/> ### MESSAGE NOTES
Walking The Way | Solitude | Week 4 | June 2, 2024

Teacher: Dave Brown


/>  Sacrament is from the Latin word sacramentum which originally referred to a soldier’s sacred oath of allegiance. 

/> Two sacraments

BaptismCommunion

/> 3 Names to Communion

The Lord’s SupperCommunionEucharist

/> And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

—Luke 22:19-20

/> Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

—Luke 9:16-17


/> 4 Verbs of the Lord’s Supper

1. Take:  Jesus takes what we bring him. This offering that Jesus take from us is the first movement of the Eucharist; it sets salvation in the ambience of sheer acceptance.  God receives us and what we bring to him, just as we are.

2. Bless:  What we offer to Jesus, Jesus offers to God with thanksgiving.  He doesn’t examine it for flaws, doesn’t evaluate and appraise it, criticize or reject our offerings. He prays these offerings and the lives that back them up, offering what we offer to the Father. This prayer of blessing gathers all of us and everything we are into everything that Christ is and does for us.

3. Break:  Our gifts don’t remain what we bring.  At the Table we are not permitted to be self-sufficient.  The breaking of our pride and self-approval is not a bad thing; it opens us to new life, to saving action.  We soon discover that God is working deep within us, beneath our surface lies and poses, to bring new life.

4. Give:  Jesus gives back what we bring to him, who we are; and we receive what he gives.  But it is no longer what we brought.  It has been changed into what God gives, what we sing of as “amazing grace.”  Everything we bring to Jesus is given back, but lavishly…Everything on the Table and everyone around the Table becomes gospel and is distributed to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

—Eugene Peterson