"Deepish" early morning thoughts...

It's just after 5:30am. Usually I'm out on the trail by now, getting in my daily miles with my posse of neighbors who meet me each weekday morning. But not today. John is out of town and I need to be here to rouse the girls. I've been awake for awhile (thanks to the beagle) so I have some rambling thoughts...and one in particular I felt prompted to share here. 

I was reading this morning about Jesus and the last supper. It's a familiar text--one I hear parts of repeated weekly at church just before communion. Jesus breaks the bread, gives it to his disciples and says, "Take, eat. This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me." (I'm kinda paraphrasing.)

When I hear those words, my mind almost always goes to the word remembrance. I know that the word means to remember. But my mind almost always takes that word in a slightly different direction, with a  slightly different meaning. I break it down as "re" and "member". Let me try to explain.

The word "member" designates belonging. I can be a member of a family or an organization or in the case I'm presenting here,  a member of God's kingdom--his body of believers on this earth. Faith in Jesus and his sacrificial death upon the cross is what joins me together with other believers. We are all members of one body of believers. 

The word "re" is a prefix that means to do something again. I re-wash the clothes after I've left them in the washer too long (oops). I re-read the assignment. I re-set the alarm clock. I re-send the email. You're tracking, right?

So when I take communion each week at church, my mind always translates that act of re-membering as re-joining myself to Christ and his kingdom. I consciously choose to affirm (again) my place of belonging by re-aligning my heart, my mind, my will, etc with Jesus. It's an action verb. I'm being thoughtfully reflective (remembering) at the same time that I'm being willful in choosing to re-join myself to Christ (re-membering). Subtle difference, but not-so-subtle action. 

Like I said, I think about this almost every week when we get to the Eucharist part of our worship service. I don't know that I've ever written it down but I felt led to this morning.

I also like that in our church, we get up and walk towards the minister who is offering the bread/wine. For me, it affirms re-membering. I must actively move towards Jesus and all that he offers me. It's not passive by any stretch. 

Gotta get my girls up and moving. Thoughts? I'd love to hear any you have on this topic so leave me a comment. Peace out, peeps!