Having taken Holy Communion in both my own home church as well as at New Creation, I have come to realise that there is a fundamental difference between the two.
At New Creation, the Lord's Supper is when we call to remembrance the finished work of Jesus. It is all about Him, and none about us.
Here in the Methodist Church however, there is a section in the ritual where we are asked to examine ourselves and remember areas that we have "missed the mark" so as to confess them. This is because Paul's warning about "eating of the Lord's body in an unworthy manner" is interpreted to mean that we partake while there are still unconfessed sins in us, and end up bringing judgement upon ourselves.
Which brings me to the title of today's entry, which is the question "Who Does God Examine?"
Should it be us, or should it be the One that took our place?
Even in the Old Testament, when a Jew brought a lamb as a sin offering to the Lord, the priest would examine the lamb for spots and blemishes. The sinner is not examined, because it was obvious that he had sinned, hence the sin offering.
Yet here we are, today, being asked to examine ourselves???
I was at the Rock last week and ended up buying 5 DVDs. One of them is called Step into the Zone, which contains what Ps Prince preached at the Youth Concert held last year, a picture of which is shown on the right. You can order it at S$15 from the official website.
Here is an excerpt of that sermon that demonstrates clearly as to who God examines -- the offeror or the offering, the sinner or the lamb.
For many years as a Christian, I know the part that Jesus took my sin. But only in recent times have I come to realise that there was a divine exchange that took place at the cross, and the other part where Jesus gave me His righteousness.
Paul says in 2 Cor 5:21 that "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
As a result, I can stand boldly before a holy and righteous God, knowing that having punished all my sins in the body of another, He cannot punish the same sin twice.
I have also come to realise that we Methodists have been having a wrong interpretation of what Paul meant. "In an unworthy manner" means not discerning correctly that the Lord's Body is meant for our health and wholeness, and as a result, many are weak, sick and die prematurely. I have blogged about this before, so I will not go into futher detail here.
2 comments:
Hmmm, you know this post is interesting for me because I have not been exposed to Methodist and the other denominations before. I went from an AOG church to NCC. So that was about it for me.
I was previously a Roman Catholic so when you talked about the part where they examined their sins before partaking in communion... the sin consciousness and not Christ consciousness of it reminded me of the Catholic ritual.
Before communion in the Catholic Church, there is a prayer you recite to ask for God's forgiveness for your sins. There is silence before you recite it to meditate on all the wrong you did (and to soak in the guilt of it all IMHO)... The older folk even strike their bosom when they recite the prayer to show repentant and upset they are with themselves. The prayer is read in a very solemn and dour manner.
I can understand where the Catholics come from because Catholicism, no offence, is totally steeped in legalism and rituals. Their interpretation of grace is very different from Paul's definition of it. (Just like they believe Mary is ever virgin despite the scriptures making it clear that she had kids after Christ.)
Catholics dun believe that Christ's death is all that is needed for forgiveness... to believe otherwise is anathaema (ie to be hellbound in their defitintion)... there is a whole aspect of working out one's salvation through good deeds and confession to earn merits and a place in heaven. There are the sacraments and all.
But as Christians who base our faith on sola scriptura the deal is this - didn't Christ already obtain for us the pardon ONCE AND FOR ALL? By thinking we are still unforgiven and asking for pardon, we are not giving Him the glory no?
And why are we still pulling a long face when we should rejoice that we have been absolved of our sins on the cross?!
I say pull out the streamers and party poppers and shout to the LORD! =D We are free from the bondage of sin past, present and future. Hallelujah!
Amen sister!
Now that you mentioned it, this examining of oneself could very well have originated in the Catholic church. Martin Luther was a Catholic priest, so the Protestant denominations that were formed in the past five hundred years must have retained this liturgy in one form or another.
St. Andrew's Cathedral holds Holy Communion services every Tuesday morning from 8am to 9am. I accompanied my dad one particular morning and realised that they recited a very similar ritual. Then it dawned upon me that John Wesley was an Anglican priest, and his followers who started Methodism carried on with this tradition.
So looks like this blog entry is bound to ruffle quite a lot of feathers, but hey we should be celebrating the Lord's Supper and proclaiming His death because it declares victory to those in the spiritual realm.
Let there be music and dancing in the Father's house :-)
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