The Celebration Cup...
Yesterday Mar and I had a little picnic at our church. Odd space for a picnic I know, but it was actually quite nice. As we were leaving we ran into Jerry, our Pastor. As we were talking, he looked into his mailbox and all of a sudden got quite excited. "It's a Celebration Cup!" he exclaimed.
Not knowing what a celebration cup was, I looked into the very small box, which I thought was much too small to have a cup in it and my eyes feasted on what has possibly become the ultimate in no muss, no fuss religious paraphanalia. The cup, shown below, is a prepackaged wafer, and a sealed cup of juice.
Now, I can see these being used in cetain applications. For example, our church likes to do things in large group settings; Camps, Retreats, Marathon Runs to In and Out Burger, things of this nature. In these circumstances, I can certainly see the benefit of these celebration cups. A convenient way to have supper with the Lord while maintaining the momentum of everyday life.
But the more I thought about it, it became one more way to make the command of Psalm 46:10 more difficult to achieve.
In our church we have communion set out every Sunday as part of our corporate worship experience. As I thought about this last night, I began to wonder how it is put together. In my mind, the people who put communion together have an incredible opportunity to use that simple act of service to pray over the lives of hundreds of people every Sunday. An act of service should be seen as an act of sacrifice, no matter how small. I think more often it is looked at as just one more thing to get done. No thought, no prayer, no joy.
So all this to say. The Celebration cups are cute and there may be a place for them on our next camping trip or retreat, but let's leave Sunday morning as is. No convenience, no quick fix. Just a simple act of service to remind us of the ultimate sacrifice to bring us to a place of stillness. That is my vote.
Not knowing what a celebration cup was, I looked into the very small box, which I thought was much too small to have a cup in it and my eyes feasted on what has possibly become the ultimate in no muss, no fuss religious paraphanalia. The cup, shown below, is a prepackaged wafer, and a sealed cup of juice.
Now, I can see these being used in cetain applications. For example, our church likes to do things in large group settings; Camps, Retreats, Marathon Runs to In and Out Burger, things of this nature. In these circumstances, I can certainly see the benefit of these celebration cups. A convenient way to have supper with the Lord while maintaining the momentum of everyday life.
But the more I thought about it, it became one more way to make the command of Psalm 46:10 more difficult to achieve.
In our church we have communion set out every Sunday as part of our corporate worship experience. As I thought about this last night, I began to wonder how it is put together. In my mind, the people who put communion together have an incredible opportunity to use that simple act of service to pray over the lives of hundreds of people every Sunday. An act of service should be seen as an act of sacrifice, no matter how small. I think more often it is looked at as just one more thing to get done. No thought, no prayer, no joy.
So all this to say. The Celebration cups are cute and there may be a place for them on our next camping trip or retreat, but let's leave Sunday morning as is. No convenience, no quick fix. Just a simple act of service to remind us of the ultimate sacrifice to bring us to a place of stillness. That is my vote.
posted by Hurricane at 10:15 AM
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