Monday, June 15, 2009

Live from St. Anthony's

We just got out of the worship service at St Anthony's. That's what we call our Monday night ministry amongst ourselves. St Anthony was a man dedicated to serving the poor, and that's what Monday night is all about-- a service, a meal abd felllowship, and then families leave with a food basket.

The crazy thing-- a guy got up out of service, pissed because he "didn't come to hear abour religion" and at the communion rail another guy thanks me for serving the Lord's Supper.

What I want to call attention to tonight is the communion ritual. We have been using the hymnal, a ritual. What - have in mind is that for a lot of people who can't read, repeating the same words over and over is how they learn. Those of us who read the ritual usually miss the content...

So tonight, after four weeks, some people know it. It was loud. It wasn't just that 60 of us were in the small chapel-- no, they were primed when I asked them to "proclaim the mystery of faith:" and they rocked, in various cadences but clearly: "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.". It makes a difference when you really need Him to come, more than when you just sort of think it's cool He might come."

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