Dr. Latayne C. Scott・07/22/22

Do this in remembrance of me. ~ 1 Corinthians 11:24

Why is it that I can only anchor my thoughts
To what is real
By tying my mind to the jarring reality
Of a nail's impact
On flesh
But the two thousand years are getting in the way,
And so my mind must substitute
My flesh for His:
It is I who am flogged
I who am crucified
(the fellowship of His suffering
becoming like Him in His death)
Each day has scarred over
This essential remembered pain
And so I reopen my flesh
And stab this sacrament again

It is very difficult to repeat an action over and over without losing its meaning. We often find ourselves partaking of the Lord's Supper without really thinking about what it means, just because the action is familiar to us. However, Jesus asks to be remembered in this specific way; so we must strive to make this sacrament something truly significant. It helps if we remember that all His suffering was something that each of us really deserved, but that He chose to take for us.

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. ~ Matthew 10:37-39

How many times have I sat this way,
Head bowed,
Heart poised;
And held Your body,
Then Your blood in my hand
Ready to partake
Of You
I wonder at the despair of yearning You must have.
Do I know what I ask
When I offer myself
To be consumed by You?

Sometimes the act of eating the Lord's flesh and drinking His blood in the communion service seems a task overwhelming in its significance. While on the one hand He asks us to partake of Him, we must in the same act allow Him to consume us as surely as any burnt sacrifice, as Romans 12:1 teaches us.

But as someone has so aptly observed, the trouble with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar! It is hard to allow God to take us over completely. It is, in fact, impossible without His help.

----------

Dr. Latayne C. Scott is the recipient of Pepperdine University’s Distinguished Christian Service Award for “Creative Christian Writing,” and is Trinity Southwest University’s Author in Residence. An ex-Mormon, she just released Under the Banner of the Mormon Code.  The author of over two dozen other published books, with guest appearances on radio, television and podcasts, and thousands of published short essays and poems, she lives and writes in New Mexico. She maintains three websites: Latayne.com, mapmyfaith.org , and  Representationalresearch.com.