Reversing the Trend

Reversing a trend is hard to do but necessary to be done. Our behavior brings consequences that form a series; that series tends to get worse and spread to other things, and we end up with a cumulative effect we don’t want but can’t stop.

Christ’s mission had to reverse a pattern we’ve all caught ourselves up in. That was harder for him to do than for us to get it started. His work aimed at stopping what had been in progress since God created our first parents. Jesus did more than teach about what to do and not to do, so his mission was tougher than being a lawgiver or prophet or rabbi. He was sent to be a savior.

Being a savior meant qualifying himself to be more than a teacher. That’s the reason our time at the table has a prominent place in our gathered experience. The bread and grape juice call us to a Person who doesn’t just speak. His very self, presented in body and blood, got involved in retrieving us from a trend, a trend we admit here that we are still caught up in. So we keep reaffirming as here our connection with him as a way of disconnecting from that trend.