Come To Church With Me

This week I read Amrita's post and thought, "enough!" Then I read Louise's and thought, "enough!" Then I thought in general, enough. Enough of people being attacked and battling. Not that it will ever end, but maybe the enough is enough of me knowing and praying quickly as I stop by a blog. We are the church you know. Every one of us that gathers and claims Christ are at church. On a blog or in a living room. At work or at Starbucks (or Panera which is where Margie and I have church.) It's church when we're together.
There are times when I wish I could create a hybrid church. So many people I love who, for one reason or another, don't attend Metrosouth with me. I had a lot of years of my best friends and closest family all attending church together and going out for Sunday dinner afterward. What a sweet time that was. How blessed to have my little boys run across the aisle to sit with Aunt Pat. To have my mom take a crying baby to the nursery for me so I could worship. To have Kelly hold a very bad Mac for hours so he could be in the Christmas play. To see Louise and Arlene several times a week and to have them be a part of my life from the earliest moments.
Now life is different. Some of us still live in the same houses but God has called us to different houses of worship. Some of you I've never met and will never sit next to on a Sunday morning. Some of you I will again minister with when God decides it's time.
And some of you are Metroites.
But all of you, those in the list on the right and those who I know read quietly, you're my family. There is a higher order of friends when God has created us for one another. You are those people. So humor me because today, I want to go to church with you. I want us to pray for those people among us who we know are in a battle and those who I know about privately and those who haven't shared but hurt within.
Do you need healing of the heart, mind or body? Do you need forgiveness that you keep asking for but can't feel? Do you need financial salvation? Do you need God to save people you love before it's too late? Do you just need?
One of the most sacred times of all those church years was communion. A time to stop, and together, to remind ourselves who we belong to. To God. To one another. That common bond of Christ and his blood. Not a time for perfect people to sip wine and nibble a cracker. A time for imperfect struggling hurting loving people to accept the sacrifice that answers all the questions.
I don't care if you haven't stepped foot inside of a church in thirty years. I don't care if you just took communion with five hundred people last week. Come, take communion with us. To remember, to worship, to ask and to receive.
Get a bottle of water and a bread crust. It doesn't have to be fancy. But I'm inviting you, today. Now.
Will you come to church with me and share communion?

1 Corinthians 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

Communion
1. For you if you have received Christ as your savior, even if it was just this moment. Join us.
2. You will need a drink to represent the wine/blood of Christ. Any drink will do.
3. You will need bread or a cracker to represent the bread/body of Christ.
4. Read the scripture above. Out loud is great but it can be silent.
5. When you get to verse 24, take the "bread" and think about Christ giving his body for your sins so that you can be free to serve him. And think about the fact that you are a part of our body, the church. Thank him for his sacrifice and eat the bread.
6. Read verse 25. Think about the blood of Christ. But this time, it is not about death it is about life. Our life is in our own blood physically. Spiritually our life is in the blood of Christ. He supplies every need through himself so that every part of us can grow and be whole. Thank him for always covering your mistakes and your future with his blood, with life. Even when it feels like you are living in death, ask him to make you see that he gives life continuously to us. Thank him, then drink your "wine."

Lord, thank you for the gift of your son. Thank you for communion to help us to understand that you took death from us by dying for us. And you gave life to us in its place to wash over us even in our own destruction. Thank you for every person who shares their time with me through this blog. Bless them, heal them, guide them and meet their needs. Draw us together to minister to one another in whatever ways we can. This church loves you God. Thank you. In Jesus name. Amen.