Communion Service
David Mairs · Communion Service
5 January 2025
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/communion-service

[0:00] Let's just take a moment to pray again together.
[0:05] Heavenly Father, as we step into this new year, we thank you for your faithfulness, your love for us, and your grace that has been shown in so many different ways.
[0:14] We ask that you would open our hearts to hear from you this morning.
[0:18] Help us to reflect deeply on the significance of communion and what it means for our relationship with you.
[0:26] May this time be a meaningful time for us, a significant time for us.
[0:31] And we ask this in Jesus' name.
[0:33] Amen.
[0:34] Over the Christmas period, I've been reflecting a little bit about the importance of traditions.
[0:41] And if you look up the word tradition, it tends to be explained as a practice or a belief, a custom, a ritual that's passed down from one generation to the next.
[0:51] Something that has existed for a long time and often provides a sense of continuity, of purpose, a sense of belonging.
[1:02] And for me, there are certain traditions that I've grown up with, especially at this time of year, that are really meaningful and I love to engage in them.
[1:13] In the first service, I talked about the trimming of the tree and afterwards, someone came up and asked me, what on earth were you talking about?
[1:19] So I have to explain what trimming the tree is.
[1:20] Decorating a tree, it's not cutting it and making it look nice.
[1:24] It's actually just a term that we've grown up with in our family.
[1:29] We'll not disclose exactly when it happens, but it does happen in the month of December.
[1:34] And as a family over the years, we've always set aside an evening to decorate the tree, put on some Christmas music, light a real fire, always love that, maybe have a little mulled wine and just go about it.
[1:48] But you guys will identify with what I'm going to share now, which is my role is bringing a ridiculous number of boxes, a ridiculous number of boxes out of the loft.
[1:57] And then I have to put the tree up and sort out the lights, which is always a challenge.
[2:02] Will the lights work this year?
[2:04] And once that job is done, then I can relax a little bit and the rest of the family would get involved in putting up the deckies on the tree.
[2:13] That's really changed over the years for us.
[2:16] Traditions tend to do that.
[2:17] They can change as circumstances change.
[2:20] One thing that hasn't changed is I still put up one of the first decorations that goes on the tree, which is one that I got when I was a baby in a car, this little paper decoration.
[2:31] I'm not into photo, but there is one of me hanging it on the tree as I do every year.
[2:36] It's over 60 years old, and it's still just lasting the pace.
[2:40] Everybody joins in, and we chat, and we laugh, and we just enjoy that moment.
[2:45] But as our kids have grown up and left home, I remember when Emily was actually at university, We did the evening and we actually took a photo of us all there, me holding a hat with nobody underneath it.
[2:55] That was meant to be Emily and she took great offence at that, that she wasn't part of the tradition that year.
[3:02] But it's kind of transferred now.
[3:03] The kids are away from home and now we have our grandchildren that come.
[3:07] And one of the ways that we've tried to make the tradition a wee bit different is we got them all their own individual decoration with their name on it and they get set aside and then they come and they put those on the tree.
[3:18] And we have decided this year we did a sleepover with some of them.
[3:22] And we had a movie and Christmas movie, popcorn, hot chocolate, marshmallows, all the rest of it.
[3:29] And just really enjoyed spending time doing something that we've done for many years.
[3:35] And then, of course, there's Christmas Day.
[3:36] I'm not sure what your Christmas Day looks like.
[3:38] But for us, we love to celebrate Christ's birth by just getting family together, exchanging gifts.
[3:44] We do a Secret Santa.
[3:45] There's no secrets in it at all.
[3:47] I don't know if any of you managed to crack that and actually have it as a secret.
[3:52] But there has to be traditional dinner.
[3:54] Turkey, ham, stuffing, Brussels.
[3:57] We do red cabbage, which I know some people just can't have on their plate.
[4:01] Roasties, all the rest.
[4:03] And we just enjoy spending time together as family.
[4:07] And then on Boxing Day, we have another interesting tradition, which goes back actually over 70 years longer than I've been on this earth.
[4:14] And it started with what we call the Hegarty and Wallace connection, a friendship between two friends and their parents, which transformed into what we now call the Merge Gibson tradition.
[4:28] And they're just special times of getting to spend time with people we know, we love.
[4:33] And that sense of familiarity, of acceptance, of comfort, of joy that's linked in with these particular occasions is just really meaningful and really enjoyable.
[4:43] And we just love to engage in those.
[4:46] And I kind of wonder this morning as I'm chatting about some of the traditions that I enjoy, what you would classify as a Christmas or New Year tradition that you feel the same about, that evokes the same sort of emotions of comfort and joy and pleasure.
[5:02] Yet the reality, if we're honest, is that not everyone has the same experience or the desire to form and keep a tradition like the ones I've described.
[5:11] I know people who would run a mile from family gatherings because of how it makes them feel and the memories that they invoke.
[5:20] And I've often said to folks when I'm chatting to them, when we talk about family, every family has its own challenges.
[5:26] And if we're honest, we're all a little bit dysfunctional in some way.
[5:31] So for some traditions can be more complex and difficult than others.
[5:37] But some traditions are really good and really helpful.
[5:41] in our Ephesians series that we're going back to next week we've been considering really how much God loves us and the extent to which he went to demonstrate that love by sending his own son Jesus into this world and in fact I remember the morning when Gilbert was chatting about this and he was talking about the world being created as a place for us to be and it was kind of like wow that's just isn't that just amazing just what God has done for us even the creation of the world
[6:09] and I was really challenged about a social media post that I saw a while ago and it was by a guy called Rick Warren which many I'm sure know the name and he was talking to a number of people and he was sharing in this social media post about the challenge that some people have in their walk with God in their everyday kind of relationship with the Lord and what he shared was that people would come to him and they would say things like I've got a real problem with my relationship with God.
[6:38] I just don't think I love him enough.
[6:42] And I thought his response to that particular, I suppose, expression was just brilliant.
[6:49] He said, I think your problem is that you do not understand how much God loves you.
[6:56] He kind of flipped it.
[6:58] Let me repeat that.
[6:59] Your problem is not that you do not understand how much God loves you.
[7:03] I was just fascinated by that response because I think we can all, if we're being honest, relate to that sense of not feeling good enough, not feeling worthy enough, feeling we have to prove in some way to God that we're acceptable, that we've got it together.
[7:25] And when we don't have it together, we really, really struggle.
[7:29] But he goes on to say this, if you understood how much God loved you, you couldn't help but love him in return.
[7:39] And I just thought that hits the nail on the head for me.
[7:42] How well do we understand how much God loves us?
[7:47] And I suppose that's why Paul writes in Ephesians 3 is that we being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
[8:08] It's an interesting phrase that, to know this love that surpasses knowledge, to know something that surpasses the ability to know, that we would be filled with the fullness of God.
[8:22] And I suppose this morning as we come to communion, my heart's desire is that we individually and together, collectively can just grasp afresh how much God loves us.
[8:35] I think it's why communion is such an important event that we practice together as a church family and in many ways it could be referred to as a wonderful and deeply meaningful tradition.
[8:47] It's so important that we join together and share communion because it's the way Jesus has asked us to remember him and it's been practiced since he first established that we read about it in Luke 22 where Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to the disciples saying, this is my body given for you.
[9:08] Do this in remembrance of me.
[9:10] In the same way after the supper he took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant, the new relationship that I have with you in my blood which is poured out for you.
[9:20] And these words form the foundation of the practice of communion as we understand it, reminding us of Christ's body given up for us, of his blood shed for us to establish this new relationship that we can have with God based on what he has done for us and not on what we can think we can do for him to justify his love for us.
[9:45] The incredible reality for each one of us is that God offers us a free gift of salvation.
[9:51] And we are saved from the penalty of sin through the death of Jesus on the cross.
[9:57] And there's nothing, nothing that we need to do except repent and believe.
[10:03] And if you're here this morning and you're searching to understand more about the Christian faith, more about Jesus, sometimes we do use words that we find in the Bible, words like repent, which really means having a change of heart and mind that involves turning away from the journey we've been on.
[10:21] I suppose we talk about turning away from sin, from disobedience of God, and turning towards God, turning towards his forgiveness by believing in who he is and what he says.
[10:34] I think it's remarkable that each one of us can so easily lose sight of this truth.
[10:42] And we struggle to grasp the reality of God's great love for us.
[10:50] And what he was prepared to do to have a restored relationship with us.
[10:56] And so we need regular moments like this.
[10:59] Regular moments where we can reorientate our thinking.
[11:02] Where we can get back on track in terms of being reminded of God's love for us.
[11:06] Of Jesus' willingness to come and die for us.
[11:10] And also they ask the question, what should our response be as we seek to follow him each and every day of our lives?
[11:16] Whether that's a good day or a challenging, difficult day.
[11:21] So communion becomes this tangible reminder, this good tradition that helps us to have a fresh understanding of the immense love of God for us.
[11:33] And the sacrifice that Jesus was willing to make for each one of us.
[11:38] In many ways, it tries to focus our hearts to look afresh at the cross and to face up to the reality of the price that had to be paid so that we could know forgiveness for our sins.
[11:53] And Jesus wants us not just to remember him, but to proclaim this truth, this death.
[11:59] He wants us to officially and publicly announce the fact that he has died for our sins.
[12:08] and that we're to keep remembering him until he comes back again.
[12:13] In Corinthians, Paul reiterates this for whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[12:23] By participating in this act of communion that we'll be doing this morning, we keep the truth of Christ's sacrifice central in our lives and faith, but it's temporal.
[12:34] It's only until he comes.
[12:36] At some point, this will end.
[12:39] We will feast in heaven.
[12:42] But this, what we're going to do this morning, will stop when he returns.
[12:49] But as well as proclaiming Christ's death, we're also to look forward to his promised return.
[12:55] I like that.
[12:56] It's not always about looking backwards and reminding ourselves.
[13:00] It's also about looking forwards.
[13:02] And can I suggest that we savor every opportunity we have to partake in communion.
[13:10] Because another significant factor that we need to think about and impact is sharing of communion unites us as a church family.
[13:19] We declare that we are one body together because we share in this remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice together.
[13:28] We cannot help but realize that we, each one of us, are sinful people.
[13:34] Some of us know the forgiveness God offers and we've accepted that but we're all sinful people but we all have the opportunity to be part of God's family and when we make that commitment when we repent and we believe
[13:48] we become his sons and his daughters and surely this truth should foster amongst us a spirit of unity and love which really is different I want you to look at the person beside you it's okay you can do it look at the person in front of you even be uncomfortable and look at the person behind you
[14:17] in first service I caught a couple giving each other a wee wink
[14:23] and I thought that's maybe a traditional start with Vivian when we're having communion a wee wink
[14:30] and the reason I want you to do this is because I want you to reflect on the reality that Jesus died for the people you've just looked at.
[14:40] And the love that he has for you is the same love that he has for the person you're sitting beside, the person in front of you, the person behind you.
[14:52] Jesus died for the world.
[14:55] He died for everyone, for each one of us.
[14:59] but the significance of us meeting together to share communion i think paul highlights this again in corinthians where he says because there is one loaf when they took communion it was a piece of bread one piece of bread and he broke it up we who are many are one body for we all shared one loaf there's great symbolism in the breaking of bread and the sharing of bread now we don't make a big, big loaf to share amongst all of us here.
[15:26] But the symbolism is that we're going to share bread together.
[15:30] But because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body is the purpose.
[15:36] We're together.
[15:39] We're children of God.
[15:40] We're sons and daughters of God.
[15:42] So as the new year begins, I think this is one of the traditions within church that really does help us to remember the foundation of our faith, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins made for each one of us.
[16:02] Take a moment just to think about his broken body and shed blood, to think about how that sacrifice enabled you to be reconciled to God, enabled you to experience a living hope and eternal life.
[16:20] I think the new year offers us a really good opportunity to renew that sense of gratitude and commitment to live in light of what Jesus has done for us.
[16:33] So can I ask you this question?
[16:34] How can we carry the remembrance of Christ's sacrifice into our daily life this year?
[16:42] That it's not just about these moments in this service, but what we do overflows into our everyday life.
[16:52] Because communion is not just about remembering, it's not just about proclaiming, it's not just about sharing together.
[17:00] It's also about examining ourselves, examining our hearts.
[17:04] And Paul reminds us that we should approach the Lord's table with a sense of reverence and self-awareness that when we take the bread and wine, we think about what we're doing and why we're doing it.
[17:17] So as we enter this new year, I thought it would be good to ask a few challenging questions, let's put it like that, to get us to think about this moment.
[17:29] And so the first one that you can see, they're up on the screen behind me, are there areas of unrepentant sin that we are trying to hide from everyone around us?
[17:36] And despite knowing that God sees us, we still choose to sin?
[17:41] I thought I'd get the easy one in first.
[17:45] Or do we need to reconcile with someone we have offended or has offended us?
[17:52] You know, if we're going to really experience the presence of God and the impact he wants these moments to have with us, we need to be in a right relationship with him and we need to be in a right relationship with other people.
[18:09] and then are we fully surrendering our life to God's will or are there areas of our life we want to keep control over because Jesus wants to be Lord of all our life not just the bits we're comfortable with he wants us to depend on him completely for everything and this process of self-examination isn't about making us feel bad about ourselves or feel a sense of being condemned It's all about renewal.
[18:40] It's recognizing that Jesus is making all things new, including us.
[18:47] It's about knocking off those rough edges, so to speak.
[18:51] So can I encourage you, as I encourage myself, to engage with thinking through the impact of the questions that we're asking and also of what we're going to do together.
[19:04] Can I encourage you to practice the importance of confession of sin?
[19:10] Keeping a short account with God.
[19:12] When we do something wrong, recognizing it and asking God to forgive us.
[19:17] Seeking that forgiveness.
[19:19] Reminding ourselves that as the word says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
[19:23] So that kind of puts us all in the same boat.
[19:25] We're all there.
[19:29] But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin.
[19:36] But not just forgive, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[19:42] And I think that's so important.
[19:45] That we recognize when we confess sin, we also receive forgiveness and cleansing.
[19:51] How often do we struggle to move past something that we've done that we know was wrong?
[19:57] And we may ask God to forgive us, but we don't actually enter into the reality of that forgiveness and we don't actually believe that we've been cleansed from it, that the slate's wiped clean as far as the east and from the west so far has he removed our sins from us.
[20:15] And then when we have done that, we ask him to keep that promise.
[20:20] We trust in his promises.
[20:23] We accept and believe that God is faithful.
[20:28] that he keeps his word and what he says is true.
[20:33] Some more questions to reflect on and to help us examine ourselves.
[20:39] What is one area of your life that you need to surrender to God in this new year?
[20:45] That's a good one to think about, isn't it?
[20:48] Or how can we contribute to greater unity and love within our church family this year?
[20:55] How can we make a watching world see how we interact with each other in a way that makes them stop, ponder, and question, what's different about these people?
[21:06] What do they have that I don't have?
[21:08] Why do they interact the way they interact?
[21:12] They're challenging questions, but they're important that we ask these things, especially as we come to participate in communion.
[21:20] So before we do that, I'm going to leave you some time to reflect and to have a little conversation with God yourself, just to pray, and maybe just to think about some of those questions and how you would respond to God, what you'd say to him, what you'd like to say to him, particularly as his spirit works in your heart and your life now,
[21:47] because the spirit of God indwells each one of us, and as he indwells each one of us, if we're open to him, he's talking to us.
[21:57] He's making us think.
[21:59] We're maybe remembering things and situations and we're maybe just thankful or we're maybe even a bit regretful of maybe things we've said and done.
[22:10] And now is the time just to come before God and just be open to ask him to forgive, to accept that forgiveness and realize you've been cleansed and then to participate,
[22:26] knowing that you're in the right place with God as you do that.
[22:31] This is a time to ask God to forgive, to cleanse and to renew.
[22:38] The band is going to come shortly and lead us in another song and after we've finished that song, I'll come back and pray for the bread and that'll be served and then I'll pray for the wine and that'll be served and I'll explain how we do that for those who are visiting with us.
[22:55] But let's just pause now.
[22:59] Let's talk to God.
[23:02] You can close your eyes.
[23:03] You can keep them open.
[23:04] You can bow your head.
[23:05] You can keep it up.
[23:08] But just engage with God in this moment because this is a special time.
[23:15] Let's take it seriously and engage with our Father God.