A PROPOSAL ON THE VALUE OF HOLY COMMUNION IN THE LIFE OF CHRISTIANS IN THE CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH

Abstract

This study will investigate the value of Holy Communion in the life of Christians in the Christ Apostolic Church. The following research objectives will be ascertained: To find out the impact of holy communion in the life of a Christian, to know the significant of the holy communion in Christian life and to find out believe of Christians in the Christ Apostolic Church about holy communion. The researcher will employ qualitative analysis because it suitable for the topic which deals with intangible and inexact information that can be difficult to collect and measure

Introduction

Background of the study

Holy Communion, is the distinctive rite of Christian worship, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the eve of His atoning death, being a religious partaking of bread and wine, which, having been presented before God the Father in thankful memorial of Christ’s inexhaustible sacrifice, have become (through the sacramental blessing) the communion of the body and blood of Christ. The Lord’s Supper is fundamentally (but not solely) intended to evoke our hearts’ remembrance of the divinity and blessing of Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).

The Bible uses the phrase “breaking of bread” in various forms. Acts 2:42-46 depicts the early church breaking bread as part of their fellowship: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” The early Christians came together frequently for shared meals, which involved the breaking of bread.

scripture teaches us that every human being is made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), vested with an inviolable dignity and an inestimable worth, bound for community, marked by mutuality and interdependence, and called to love one another. This reality is part of the mystery of God’s creation. It is the architecture of grace that undergirds human existence.

Yet many persons claim for themselves the “right” to classify people, using criteria of their own choosing. In this process, they frequently employ the language of division. Some of the terms they use such as race and ethnicity are fraught with conceptual imprecision. These expressions are categories and images that function as identity markers to establish boundaries within the human community.

How might the church overcome the boundaries that human beings construct for ourselves? Our divided world needs a theology that affirms the commonality shared by all human beings whom God has made and that takes into account the significance of the redeemed community as a sign of the new creation. I believe Holy Communion has much to teach believers in Christ about human identity in that new creation.

God creates all human beings in God’s own image, but in Jesus Christ, who embodies the very image of God, humankind and the whole creation are reconciled to God. Through the Holy Spirit, a new creation emerges. As Paul states, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away: see everything has become new! All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18). In Holy Communion, followers of Christ also express their keen anticipation of a future for which they long. When they share the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper, believers anticipate and enter into the feast of the kingdom that is revealed when creation is renewed at the end of this age. In Holy Communion, Christians bear witness to the heavenly kingdom by celebrating their common life in Christ and shared participation in God’s mission. If heaven is a place of communion and genuine intimacy, in the Lord’s Supper heaven and earth meet as human beings encounter the past, present, and future converging in the presence of God (Norman Wirzba, 2011).

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