Are we really going to talk about…communion?

Thank you.

Thanks for all your thoughts, e-mails, and prayers. Today was a good day. In each service, it seemed we became a gathered meeting. God’s presence was with us, and this was a very good experience for me. I think, as Robin wrote in the comments, that I probably have more to write. But I felt faithful today.

My good friend Corey Beals helped me when I was needing help to focus. He reminded me of the wonderful Friends’ history of queries. “Find some good questions to help us,” he said. I closed today by asking if we really do have freedom from and freedom to. Here were my queries:

Do you truly have freedom from?

Are you free from the untruth that certain people and practices control and dispense an encounter with God to us?
Are you free from the “transaction” model of worship, where if we do certain things or certain practices, God must magically respond?
And, for those of us who are very at home with the Quaker belief: Are you free from spiritual pride, thinking the rest of the world isn’t as mature in their view of communion as we?

Do you truly have freedom to?

Are you truly free to encounter the living God in every moment of every day?
Do you seek to draw from the true vine and feast on the true bread and notice the activity of God as the most important thing in your life?
Are you free to let symbols and habits and acts of worship draw you into the real presence of Christ?
Are you free to let your body and your senses worship and encounter God, free from the lie that says the best worship is disconnected from having a physical body and living in a physical world?

Here’s the rest of what I shared.