Daily Devotional
Today is the last day I will be sending out Life Together on a regular basis for the next three months. I begin a Sabbatical on Monday. From time to time I will try to send a devotional as I travel, but it will not be on a regular basis. During my Sabbatical I will be thinking about the Lord’s Supper, what it has meant to the church and how it continues to be a central part of our lives as believers in the 21st century. If you have interest in doing a little reading, I’d recommend a book by Ernest Bartels entitled Take Eat, Take Drink. It can be purchased from Amazon or if you are in our church, I have some copies available in the office. It will present a historical look at this meal down through the centuries and give a foundation for understanding this meal over the years.
I’m excited for our congregation. Throughout the summer a number of different scholars and preachers will be preaching on Sunday and leading an adult bible study. Each will look at the Lord’s Supper from a different vantage point. The Associate General Minister and Vice President for the General Church, Todd Adams, will be our first guest. He will talk about the ways the Lord’s Supper leads the church in her mission to the world. That will be followed by the curator at Cane Ridge to talk about history, a pastor and musician to talk about the music used at the table, a couple of seminary professors to talk about theology and how the table points us to God’s future. We will also have a retired seminary president who will talk about spirituality and the table and conclude with a minister who serves with our General Church who will talk about children at the table. I’m hopefully the sermons from each of these ministers will be given to us in digital form so they can be put on our website at www.firstchristianbg.org
each week.
If you’d like to keep up with my travel journal I’ll be posting some notes at http://tableofmercy.blogspot.com
And please, start writing you story about communion, a remembrance of an event in church or elsewhere that seemed to be a moment of deep communion. You can send those stories to sharonrogers@firstchristianbg.org She will pass them along to our seminary student intern who will be working on them during the summer.
May God bless us all as we open ourselves to a summer of renew and refreshment, keeping us safe and drawing us closer God’s own heart.
