The Lord’s Supper -- A Respectful Parody

My friend Matt, though unsighted, has some great insights. He has given permission to use this respectful parody of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Twenty centuries ago, our Heavenly Father brought forth to this planet His only begotten son, to be crucified so that all men might be saved. Now we are engaged in a great Christian war...testing whether our faith, so conceived and so dedicated, can endure. We are met by Him so that we might receive strength and victory over death.

We have come to partake of this Lord’s Supper because He died, was buried and rose again that we might live. It is altogether fitting and holy that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this table. Jesus has already accomplished that for us. It is far above our poor power to add or detract anything from communion.

The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what He did. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which our Lord so nobly began.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us...that from His sacrificial death we take increased devotion to that cause for which He gave the last full measure of devotion...that we here highly resolve that He shall not have died in vain...that this Gospel shall have a new birth of freedom: the cleansing and renewing of His grace, by His blood and for our forgiveness.

Thanks be to God we shall not perish but have eternal life.

- - Matt Shively, June 2006

http://www.mattshively.com/calvaryaddress.html