I found it very appropriate that the open song of our church services had the following lyrics: "In fasting we approach thee here/ And pray thy Spirit from above/ Will cleanse our hearts, cast out our fear,/ And fill our hunger with thy love."
I think that the way I experience the Sacrament on Fast Sunday gives me a glimpse into a spiritual reality: I come to Christ's table symbolically starving and He offers me a feast of love; He offers me Himself--the bread of His body and water of His blood (I don't believe in transubstantiation, but I appreciate the symbolism). That is the only thing that fills my hunger and quenches my thirst. The food and drink He offers me is more real than everything I eat physically. No matter how well I eat, if I do not partake of His food, I will starve.
There are many things I don't know or understand, but I have tasted God's love in my life and I have found it to be delicious. It has filled my hunger and quenched my thirst.
Very interesting. I came on the sight to talk about hunger...I am preaching this coming weekend and have already titled my sermon "Hunger" with a snickers bar as the logo...(smile). As my main sermon illustration I am embarking on the endeavor to see what it feels like if physically what all too often happens spiritually--malnutrition. According to most surveys, the general American Christian population gets it's source of spiritual food only when coming to church and hearing the preacher speak. In an effort for my congregation to get the point that this lifestyle is not ok, I have decided to show them physically what is spiritually happening. For the entire time I am preparing my sermon, I have only eaten when participated in a service. So I had prayer meeting on Tuesday (so I ate then), I have youth group on Friday night (so I will eat then) and I have church on Sunday morning when I preach (so I will eat after that). The side affects are what I expected--headache, stomach pain, dizziness, and a desperate desire to eat. I suspect that when I eat the next time, I will have a burning desire to eat a huge hamburger but will not be able to stomach it--and it will actually make me feel more sick. I hope this is not the case because I have been craving a quality hamburger for some time now (smile). All this to say, if we were to treat our bodies like we treat our hearts, we would be in very poor condition and would not be able to function. Unfortunately, spiritually we get used to not eating, and then it is hard to get back into the rhythm of eating consistently for some reason. What I am proposing is that some of our pain that we are going through spiritually/emotionally, is due to our inability to spiritually engage and feed ourselves. Some trials and suffering we go through is circumstantial and no our fault (and we must be ready to navigate through those stormy waters) however, what we might be blind to is our own self harming by neglecting our our spiritual condition. We must wake up to the spiritual starvation Epidemic and feed ourselves and figure out how to bring others into feeding themselves. David, I can't tell you how real your words are to me; "He offers me himself-the bread of his body and the water of his blood. That is the only thing that fills my hunger and quenches my thirst. The food and drink he offers me is more real than everything I eat physically." How true!!!!!!! And that truth is as real to you as to the one who does not believe Jesus ever existed. It is only when one becomes dependent on the words of our LORD that this reality is unmasked and taken as unshakable truth. Pray for me as I attempt to lay this before those whom need to hear it, that it might be as real to them as the hunger in the stomach.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed, Jess, at your commitment to teach and communicated with your congregation. I also agree with the message you are sending. We each need to take responsibility for our spiritual well-being (which is the most real part of our identity anyway). My dad used to refer frequently to an inter-faith study of religious youth. This study suggested that the key factor in predicting if these youth would maintain their faith was their personal, private religious experiences--what they experienced when they weren't being fed by their church leaders. I'll try to get the details of that study for you.
ReplyDeleteI think the story of manna and the children of Israel also illustrates this principle--everyday, God miraculously fed His people with manna. Interestingly, however, the children of Israel couldn't gather more than what they needed for one day (except on the day before the Sabbath)--if they tried, it went bad. We too need to gather our spiritual "daily bread" consistently, as we do with our food.
agreed. I honestly have never seen the manna story correlating with that principle--but it is true. I have always seen the Manna story about the sabbath, but it doesn't just relate to the sabbath--it relates to gathering our spiritual food as well. For this weekend, can I use the quote, "The key factor in predicting if these youth would maintain their faith was their personal, private religious experiences--what they experienced when they weren't being fed by their church leaders."?
ReplyDeleteIt's okay with me, but it's not a direct quote from the study--I'll see if I can find that for you.
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