Food for Thought by David Jackson

COMMUNION THOUGHTS 

Since I retired in May I’ve had time to do things I didn’t have time for when working full-time. Frequently when I’m sitting at my desk I like to listen to music. Recently as one album finished, the next one started to play. It was Handel’s Messiah. I had sung parts of it with the Acapella Chorus at Harding, and Jim Chester used to lead Highland in singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” a couple of times each year, but I’m not familiar with the whole piece, so I kept listening. 

Right in the middle is a hymn called, “All We Like Sheep.” I recognized that the words came from Isaiah 53:6. In fact, it is word-for-word from Isaiah. It occurred to me that these words express the very essence of the grace of God which we call to mind in the Lord’s Supper. I want to attempt to read it as the music expressed it, commenting on the repetitions and the style of the music. 

            “All we like sheep…all we like sheep…all we like sheep have gone astray…

            All we like sheep have gone astray…all we like sheep have gone astray.”

The repetition of the words makes a point that sounds negative. At this point, however, the music is lively, the voices are beautiful, the notes are high, featuring female and tenor voices. It communicates “we are all in the same boat,” or “we’re free and enjoying life,” and “nothing to worry about.” 

The same mood continues with the next line: “we have turned each one…we have turned each one…we have turned to his own way…We have turned each one to his own way.” Same happy music, but by now I was thinking, “sheep can’t exist on their own. They can’t find food and water without guidance, and they are completely defenseless against predators. It isn’t a pretty picture if we are the sheep! Add that each one has turned to our own way, and that sounds like chaos, total confusion, even mutual conflict.” 

But as we look around, we’re just as good as anyone else, things are going along, life is good, isn’t it? Is that what life looks like in Memphis right now? How about the ordinary citizens in Ukraine? Israel? Nations in central Africa? Daily life in Communist China?

Now the last line of the verse. The music changes, it is slower, the pitch is lower, the voices are from the basses, and even the instruments have taken a somber tone as they sing, “and the Lord has laid on him…and the Lord has laid on him…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The last chord on the last word, “all,” is in a minor key. It sounds like grief or danger, even lamentation. 

As I sat there listening and realizing the meaning of the words and the impact of the music, I wept…literal tears, because I realized this music was describing me and my need for the gift that only God can give through Jesus Christ. 

It is the gift we remember in Communion. In taking the bread and the cup we remember that the physical death of Jesus was God’s way of taking away our sin. We are now righteous, just like Jesus. What a reason for Thanksgiving!