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Communion
Every Christian tradition has to address the same question about the Lord’s Supper: what exactly is happening? Understanding the views and the Scriptures that support the various positions can only deepen a person’s experience of the Lord’s Supper. Let’s consider the views of Rome, Zwingli, and Calvin.
We create sayings to remind ourselves about things we recognize as important:
“Keep the main thing, the main thing”
“First things first”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff”
Each of these slogans helps us remember the importance of prioritizing our priorities. And they highlight the reality that often other things distract us from what we believe should be central.
The church is not immune to this. I’ve seen Christians become obsessed with ‘biblical’ diets, numerology, church growth, the end times, particular forms of worship, home-schooling, social justice, speaking in tongues, and not speaking in tongues. In each case, a secondary issue became an all-consuming issue. In some cases, a good thing became a bad thing because it replaced the best thing. At times, I despaired that Christians seemed to get excited about almost anything other than the gospel!
Today, there is a trend to make the gospel a priority. But like all trends, this one will likely pass. When it does, we will still have God’s appointed means for keeping the gospel front and centre in our lives: The Lord’s Supper. Let me explain three ways that the Lord’s Supper can help us remember to keep our focus on the gospel.
