“Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.”
Psalm 86:11-13
Dear HBIC Family,
This past weekend, I got a chance to participate in a Breaking of Bread service on Zoom. This weekly service is common practice in the Plymouth Brethren churches I grew up in. During this service, there is space for contemplation, prayer, music through hymns, and sharing (usually centered on the person, life, and work of Jesus). In essence, I grew up going to these services each week and learned that, to participate, I had to come prepared to answer some questions: who is Jesus, what has Jesus done, and how has Jesus been revealed to me through the Holy Spirit that week?
This service also included Communion, where we gave thanks for the bread and the cup and remembered Jesus in the way he has asked us to. Looking back, these services were so influential in growing my faith. Being Jesus-centered wasn’t just an abstract concept. Knowing that God is alive and working now, in my life and in the world, was an expectation. Learning to listen to the Spirit and to appreciate the Spirit’s move among the people was another blessing. Much of how I see and understand God was established in these services.
While growing up Plymouth Brethren helped lay the foundation to my faith, I very much found my spiritual home in the Brethren in Christ. The more I studied Jesus, grew through the Spirit and saw God move in me and my world, the easier it was for me to realize that I didn’t know I was Brethren in Christ until I was Brethren in Christ. I also grew in understanding of what it meant for me to follow Jesus, what it means to be the Body of Christ together, why it’s important that all of our gifts are being used for the kingdom and how God has designed and called us to be a multicultural family of faith.
We don’t have Breaking of Bread here weekly, but we do have Communion monthly. Our Communion services have also changed very much during this pandemic. Nevertheless, I have grown very fond of these monthly services and look forward to the one this Sunday. We worship in our homes the rest of the week at 9am through the YouTube service. Some of us come together at 11am on Zoom to reflect on that service. But once a month, we gather to be together live on Zoom. We pray, we sing, we worship, we fellowship and, in communion, we remember who Jesus is, what has Jesus done, and how Jesus has been revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.
To prepare for this week’s service, I would like to invite you to read and meditate on Psalm 86. As you reflect, I would like to ask you to focus on the following questions:
Who is God to you?
What has God done for you?
When has God delivered you?
Where has God fought for you?
How has God been revealed to you through the Holy Spirit?
Communion is a blessing. We are invited to the Lord’s table. We are asked to come together to celebrate who Jesus is, what God has done, and to see how the Spirit is alive and working among us. In fellowship, we dine with one another before the Lord. In worship, we join with one another to give thanks to God. In our prayers, songs and obedient hearts we commune with the Spirit and with one another.
Praise God for the blessing of Jesus. Praise Jesus for the blessing of the Spirit. And praise the Spirit for the blessing of our family of faith.
God bless you all, and take care.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Hank (Psalm 86: 11-13)