welcome to the story.

An Introduction To Communion (service done in the round with all chairs in a circle facing a suspended cross) We want to welcome you to our communion service. As you can see, things look a little different today. And we did that for a reason. Today, we are going to shift all of our attention towards the cross and to the sacrifice that was made there. For some of you, that might feel like a bit of an uncomfortable place. But I think it has the potential to be a very hopeful place if we allow it. If we can really get our heads and our arms and our hearts around this today, what we will find is that the cross is really an invitation. Its like the old hymn says, �It bids me come and die, and find that I may truly live.� It bids me. It invites me. God is inviting us today. As we celebrate communion, He is standing here in this sacred space . . . inviting us . . . calling to us . . . asking us to respond to �this�. He�s asking us to do something with it. Too often we have kind of pushed the cross to the side. Pushed it to some dark corner in the back of our thoughts. Out of sight, out of mind. We don�t like to think about the cross. We don�t like to think about what it symbolizes. What happened on it. It�s much easier to ignore it. Or at the very least minimize it. You see, everybody wants to talk about the resurrection. Everybody likes to talk about the empty tomb. It�s so much . . . safer . . . clean . . . nice . . . pretty. But the cross isn�t really any of those things. It was really messy. And it doesn�t really fit the traditional definition of pretty. Because on it hung the King of the Kings, the Messiah, the Hope of the world. And the reason I think that makes us uncomfortable is because I think we recognize that our sins are what put Jesus up there. Our sins are what he died for. And that�s unsettling to us. We all like the benefits of the cross. But we don�t like the reality of it. The reality of what it cost . . . our Savior�s life. Have you ever wondered why the cross, of all possible symbols in the world, is the one symbol that represents the Christian faith? After all, it�s a symbol of humiliation, suffering, and death. Why would a religious movement want to attach such grim associations to its identity? It�s true, the cross is a symbol of death. But its also become a symbol for forgiveness. In fact, its from the cross that Jesus, in the face of intense physical and verbal abuse offers up these words, �Father, forgive them, for they don�t know what they�re doing.� That�s really profound. That flips everything upside down for us, in our world stripped of forgiveness, grace, and mercy. That�s why the cross symbolizes something more than just death. It symbolizes how we have the opportunity to be forgiven, to be made right, through the sacrifice that was made. Ultimately, the cross symbolizes the power of reconciliation. When Christ died on the cross, He tore down the dividing wall of hostility that had separated the Jews from the Gentiles. People who had once been bitter enemies could now become brothers and sisters in Christ. As people of the cross, we are forgiven people, but we also have the opportunity to forgive others. We must decide to daily take up our crosses and seek to live our lives with self-sacrificing, self-giving love, in the way of Jesus. So today that is what we are going to do. We are going to fully and deeply reflect on the cross and the sacrifice that Jesus made. Today we are going to respond to this invitation to reflect. Reflect on our own lives. Reflect on our relationship with God. Reflect on our relationship with others. And as we begin to realize how the cross is the centerpiece of humanity, the crux, that puts everything into perspective, our life, our relationship with God, and our relationships with others. We are going to respond. We are going to enter into the way of Jesus. That�s what communion is all about, a remembrance of the way of Jesus. Today is an invitation, how are you going to respond . . .