A Moment to Remember- July 3

Forty years ago this summer, the eyes of the world were focused on the skies. On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their historic first steps on the surface of the moon.

    Did you know that one of the other “firsts” of this adventure was the celebration of communion? Buzz Aldrin took a small piece of bread and a small chalice of wine from his church and stowed it in his personal kit. When the lunar module touched down on the moon, Aldrin took out the communion elements and set them in front of the guidance-system computer. He then radioed Houston:

    “Houston, this is Eagle. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whomever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way.”

   Next came the moment of Communion. Aldrin writes in his autobiography:

    “I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements…

    “Just before I partook of the elements, I read the words, which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space, we are in fact acting in Christ. I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the Church everywhere. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility.

    “I read: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.’” (Guideposts, July 1989)

    Bread and wine offered on the moon; bread and wine offered in an upper room in Palestine; bread and wine offered week after week in our church…a mysterious and holy meal uniting all humankind into a community that transcends time and space, a community of thanksgiving to the God who gives and sustains every molecule of life.

    Perhaps your worship habits this summer can be expanded to include participation at the Wednesday communion services at noon and six o’clock. Buzz Aldrin’s witness is a reminder of how this holy meal binds all of life together. It could mean a lot to you if you regularly share the power of communion.

I’ll see you at the “Table Place” this Sunday!

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Power Shift-June 19

            A friend sent a video warning that Muslims are taking over the world because of the higher birth rate among this religious group. It got me to thinking about how power shifts all the time, sometimes quietly and sometimes in revolutionary ways.

            One of the greatest powers in our world right now is the power of oil, coal, and gas. Whoever controls these powerful resources is definitely in control of the world. Of course we know that oil and coal won’t last forever, which illustrates the point that power is always shifting.

            The good news is that we humans have the power to make the shift. We experience power shifts every day. The power of anxiety shifts to the power of assurance. The power of ebb becomes the power of flow. The power of distraction becomes the power of connection. There is power in everything we say or do, in everything we don’t say or do.

            Now it is the nature of power to be constantly shifting. Power won’t, can’t, stand still. And the extraordinary thing is that we humans have the capacity to shift power from depleting to renewing, from darkness to light, from broken to whole, from drudgery to joy.

            Christians believe the greatest power in the world is love and finally everything depends upon the power of love. From love’s power comes the power of hope, of faith, of forgiveness. These powers can shift and scoot the powers-that-be all over the dance floor. Our job is to catch the beat of God’s power and then get out onto the dance floor of life and make the shift.

            We are in the Season of Pentecost which concentrates upon the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit came they would receive power from on high. I think he meant that we stumbling, fumbling followers of his would actually begin to see what he was all about and start doing the things he did, like healing, resurrecting, and reconciling. It was a power shift that he was anticipating. And every time his church opens itself to that Holy Spirit power a new world is born.

            We could use a dose of the power of love just about now, don’t you think? How will it happen? Only through you, only through you. That’s the power shift that Jesus wants in our lives. As the words of a hymn say it, “I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me.” So, “dance then wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance said he.” May this season of Pentecost find us dancing to the power of love as we once again make the shift to being spirit filled witnesses to the Lord of life!

            I’ll see you at the “Power Shift” Place this Sunday!