The word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?'” (Zechariah 7:4–6, NIV 1984).
My Musings – One would think that having been exiled from their homeland for seventy years that there would be fasting and mourning in earnest. Instead, there was drinking and feasting.
“When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!” (1 Corinthians 11:20–22, NIV 1984).
One would think that observing the Lord’s Supper would be a time of remembrance (did He not ask this of us?), reflection, and thankfulness. Not to mention expectation. “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26, NIV 1984). Shamefully, that is not always the case for some.
My Advice – “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29, NIV 1984).
As children of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, we too, like the Israelites, live in exile in a kingdom that is not our own. “The length of our [captivity] is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength.” (Psalm 90:10, NIV 1984). Let’s not spend that time merely “eating and drinking…and feasting for [ourselves].” Rather, let us faithfully, “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
And what is this proclamation? What “[we] received from the Lord, what [we] also [should pass] on to [others]: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'” (1 Corinthians 11:23–25, NIV 1984).
The Brew Is A Musing 