Friends: Communion with Christ is an eternal, and also present, exchange.  See the column below.  Btw ... We are publishing the column on Sunday instead of Monday this week because - in case the eclipse or Purdue’s presence in the Final Four creates a cosmic singularity that shuts down communications or opens the rapture portal or whatever - this message needs to be out there.  Enjoy the  sky show, Go Boilers, and have a great week! Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #908

April 9, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

This Exchange Doesn’t Change – ‘He is Here’

By Bob Walters

“He's not dead, He’s here.  He came back and he said, ‘I am with you until the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:20), John Chapman Samples, Easter Communion, 2024

Our treasured friend and retired minister John Samples delivered this communion meditation Easter Sunday at our East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis. His words are trimmed for length, but this eternal message defies boundaries.  John is 93.  Consider his words …

“It is a time of communion ... community, union.  Communion.

“A lot has changed in the Lord’s Supper, the communion, the breaking of bread, through the years. And I’m old enough that I’ve seen a lot of those changes.   For instance, my grandfather, Logan Chapman, in rural Kentucky in the late 1800’s, had an acre vineyard and provided seedlings and clippings for other people in the area who wanted to have grape vines growing in their yard.  He was very generous about that. But he also from his personal grapes of wine provided the communion element for the blood of Christ in local churches.

“Once, on a group mission trip in a church in another country, their form of communion was a large brass cup that was passed among the people, the cup carefully wiped by servants after each person drank from it. But one of those in our group refused to take communion because they were just sure there would be a disease or bacteria of some kind on the rim.  Someone else in our group was quick to remind that what was in the cup was strong enough to kill any bacteria … and it was.  It was a fermented drink. 

“Here at E91 we used to pass open trays of bread and juice cups for communion, but Covid shut that down and we now use these individual, sealed, bread-and-juice communion kits. It was another of many changes over the years.

“However, what is exchanged between the believer and the believed does not change; it cannot change.  Communion – community, union – is a time when we come together as a body of Christ.  It is a time when we remember Jesus.  That’s what Jesus said … “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me.” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts).

“Sometimes communion isn’t just a little crusty piece of cracker and some weak grape juice. On one occasion, my wife Joyce and I were on a trip and found ourselves without what we needed for communion on Sunday morning, so we used a cheese cracker with peanut butter in it and a grape soda.  But it was not the elements that made the communion.  It was our hearts.

“As we share the communion service, be sure, be sure, that you are concentrating on the holy relationship with Jesus that gives us eternal hope and assurance.  And today, Easter, we celebrate the most important event in the total universe since the beginning of time – the resurrection – because Jesus who died for us gave us the privilege of knowing Him.

“And Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was scorned, beaten, and rejected by His own people.  He was denied and betrayed by his disciples, but He still went to the cross and became the perfect sacrifice for us.  But even all of that would have been just another religion in the making without the resurrection.  The resurrection is the reason, the cause, and the formation of our faith.  That is how we can communicate with Him, because He is here.  He is not dead; He is here. He came back and said, “I am with you until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).

“You know, there were other people crucified, mostly desperate criminals. The cross was a despicable symbol of shame and disgrace, until Jesus converted the image of the cross to a sacred, sacred image by His resurrection. Never fear, God is present.  And He is with us here today. Let us turn our hearts completely, lovingly to communicate with Jesus. 

“We can, because He lives.” – John C. Samples

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) gladly yields this space when a message this good exists.

And, just for the E91 family … if you heard mention of a northern Indiana “Logan Chapman Winery” in John’s Easter communion message, John reports that he was mistaken; it doesn’t exist.  There is a “Chapman Winery” in central Indiana, and a “Peoples Winery” in Logansport, Indiana, but no “Logan Chapman Winery.”  Still, “Logan Chapman” would be a great name on a wine label …