’s no point to any of it, that believing in a final triumph and a happy ending is a story we tell ourselves because we don’t want to face the stubborn fact that nothing really changes, that we as individuals make no difference, but it will not be this day. For this day we will meet and Supper with Jesus. who, in that strong assuring way of his, will say to us again, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither be afraid. You believe in God, believe also in me.” And we will believe in him!
A day may come when the consumer spirit may so overwhelm Western culture that the entire religious world will want only what it wants. On that day, believers who have resisted the tide may grow weary with a Story about the Holy One and join the fickle religious world. But it will not be this day! For this day, we will speak only of the Worthy One as his generous grace, relentless love, and trust in us calls us to, “Tell them of me!” And those of us who speak and are convicted and chastened by the Christ of the Supper will vow to speak of Him.
A day may come when the sound of preaching that is good-natured and harmless, that is quite interesting and helpful, that is lecturing rather than preaching, that is filled with historical, cultural, and literary tidbits from Google and various places, that makes no demands, that creates no holy discontent; that day may swallow up countless congregations and the gospel may be silenced in the very places from which is should be ringing out— but it will not be this day, not for those who are blessed to be able to see the gospeling Christ beyond the steady stream of religious talk. To such people the living Christ will speak in that Suppering about adventure against the gods, against the powers, about war on behalf of a world that desperately needs light as it stumbles around in darkness. Such people will be blessed to take their gaze off themselves and look to Him, to Him and all he is and means, and they will see themselves as a living covenant God has made for all the nations of the world and for the millions of Lazaruses lying around their doors.
And aware of their own stubborn moral flaws, but fully aware that God knows about them and yet has called them to engage with Him in the work of blessing and rescue, they will gospel in all the ways that are open to them. God will see this and be pleased.
— Condensed by Tack Chumbley from longer article
