• CONTACT INFORMATION

    PHONE
    (607) 341-7264

    MAILING ADDRESS
    PO Box 128 Chenango Bridge, NY 13745

    MEETING ADDRESS:
    (Sundays @ 10:00am)
    Regal Cinema - 900 Upper Front St.
    Binghamton, NY 13905

  • OFFICE LOCATION

    OFFICE ADDRESS:
    NyPenn Trade Center
    435 Main St. Room 19
    Johnson City, NY 13790

    OFFICE HOURS:
    Tues-Fri 10am-5pm

  •  
  •  
[imageeffect type="shadowreflection" align="aligncenter" width="542" alt="This Is My Body" link="https://www.tworiversassembly.com/tworiversassembly2014/2013/02/09/this-is-my-body/" url="http://tworiversblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/communion.jpg?w=640&h=426" ]

This Is My Body

Read: Exodus 29:1-30:10, Matthew 26:14-46, Psalm 31:19-24, Proverbs 8:14-26

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying,“Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26)

communion

Relate: Luther is famous for being the first Protestant reformer. Another man born just weeks after him was doing the same thing in Switzerland as Luther was in Germany. Both Luther and Zwingli had a large and growing number of followers and the two met together in a small town for what became known as the Marburg Colloquy. Although in most areas they were in agreement, there was one that both considered extremely important where they could not come together.

“Hoc est corpus meum”. Luther wrote this in the chalk on the table and both men went around and around on what “est”, on what “is” meant. Luther said it was literal. Jesus was saying this is my body. When we take communion we are literally partaking in the body and blood of Christ. Zwingli said the is was figurative. Just like when Jesus said “I am the vine” He did not literally mean he was an actual grapevine. The two could not find common ground and so end up going their separate ways and thus the precedent was set for division within the Protestant church.

React: My initial reaction is to think, “Seriously? Is it that big of a deal that you couldn’t find unity on such a small point?” Well yes, actually, it is that big of a deal. And no, it is not a small point. What both these giants in the faith realized is that remembering the Lord’s death through communion is no small matter and no matter which side you come down on, taking communion is of huge importance. Today it might be viewed as a tradition we do regularly or maybe its a nice breakup of the normal church routine, but Paul said that such flippant attitude was causing some in the early church to get sick and die. How seriously am I remembering God’s command to remember His death until He returns?

Respond: [videoembed type=”youtube” width=”600″ height=”400″ url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1fExxLCfI0″ id=”0″]