In pursuit of unity

I was given an opportunity to share some thoughts about Unity among the church. 

The Holy Spirit led me to ponder the Lord's Supper as a profound expression of unity and togetherness. 

Again, the idea of the ANASTASIS (resurrection) of Christ came alive as a sign to rise to the call of being the expression of a new life not only IN Christ but AS Christ together with our brothers and sisters. 

I would like to share the link to the video and a section of the manuscript of my reflections.

In Pursuit of Unity abstract:

" ... If we read Paul’s description of the Last supper, he says in I Corinthians 11: 26

“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

So, . . .  there is also a division between body and blood, between the bread and the cup. There are two elements given separately.

This division is a proclamation of death. When blood is poured out of a body the body is dead. There is no life in it anymore.

Jesus was going to die, and the disciples needed to understand that just as the separation of his body from his blood would have brought the life out of him and caused him to die, in the same way the unification of the blood and the body in his disciples would have brought back His life in them.

Paul says they would proclaim his death, separation of body and blood, until his return as the living king. So meanwhile, between his death and his return, his being alive is possible only in the disciples who reunite blood and body in themselves bringing Jesus back alive. 

The body and the blood of Jesus would have been reunited in the people of God.

If Jesus could have not been physically present anymore, his presence could have continued in his people as a testimony of the power of life over death. That means that the people of God can be the testimony of the resurrection, the return of life in a dead body.

The disciples, in their togetherness, could have testified Jesus’ resurrection power, his life over death among the people until his return. They would have made Jesus still present.

Jesus was concerned about providing a message of unity among his disciples. The bread needed to be broken among them and the cup needed to be divided because this way, his body and his blood would come back together in His people and He would be alive again in them.

Something broken and shed is lost but placed inside the believers it regains life and lives only in the togetherness. Not in each one of them individually but in them as a body.