Dear Family at Christ Community,

    This coming Sunday we will celebrate the past, present, and future work of Jesus Christ as represented in the Lord’s Table. As we behold and partake of the bread and cup, we will have the opportunity to give thanks for redemption both accomplished by Christ and applied to the whole of our lives in the power of the Spirit. The totality and finished nature of Christ’s work on our behalf, past, present, and future, serves to comfort and assure us between the now and the not yet where everything feels so unfinished and even as if it is unraveling. The bread and cup serve to nourish us in our calling to proclaim and apply the Gospel amid the ruins of this tattered and fallen world.

As we prepare for communion on Sunday, we would benefit from reflecting on the words of our weekly confession from Revelation 1:4b-8:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

By the pouring out of his blood, Jesus sets us free from all that separated us from God our Father rendering the totality of our sins a past-tense reality. We become daughters and sons through Christ’s sacrifice inheriting all of the heavenly promises by the Father’s grace alone. From this ground of justification and adoption, the Holy Spirit cultivates our present sanctification to transform us into a kingdom of priests and ambassadors of reconciliation. The hope of Christ’s return with the clouds to bring our glorification and Creation’s renewal serves to hold us fast amid the storms of life. Praise the God who was, is, and is to come for giving such an amazing gift of love and grace that spans our past, present, and future as represented in the broken bread and poured out cup!

    Over the next few days leading up to Sunday, ponder the past, present, and future realities of your salvation through the broken body and shed blood of Christ. Give thanks for the freedom that Christ has granted you in your deliverance from the bondage of sin and separation from God in your justification and adoption. Meditate on how the Holy Spirit convicts, teaches and guides you in your sanctification process of being further transformed into the image of Christ. Consider how the hope of the return of Christ to make all things new grants you the encouragement and endurance necessary to glorify God in a fallen world.

In Christ,
Cameron