Good morning…

Last Tuesday night’s Women’s Lenten Communion Service was the loudest communion I have ever experienced. As I said by the end of the night, “I think God loves hearing our voices mingling around His communion table, feeling at home together in His home.” It was as if all one hundred and thirty-nine of us were reenacting a send off party for Jesus before he began his walk to the cross. Think about it. That is what the Last Supper truly was, and a final meal with friends is what communion truly commemorates. The first communion was Jesus’ farewell party. When he sat with his disciples around the dinner table one last time, Jesus knew he was leaving this world to go to the next. The disciples really had no concrete clue what God was miraculously up to. I would say the crowd of us together last Tuesday night in the Northside Church chapel actually had no concrete clue what God was miraculously up to either, but the LORD’s presence manifested itself among us in a joyfully chatty communion.

Many gathered in the pews do not attend Northside Methodist Church. There were Catholics and Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Baptists, those who attend non-denominational churches and those who are not regular church goers, so few in the room knew the “communion etiquette” for our church family. Communion in our community is usually quiet and reflective, laced in silence and prayer. A noisy communion is not our norm, but it was the gift God gave last Tuesday night.

I think our breaking bread together and sharing the cup of salvation felt much more like the feeding of the five thousand sitting on an open hillside, enjoying a miraculous picnic orchestrated by God to fill a multitude. Jesus spontaneously meeting the needs of a hungry crowd is recorded in Matthew 14:19b-20a (NIV): …looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied…

One fact to which only the communion servers were privy last Tuesday night is that after serving communion to every person in the crowed chapel, we had one last piece of bread to split between the two final servers. The LORD had broken into pieces the exact right number from the loaves of homemade bread. It felt like God had pre-planned the whole experience. He knew the name and the needs of each person who fed off His holy bread dipped in juice. We servers stood in awe as we experienced God filling the satisfied crowd, noisily, personally, unmistakably.

Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever, Psalm 100:4-5 (MSG),

Sue