So today is communion Sunday. When I
was a kid I always looked forward to those Sundays because my mom or grandma
made the bread and we kids got to eat it after church! Because none of it is
ever to be thrown away or go to waste.
Why
do we take communion?
We take it to remember Jesus’
teaching and that he died for our sins.
When my daughter Hannah was little, we would
come to pray at the rail after taking communion and we’d remind her why we were
there. One day, she was about 5 and her dad and I both leaned in to talk to her
about it at the same time and she put
her hands up to stop us and said, “I know, I know, I have to thank God for my
sins.”
We didn’t correct her, but left her
alone and as I thought about her words, I thought it was a better way to think
about why we take communion.
So
that leads us to, what are sins?
When we think about sins we think
about the biggies like Murder, stealing, you know, the 10 commandments. But
Jesus taught us there were a few others, like not helping those in need, not
treating others like we want to be treated, lying, wanting what others have, not
spending time with God in prayer or study and one that most of us do many times
a day, take the Lord’s name in vain.
It’s not fun to think about our
sins, and it’s not to remind ourselves that we aren’t as good as we think we
are. But this is where Hannah’s words “thank God for my sins” got me thinking. When
we thank God, it’s usually for the good things that happen to us. But if we had
to thank God for our sins, we have to really think about them and hopefully
learn from our mistakes and that will help us try not to do it again. Maybe
what we are really saying is thanking him for a lesson we learned.
I, like several others out there
belong to a group called Camino and at one Camino weekend I attended, the
pastor giving us communion told us if we had only a few sins to think about, we
only needed to take a small piece of bread, but if we had a lot, then we might
need a bigger piece of bread. There are
some times; I think I should just take the whole loaf!
So today while you are waiting for
your turn to take communion, I want you to thank God for your sins and decide
if you need a little piece or a big piece of bread to help you learn from your
mistakes. Take the time after to pray at the rail and really Thank God for all
you have and all you want to change.
Let’s pray
Dear God, thank you for giving us a a
time to remember Jesus and a chance to learn from our mistakes. Help us to do a
better job of following your teachings. Amen
