Communion Thought From the Back of the Head

October 19, 2004 General

Sitting in rows in church I saw the back of my real estate agent’s head during the Lord’s Supper and thought I need to talk to him, partly because he’s my agent and also because he’s an elder at my church who happens to be an opera singer who promised to bless my house with a song someday if only I’d invite him, but I’m embarrassed because he mentioned I ought to fix a crack in the front stoop of my house, which I haven’t done, and I’m looking at his nicely combed hair from the back and drinking the juice, the blood of Christ, and thinking how I ought to get my mind back on the Lord and yet I can’t stop thinking about the crack in the foundation and how expensive it would be to repair and could I do it myself and how do they jack those foundations up anyway but as I looked up to see that communion service was over I wondered how much I’d examined myself or thought about Jesus and how much more I’d contemplated my own porch cracks and the back of my real estate agent’s head and thought he is much more to me than a salesman but also a shepherd and in that way I’m very blessed to be friends with a man I can trust who prays for me and wants to sing for my family and care for us like the sheep that we are, and he is also bowing to the Lord then looking around at his brothers and sisters he loves and singing vibrato for God’s glory, and I’m drinking all this in and thinking that somehow perhaps I have recognized the body of our Lord.

I Corinthians 11:27-29

Greg Taylor

My wife, Jill, and I have three children: Ashley, Anna, and Jacob. We live in Broken Arrow and I preach for The Journey: a New Generation Church of Christ in Tulsa (www.thejourneychurch.faith). I have a B.A. in Journalism and an M.Div. from Harding School of Theology in Memphis, Tennessee. Before coming to Tulsa, we lived in Nashville, Tennessee four years, where I worked with The Zoe Group and Wineskins Magazine. From 1994-2001 we lived in Jinja, Uganda, where we worked with a church planting team, an experience that forever changed our lives. With Randy Harris, I co-authored Living Jesus: Doing What Jesus Says in the Sermon on the Mount and you can learn about other books I've written at my web site, www.gregtaylor.org. My most recent book co-authored with Randy is Daring Faith: Meeting Jesus in the Book of John.

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7 Responses

  1. john alan turner says:
    October 18, 2004 at 11:49 pm

    Hysterical!

  2. Keith Brenton says:
    October 19, 2004 at 10:59 am

    hmm discerning the body is part of the feast and the back of the head is part of the body of someone who is part of the body like you are so maybe you wrote a blog entry that would make both the apostle paul and james joyce proud of you at the same time hmm

  3. Greg Taylor says:
    October 19, 2004 at 11:04 am

    HA! and you know Paul didn’t use any punctuation, not even an exclamation mark (!)

  4. don says:
    October 19, 2004 at 12:58 pm

    great piece of writing, because everyone who has ever been IN a worship service can relate… I like it.

  5. Clarissa says:
    October 20, 2004 at 8:29 am

    The scary thing is I sooo followed that. You sure you’re not a girl?

  6. JD says:
    October 20, 2004 at 3:44 pm

    How did you get inside my head, and how do I get you out?

  7. Steve Duer says:
    October 28, 2004 at 9:43 am

    If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. (I Cor 11:2, The Message)

    You are Christ’s body–that’s who you are! You must never forget this. (I Cor 12:27, The Message)

    Our communion experience has too long be individualistic!

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