The Body of Christ Broken for You

Three weeks ago, I was asked at my new church if I wanted to help to serve communion on Sunday morning. We have communion every Sunday. We have three stations. Two stations have people to go through the line and receive communion. The third station includes prayer with the communion offering.


Not many people like to serve at the station where they are called upon to pray with people. Many people are intimidated about praying with and for others in a setting in which they are called upon to pray out loud. I am not one of those people. It isn’t because I am particularly good at it; it is just that I have a desire to become good at it and I know how powerful prayer can be. I think that the only way to become good at something is to try. For more information about what I am not good at, I suggest that you read my post entitled “Foo-foo.” Ahem, I digress.


I agreed to help in the role of prayerful communion and two weeks later, they had me on the schedule. I attended church that morning not knowing quite what to expect. Whenever we think that we know what to expect, that is when we are frequently surprised by the unexpected. Sometimes it is a pleasant surprise, and sometimes, not so much.


I lined up with the other communion servers at the appointed time in the service, next to the gentleman with whom I would be partnered, used the hand cleaner, received communion from the pastor, and then was sent to our station.

We actually had customers. Without violating confidentiality, I have to say that I don’t know whether or not I blessed anyone, but I received a blessing. We had several people lined up for prayer. Several had a long list of areas that they wanted prayer in their lives. I was a little nervous about insuring that I remembered every request. As we prayed, I could sense relief for the individuals for their struggle. The relief was faith-driven. For the people asking for the prayer believed that the prayers were effective. I could see that in their countenance after we prayed together. I could see that the furrowed brows smoothed out as I offered the body of Christ to them. Seeing the calmness come over them was a blessing for me.

Feeling like I had handed them tangible hope with my words that were led by the Spirit of God was a mighty, powerful blessing for me.

I was reminded again that whenever we step forward with the sincere intent to bless others and to be the vessel through which the spirit of God operates, there is always a blessing awaiting us.

I left that service feeling quite uplifted. It is my hope that the people I prayed with did too.

Amen.

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copyright 2012 by Kathy Robbins