SL Podcast - Ep .014 | Thanksgiving and Communion

Intro

Hello, hello! You’re listening to the studentlife podcast, where our goal is to help you know and follow Jesus, step by step. On this podcast, we take a dive into a recent topic from StudentLife Youth Ministry and look at how we can live it out. Studying what the Bible says helps us know Jesus, and finding ways to live it out helps us follow Him.

My name is Joe Farage and I’m one of the youth leaders at StudentLife. Let’s dig in!

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Deep Dive

Last week at StudentLife was an As One night, as well as our Thanksgiving celebration. So Middle School and High School students joined us for a night full of food, fun and worship. During worship we also took communion. On this episode, I want to take a look at a couple things about Thanksgiving then dig into what Communion is.

In preparation for this, we asked several students what their favorite parts of Thanksgiving were,

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So Thanksgiving as we know it today is based off of a harvest feast in 1621 between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag (Wampa-nog)people. In that sense it’s not like other “church” holidays that are rooted in a Jewish holiday that was established in the Bible. Most of the Pilgrims were Separatists, which was a sect of Puritanism, and they regularly had “Thanksgivings” days which were days of prayer where they would thank God for a specific blessing, such as the end of a drought, or a victory of some sort. Then in 1863, President Lincoln made it a national holiday in an effort to promote unity during the Civil War.

Then, over time, Thanksgiving evolved into what we enjoy today, with family and friends gathered together, the parade on TV, and tons of food.

So the holiday of Thanksgiving isn’t a “biblical” holiday, but it is a great reminder of biblical principles, being grateful for what we have, not taking it for granted, and being in a community that supports and helps each other.

Communion,on the other hand, does have significant Biblical precedent. It’s talked about in church culture a lot, but a lot of people don’t really know what it is or what the purpose is, and depending on your religious background, you may have had different interactions with Communion. If you haven’t been to church often, the idea of communion may be completely foreign to you. The Christian church as a whole tends to assume people have a base understanding for some of the core elements of what we do, and this can lead to a lot of confusion when people from different backgrounds or experiences participate. So I want to take a quick look at Communion Basics, like a Communion 101 course, if you will. Whether this is your first time hearing about communion, or you’ve been partaking in communion your whole life, it’s always good to look at the root of something you’re a part of, so you know either a) what you’re walking into or b) what you’ve been participating in.

So Communion, physically speaking, is a ritual in church culture where everyone eats a small piece of bread or cracker, and has a sip of juice or wine, depending on your denomination. In some churches there’s a communal bread load where you tear off a small piece, and some have individual cups/pieces of cracker that are passed out.

Spiritually speaking, Communion is a remembrance of what happened at the last supper and Jesus’ death on the cross. The last supper was the meal that Jesus ate with His disciples before He was taken into custody and ultimately killed on the cross. Communion is intended to be a time of reflection. Reflecting on our need for a Savior, and on Jesus’ grace and love shown on the cross.

There’s 4 main sections of Scripture that I look at when looking at where Communion came from.

The first 3 are from the gospels, and give a retelling of what happened at the Last Supper from 3 different disciples perspectives.

These are Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, and Luke 22:14-20.

In each of those verses, Jesus refers to the bread as His body and the wine as his blood. However, in Luke, He adds that the disciples are to eat the bread and drink the wine as a way to remember that moment with Jesus and the following sacrifice He was about to make.

The other verse is found in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

This is written by Paul to the church in a city called Corinth, and in these verses he also clarifies that communion is meant to be done “in remembrance”.

So I think the best way to sum up communion is:

Communion is offered to all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives.  It’s a holy exercise and should be done with reverence, not taken for granted.  The communion elements, usually being the bread and juice or wine, are a representation of Christ's body and blood. Communion is an exercise of faith in who Jesus Christ is, and celebrating His death and resurrection as the only means of forgiveness and freedom.

Communion, like just about everything else in the Christian faith, is a matter of the heart. Believers in Jesus are called to participate in communion as a way to “commune with” or interact with God. It’s meant to give us pause in our normal lives to purposefully think about God’s grace to us through Jesus’ death on the cross.

There’s nothing special about the elements themselves. They aren’t holy crackers and holy grape juice, they’re meant to be a symbol that points us to Jesus and reminds us of the beautiful good news that we have in Jesus.

One of the best communions I was a part of was communion with gatorade and takis. And before you ask, yes it was at a youth event. I wasn’t planning to offer communion, but we had a time of worship and some of the students wanted to do communion. So we found what we had and took communion. What made it so powerful wasn’t because we had the right type of bread and wine, it was because our hearts were pointed towards Jesus. We expressed our gratitude and awe at Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf and reflected on what that meant for our lives.

And if you’re listening and scoffing at my communion element choice, I would challenge you by asking when was the last time you took communion with hand-made unleavened bread and hand-pressed all-natural wine, like Jesus did? If we get so hung up on the elements, that we miss who the symbol is pointing us to, then we’ve missed the entire purpose of communion.

Now i’m NOT saying that we should replace the communion elements, but I am saying that the elements aren’t what make communion holy. The sacraments or ordinances of the church can become idols if we start to say that the items themselves are holy, instead of the One that those events point us towards. Marriage is a holy covenant before God, but there’s nothing holy about my wedding band in itself, it’s a chunk of metal. Baptism is a holy sacrament in the church, but the water itself isn’t holy, it’s a symbol of what’s happening in our spirits that points us towards Jesus. Like we talked about last week, Worship and Praise to God is a core activity of the church, but the music and songs are just noises, they just point us to God and are a way of communicating with Him.

Takeaway

In closing, I hope you know and love Jesus. The beauty found in interactions with Him and the freedom offered to us through his death on the cross is quite literally the best thing I’ve ever experienced.

If you do know Jesus, I encourage you to participate next time you are offered communion, not just physically with eating the bread and drinking the juice, but mentally and spiritually as well. Use it as a time to reflect on your life, your weaknesses, and how Christ can be shown strong through them. Allow the holiness of Jesus to highlight any shadows or sin in your life, and take steps to get rid of them. Use it as a time of thanksgiving, being grateful for the freedom you have from sin and death and the faithfulness and steadiness of Holy Spirit.

Announcements/Closing

Hopefully this has helped you see Thanksgiving and communion in a better or perhaps different way then you have before.

The next 2 weeks, December 6 and 13 there is NO StudentLife. The next StudentLife is on December 20 and it’s our Christmas Party! It’s going to be a ton of fun and it’s going to be great to see everyone together again one more time before the new year!

Remember Jesus loves you and we do too!

Outro

On behalf of Pastor Jordan and all the StudentLife Youth Leaders, thanks for listening and we hope to see you at a StudentLife event!

StudentLife is a ministry of Life Church Buffalo. The High School group meets Wednesday nights at 7pm, and the Middle School group meets Sunday mornings at 11:15am. You can find StudentLife on Instagram and TikTok.

The original music for this episode was by Blakeis, you can find him on Spotify.

All those links and more are in the show notes.

Post-Show Bonus

Bible Verse from Trace or Hope

Show Notes

NOTES ABOUT PODCAST

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StudentLife is a ministry of Life Church Buffalo. The High School group meets Wednesday nights at 7pm, and the Middle School group meets Sunday mornings at 11:15am.

Check out StudentLife on Instagram (@lcbstudentlife) and TikTok (@lcb_studentlife).

You can find Life Church Buffalo online at www.lifechurchbuffalo.com.

The original music for this episode was by Blakeis, you can find him on Spotify.

Check out all these links, as well as referenced Bible verses, websites, books, and more at https://bit.ly/m/studentlifepodcast

Have a question you want answers to? Or do you want more information about StudentLife? Text 716-464-2276

Text <a href="”sms:[phone]"">[phone]</a>