By Shara Lee

WITH THE proliferation of technology, and so much now available to us through the internet, we can forget what truly matters in life. We get caught up in following carefully planned out schedules on our Google calendars and are ruled by our smart phones.

Even unwinding is a solitary activity. With ipods in hand, we hope to drown out the sounds of the world and escape into our music. When everything is so busy during the week, weekends are a longed-for time of rest and relaxation.

On Sundays after church, it can be hard to feel anything but fatigue.

It’s easy to convince ourselves that we’ve paid our weekly Christian dues and rush home to savour our last few hours of freedom from the scheduled grind of work.

However, in doing this, we may miss out on what could be the most beneficial part of the week.

Food and drink bring people together. This was evident even in the time of Jesus. He would meet with his disciples over meals to share  his teachings with them. These would be times of fellowship, communion and connection.

What was important then is still vital now. There is great value in breaking bread together. It’s time to finally recognize the significance of the Sunday brunch.

Continue article >>

Getting together after church is not a time to gossip about the latest church drama, but instead a time to establish and reestablish human connections with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

When we are weak, it is the job of the church to prop us up, and likewise when we see that others are weak, we can do the same for them.

Coming together to ‘break bread’ has significant spiritual significance. It is a time that we can come together to recognize all the blessings given to us, including the most basic blessings of daily sustenance.

When we share these blessings together in the body of Christ, we together thank God for all that he has blessed us with.

On Sundays, we may partake of communion in our pews as a symbol of our devotion to God and in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrificial death for us.

Matthew 26:26-29 describes it perfectly: “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

But if we really want to do as Jesus did, we should also find more opportunities to fellowship with the people of Christ.

Acts of communion and fellowship should reaffirm our faith and reestablish the connections we should be nurturing with our brethren.

October 2010