Dear Family at Christ Community,

     This Sunday as we begin our sermon series in Jonah, we will have the opportunity to partake again of the Lord’s Table. As we hear from the text in Jonah 1:1-3, we will be reminded of the perennial temptation, epitomized in Jonah’s flight to Tarshish, to attempt to outrun the Lord and the missional call He has placed upon our lives. In, Jonah: A Study in Compassion, O. Palmer Robertson captures well this tendency we all struggle with from time to time:

“Living your life in relation to God’s will may be regarded as a form of flying. A sinner is a lot like a bumblebee: he isn’t supposed to fly. Too many things tend to pull him down from a walk with God. Past patterns of life urge him to go with the flow of a corrupt culture. Loyalties to family, to an ethnic community, to a political system tug him toward doing things that identify him as something other than a stranger and a pilgrim with God who has no continuing city in this world.”

What a comfort it is then, that in the broken bread and poured out cup we have a means of grace strong and sure enough to help us to fly to the throne of Grace despite the temptation to run away! In eating of the broken bread, Christ through the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith in Him and reminds us of our forgiveness from sin. In drinking the poured out cup, He teaches us that true life is found in Him alone. These simple means help us to stay aloft in the Gospel despite all the things that tend to pull us down.

     Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see in the bread and cup the great reality in Christ they point toward. Ask Him to use these means to strengthen your resolve to run to the throne of Grace, come what may, rather vainly strive to find life or security in anything else. Seek reconciliation as one who has been given new life in Christ and made a part of His glorious mission to bring redemption to the world!

In Christ,
Robby