Guard the Good Deposit

Section III: How Do We Guard the Good Deposit? • 43

We need Word and Table to retell and reenact the biblical witness concerning Christ. From very beginning the Church worship service has been centered on the Word of God and the Table of the Lord. In the Word we retell the story of Scripture. Through reading, preaching, teaching, and songs we soak ourselves in the Bible. At the Table we reenact the climax of the story. We join the disciples on the night when Jesus was betrayed, and he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11.23–26). Worship recalls us to the basic facts of the Gospel. We never stop needing the cross. We have eternal life only through Christ’s death. We are saved and set free because he was taken captive and killed. We need to gather to remember this until he comes again. We need the Word and Table for worship that has life and variety. God is not boring. He is a creative warrior poet. He is a miracle-working mighty mystery. He is a gentle whisper, a flowing fountain, and a consuming fire. He is all this and more, but never boring.