Unity in Love

By Roy Stetler
May 5, 2024

Our life is sustained, among other things, by breathing, eating, drinking, and moving. These do not guarantee a long life, but they are clearly necessary. Likewise, our faith is sustained by practicing, or abiding in, Jesus’ love. The more we practice love, the more alive, the more balanced, the more resilient we can be.
Holy Communion is one practice of abiding in Jesus’ love. In it, we partake the life and the death of our Lord. In the bread and cup, we receive the love of Christ into ourselves. It is a living practice of intimate friendship with Jesus.
Many Christians call Communion a sacrament because when we take the bread and the cup, we are at the same time confessing and living our faith. In the meal, we are one with Christ. We partake of Christ. We are on a journey with, and in, Christ.
Partly because of a reminder from Bishop Jim Dunlop to the Lower Susquehanna Synod pastors, I have been renewed in the power of this ritual meal in which we experience, bodily, our Risen Lord’s presence. That is why at Quickel we have returned to the practice of distributing the meal from the altar. In this single meal is a single Presence, a single Love which binds us all together. The singularity is a sign of our unity in love.
Thanks be to God for the love of the One who gave his life for the mission of Love.