Preparing for Eucharist

In Alister McGrath’s newest book, The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind, four themes connected to eucharist are explored briefly, and I want to reflect on each one over the next four weeks.

Recollection. The Eucharist is about remembering. If we take a moment to recollect that our first brothers and sisters took this bread and this cup in the presence of Jesus during his last few days, we will also recollect that the Lord’s supper was a recollection — and reliving through active remembrance — of the Passover event itself. McGrath points to Psalm 136, a psalm of recollection of the great and mighty deeds of YHWH.

So the Lord’s Supper is to be a time of recollection. What can we recollect? I suggest the following as we prepare for eucharist:

Abraham’s call, the aqedah, or binding, of Isaac when God stepped in to provide, the call of Moses and the liberation of Israel from Egypt at Passover, the Red Sea, Sinai, the giving of the Torah, the entrance into the Land. The return from Exile. Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation. And most notably the Last supper as a time when God with us died for us.