Friends, Holy communion is truly a “meal at home.”  See the column below. Have a great week!  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #861

May 16, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Home Cooking

By Bob Walters

“Do this in remembrance of me,” – 1 Corinthians 11:24

Have you been out to eat, lately?  It’s expensive, isn’t it?  As I write this on Mother’s Day weekend, I’m reminded that Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year in the restaurant industry. “Let’s give mom the ‘day off’ and take her out to eat.”

Most moms just roll their eyes.  A lot of moms cook at home that day anyway – better to cook than rely on the culinary talents of your family.  Grocery prices are up, too, but a meal is still cheaper at home with the family.

But, economics don’t rule our heart.  Even when we take mom out to eat, our first consideration is not the cost but the love and the gesture and the remembrance of all the love our moms shower on us, always.

When we take communion at church, we then, too, are gathered for a meal at home with the family – our church home and our church family.  We gather together in love and faith and fellowship and sincerity, remembering Jesus, worshiping His name, examining our faith, meditating on God’s glory, seeking His wisdom, experiencing the true indwelling of the holy spirit … not one of us is thinking about the “bill” for the meal – how much does this cup and bread “cost”?

Our knee jerk Sunday school answer likely is: “It cost Jesus His life!”  Well, yeah … but that’s incomplete.  Consider three things in life that one really cannot buy.

One is your family – you are just born where you are. You do not buy it or choose it.  As you grow you can impact your family, but coming into this world, “which family” is not a menu choice.  And a mother’s love is not something that has a price tag.

Another thing you don’t “buy” is your nation.  You can grow and move and choose where you live and adopt whatever culture or lifestyle or climate you fancy, but your family and your nation, ideally, are functions of love.  Here you are.  We pay taxes and interact in a government and cultural system, but we’re not buying our nation.

The third thing we don’t buy is faith, or to put it another way, we do not buy – cannot buy – the salvation of God’s love.  Oh, we can tithe and serve and donate and study and lead and shepherd and love, cheerfully and with grace … and almost everybody swoons about how Jesus “paid a price” for us, but we are not buying our faith. We are loving in the name of Jesus, and saved by the name of Jesus.

On that same note, we are not buying God.  God is love, and on those communion elements we hold, we do not see a price tag or a menu price. In church, our minds, properly, are on the enormity of God and of God’s love, on the grace of Jesus and the presence of the Spirit, on the joy and peace of our faith, and on our fellowship as Christians, in Christ.  We remember His perfect sacrifice, and His command to love God and love others.  We share His truth freely, gladly, and constantly.  No charge.

That is the communion of our Lord, and the communion of our faith.  When we eat God’s meal with God’s family, we think not about the bill and how much to tip; we think about the love of the person who provides it; we remember our Lord and Savior, the loving person of Jesus Christ.

It is the loving ultimate in home cooking.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) often sneaks in this instruction that Jesus “paying a price” is a modern, consumeristic, quasi-biblical metaphor that diminishes our deep sense of the love and grace of Jesus, but satisfies our constant, imagined need and rationale of payment for services rendered. That is not what Jesus did; Walters is sure of it. 

Spirituality Column #392
May 20, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Christians aren’t necessarily here to argue.  Our primary mission is to shine God’s glory, love and light on Jesus Christ for the whole world to see.

But God help us all, humans love to argue anyway.  Jesus wasn’t like that.

Jesus, in fact, rarely argued.  Yes, at age 12 He rebuked his parents because they panicked when he’d not made the trip home with them after Passover (Luke 2:41-52).  When they found Him teaching in Jerusalem’s temple, he said, “Don’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”  No one understood all Jesus was saying but everyone was astonished at Jesus’ teaching, wisdom and stature.

At Cana, Jesus’ mother Mary suggested He replenish the dwindling wine supply (John 2:1-11).  Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come,” but then ordered servants to fill the wine jars with water, which became exquisite wine – His first miracle.

Jesus didn’t argue with Satan in the desert; He quoted scripture (Matthew 4:1-11).  After the resurrection Jesus gently told Peter, who had denied him three times, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-19).   Jesus only showed anger once, scorning the money changers in the Temple (John 2:12-25, Matthew 21:12-13).

But nowhere in the Bible does Jesus mimic a modern CNN or Fox News guest by arguing vehemently against someone else’s opinion of truth or propriety.  That’s because the truth of Christ is not dependent on human opinion.  Jesus leads His flock, because He is the Way.  He tells the truth, because He is the Truth.  And He offers rebirth and new life, because He is Life.

Jesus sees all that is wrong with the world but avoids being a “clanging gong” (1 Corinthians 13:1) of angry argument.  He calmly, often shrewdly, preaches the truth of a loving, forgiving God who is the worthy Lord of all Creation.

Rather than argue or even directly answer spiritual misstatements like those of the woman at the well, the Pharisees, his own disciples, and even his own family, Jesus tells parables, knowing the faithful will hear truth.  Throughout, Jesus reveals God’s glory, sovereignty, Lordship and the new covenant in faith for human salvation.

This is on my mind as I consider society today that bullies those who would protect life in the womb (NARAL vs. Life Centers), cancels TV shows of Christian believers who think mom-dad-and-the kids is the Biblical and most practical definition of family (HGTV vs. the Benham brothers), and strives (ala Freedom From Religion) to silence those who would thank Jesus Christ publicly in prayer for His heavenly grace.

Jesus came not to win arguments, but to tell the truth.

That’s something we Christians should remember.

Spirituality Column #369
December 10, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

Giftwrapping God’s Authority
By Bob Walters

The very-bright, 30-something atheist father of three young church-going children was explaining his revulsion for all things God to his life-long-Christian parents.

In his mind his views have nothing to do with confusion – moral, intellectual, cosmic, or otherwise.  They have everything to do with logic, reason, lack of “God” proof, what he sees as the empty crutch of faith and the hypocrisy of anything called “church.”   To his continually prayerful, loving, patient parents, he offers a distressing, emptily resolute, self-centered and unimaginatively standard litany of non-belief.

Its authority adds up to, “What has God done for me lately?”

The young atheist’s militantly lapsed-Catholic wife doesn’t think too hard about such issues.  They both love their three aforementioned children with all their hearts, and allow the aforementioned Christian grandparents to take the kids to church regularly.  Somehow, it works for everybody, sweetened by the kids’ Saturday night sleepovers with the grandparents.  Reflecting on her father’s conviction of there “not being a God,” the middle daughter said out loud on the ride home from church one Sunday, “Grandma and Grandpa wouldn’t lie to us about Jesus.”

Thank God for little children who see truth by the light of Christ.

Upon hearing this story, it occurred to me that the son neither sees nor appreciates the prayerful love of his parents, nor comprehends the gift God is giving to his children.  To boot, he has the bold manners to belittle and insult his parents’ faith.  Many parents can relate, as can faithful young adults with non-believing parents. 

But there is one thing lacking in the son’s appraisal of God, faith, and religion; one thing lacking in his vacant atheism: Authority.  There can be no authority in atheism because atheism is defined by there not being objective, righteous, cosmic, this-is-the-final-answer authority in anything.  The only thing with that kind of authority is God.  So: no God, no authority, no truth.  What’s left are strong personal opinions.

The believing Christian is assured by the authority of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Bible, tradition and the fellowship of all believers, not to mention baptism, prayer, communion, spiritual gifts, faith, hope, love, peace that exceeds understanding, and every breath and moment of life that are great, mysterious, and entirely valid gifts from God Almighty.

In the Bible’s “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:19) Jesus directs believers to “make disciples of all nations.”  But for the authority-claiming atheist, there is a “Great Omission” one verse before where Jesus says, “All authority … is given to me.”

Atheism offers functional worldly logic, but the Bible giftwraps God’s authority.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) embraces mystery, noting that the great fun of Christmas is the mystery of what’s under the tree.

Spirituality Column #263
November 22, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Praying for Grandma’s Gravy
By Bob Walters

Thanksgiving dinner can be one of the spiritually richest and most comforting gatherings of the year – God’s bounty on our plates, loving family and dear friends at our reverently bent elbows.

Or, it can be a prickly, uneasy theatre of differing and generally incompatible intra-family opinions on relationships, culture, government, and God … simmering like grandma’s gravy that everyone hopes doesn’t get scorched by excessive heat or fractured by inattentive stirring.

Scenario One will likely have a rich pre-meal prayer of thanks for overflowing goodness and fellowship and abundance. It may or may not be a specifically religious prayer because not everyone’s spirit is connected, in an aware way, to a specific faith system. But don’t most of us just know, deep inside, that saying “Thanks” on Thanksgiving isn’t just an expression of appreciation? It’s an affirmation of the existence of God … whatever we understand that God to be. We look around the table, with love, and know that truth exists. God must be here somewhere. We are thankful.

Scenario Two can lead to the guests primarily being thankful when the meal is over and the ride home has begun. Even if family squabbles and political dissonance can be laid aside, the issue of whether God has a proper place at the table is a significant bellwether of enjoyable fellowship. This much I know from my long, previous experience as a non-believer – it feels real weird to pray to a God you truly do not know.

During the 30 years of my life I didn’t go to church, I wasn’t mad at God; I simply didn’t know him and didn’t really care. I know many people today who gave up their faith “for cause.” It might have been a church scandal, the personal sleight or transgression of an insensitive Christian, or the feeling of abandonment by God. To some people, the whole “God” thing just seems stupid. Often, non-believers are simply ambivalent.

I would urge my Christian brothers and sisters to gird up for Scenario Two by praying deeply for understanding, wisdom, courage and patience. We can never argue our faith into another soul; we can only be an example another soul could choose to emulate. And remember … most people don’t have a problem with Jesus; they have a problem with Christians, the church, or “religion.” You’re an ambassador for all four.

Keep “grace” – the pre-meal prayer – simple, but pray clearly with the conviction that thanks is something truly worthy to give to God. It’s the sincerity and the love that you show to God and to others that will rub off on the souls of lost loved ones.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) advises praying for people by name. It works.