Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: JRA102@psuvm.psu.edu (Jim Achuff) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Communion and Religiosity (was Re: Communion without alcohol? Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 90 09:21:46 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Penn State University Lines: 39 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I seem to remember hearing a story from a missionary visiting me home church about 3 years ago. He was involved in the story, so it is most definately true. Here goes: The missionary (a protestant), his wife, a Roman Catholic priest, a nun, a Baptist minister and his wife, and a layman from another denomination were at a training camp for missionaries, and put together as a group in one campsite. One night around the campfire the talk turned to sacrements, particularly communion. And the question came up: Why bread and wine? A conclusion was reached that Jesus would have used whatever the common drink was and whatever was handy to eat. Those seven then held communion using diet-coke and saltines. The point is, it's not the actual elements that comprise the sacrement of communion, but the representation that Christ's body was broken and His blood shed for us. It seems to me that so many people get caught up in religiosity that they forget that out relationship with God is all Love, not what we eat, wear, how we worship Him, as long as we give glory to Him, and Praise Him. For so long, our message to the world has been that they must act and worship just like us, and the world's message back to us has been loud and clear: 'We don't want to be just like you.' If we continue to harp on the means of worship, we will not be able to win others for Christ, because we are becoming stale and boring. It's not the method of worship, it is all in the worship, whatever the method. Yours in Christ ------- First you must believe - then you can understand : __ /\ : =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=: | || || | : Jim Achuff : JRA102@PSUVM.PSU.EDU : |__||__ | | : 125 Beaver Hall : JRA102@PSUVM.BITNET : | || | : University Park, PA 16802 :=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=: | | ||__| : (814)-862-6812 : Christ is the answer! : \/ : [Diet Coke? Wine is an interesting symbol, suggesting blood, the richness of life lived to its fullest, and as someone suggested in a previous posting, the peril of things not entirely under our control. Diet Coke has been intentionally purged of any life-giving contents and any risk. I make no comment on whether there are times when one should use the cultural equivalent of wine rather than wine itself, but Diet Coke doesn't sound like the equivalent. At least one could use The Real Thing (TM) --clh]