Our family has been visiting different churches as our church of many years disbanded before Covid. We have been watching the church Natalya goes to in New York online, as well as Ariana’s church in Oklahoma. We have visited seven churches this fall. Each place has had communion served in a plastic container with a vial of grape juice and a plastic-tasting wafer. Dad loved communion with all his heart. He loved the image of the bread and wine transforming us into the body of Christ. Christ with us, Christ in us, Christ our very life. As I tasted each of the vials, the juice is refreshing, it takes like juice, but the bread is plastic, bitter, dry, inedible, tasteless, terrible. I think about this often. How the lifeblood of Christ is alive and vital pulsing through our communities with people thirsty for communion with God and others. I think of the church being the body of Christ and how our churches have become plastic, tasteless, inedible. Many sermons are often 30 minutes too long with stale stories. Many congregations sit forward, watching, listening, consuming, and leaving. I am thankful for the churches with the true life-giving body—full of life, full of love, full of truth, full of flavor. When you walk into a home of fresh baked real bread, there is an immediate difference. Dad lived life like this fresh-baked bread. I would love to see all our churches all around the world full of this life-giving aroma of Christ.

 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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, also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

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