How many people do you have over your house for dinner? Or maybe lunch or brunch? How many weekly, monthly or annually? This isn’t to judge. I know we don’t have people over nearly as much as we should. And in our fast past and fast food lifestyle we can sometimes miss this. But when we do we invite people over its usually people who we know or people who we want to get to know. Having someone over to hang out and have a meal can be intentional for many of us. There is something about sharing a meal that can breakdown walls down and allows people to get to know each other. It is fun and it is relational. A connection happens many times when people share a meal together at their kitchen or family table.

When we take the bread and the juice we are sharing a meal together. This is what we call communion or the Lord’s Supper. In the Apostle Paul’s account of the Lord’s Supper he says,

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26

Also in the first century, people saw hospitality and sharing a meal together as an intimate bond. And for us today there really is no meal no more intimate that can connect us with God and with his people than the meal we are about to share in.

What God has done through Jesus’ body that was broken and his blood that was shed is has reconciled us or brought us into a right relationship with God and he has brought a people, his church together. We are the church, if we have placed our trust in Jesus. He has brought us the church together to share in this meal to remember and proclaim what Jesus has done for us. There is no greater bond and no greater meal that we can share.

Imagine if we didn’t go through the motions when we participate in communion. For those of us who put our trust in Jesus, he has broken down the barrier between us and God. What if we acted like that was the case? How would that change our approach to our relationship with God? He has also brought us together to break down the barriers that we may have with each other. Examine yourself and allow him to work in you so that we can become one as God is one.

If we acted as one people in a world that is divided, that would actually begin to change the world around us.

Thanks for reading!