Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 45, No. 46                             SOUTHSIDE ORACLE                   January 17, 2003

The Bulletin Board

      Baptized – Aaron Nichols was baptized by his father, Jim, Sunday evening.  May God’s blessings be with him as he begins his Christian walk.

      The Sick – Russell Kleinhans underwent surgery Monday at Elmbrook Hospital and is expected to be hospitalized for several days….Lisa Gustafson will be going to Cleveland for very serious surgery on January 20^th….Debbie McMillion is recovering well and went home Sunday after surgery at Community Memorial Hospital on Tuesday….Elfriede Wandsnider went home from St. Lukes’ Hospital Monday following  her back surgery….Tammy Shilts is doing well after surgery at Froedtert Hospital on Thursday.  She hopes to go home this week….Hope Zettel and Esther Christensen continue to recover from their recent broken bones. 

ATTENDANCE RECORD

                              Two years ago         Last year      Last week          Goal

   Bible classes                                            139                  148                   171            170   

   Morning worship                                       201                  233                  *262            250

Evening worship                                         57                  180                     66              80

Contribution                                     $3360.66         $3925.48           $3798.17   $4200.00

                                               (*) first service, 160; second service, 102

      Coming Events – The annual Southside dinner and auction to benefit the Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp will be February 15^th from 6:00 – 9:30 p.m.  See the bulletin board or contact Wayne Alexander for details….The Southside area-wide men’s breakfast will be Saturday, March 1^st from 8:30 a.m. to noon.  See Bruce Williams for additional information.

      The next Christian Workers’ Meeting is Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.  Monroe Hawley will speak on “The Israel of God,” a discussion on the relationship between Judaism and the early church and the emergence of Gentile Christianity.  Michael Blakley from Northtown will discuss Constantine’s influence on early Christianity. 

      Parent to Parent 2000, is a video/discussion program designed to help parents with children of all ages.  The first session with two groups meeting at the same time was Saturday night with nearly twenty people involved.  The program will meet every other Saturday for three more sessions.  Though participation for the current groups is closed, the program will be repeated as future interest requires.

      Blessed by Calamity – The lone survivor of a shipwreck was cast upon an uninhabited island.  He erected a hut and stored the little he had salvaged from the burning ship.  Daily he prayed, scanned the horizon, and longed for a ship to rescue him.  Returning from a hunt he was horrified to see his hut go up in smoke.  To his limited vision the worst had happened.  God saw beyond disaster: A ship arrived the next day and the captain said, “We saw your smoke signal.”  May we see good in all our calamities.  They may be God’s way of answering us.                          __Selected

The Lord’s Supper (3)

Its Functions

      Why do followers of Jesus partake of the Lord’s supper?  Is it simply that he has asked us to do so, or is there more to it than just a command?  Actually, the Lord’s supper has vast implications for Jesus’ disciples.  When He instituted the simple meal, He told the twelve, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24).  Initially, therefore, the supper is a memorial that looks backward to what God has done for us in the atonement – the bread reminding us of His crucified body, and the fruit of the vine of His shed blood.  The supper goes beyond this to help us appreciate the whole of Jesus’ ministry and the vastness of the grace of God.

      But the supper is more.  It is a renewal of our covenant with God that we made with him when we were baptized. Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28).  In taking the supper we affirm our relationship with God.

      Not only does the supper look backward to the cross, but it also looks forward as a proclamation to the world of our faith that Jesus will return.  Paul affirms, “When you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).  It is a testimony of our living faith in the resurrection.

      The Lord’s supper also speaks to the present.  “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?   And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”  Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16, 17).  This passage is rich in meaning.  The cup is spoken of as a thanksgiving, a time for us to express our appreciation for the mighty works of God.  We observe the meal together in communion with God and one another.  And in so doing we are affirming our unity in the one body for which Christ died.  We should recognize, however, that this communion and this unity are significant not just because we relate to one another, but because we are celebrating that relationship in Jesus Christ.  

      I think we often have a tendency in eating the Lord’s supper to focus on a single aspect of the meal.  Perhaps it will help us to realize that in eating it we are celebrating our total relationship with God and our Savior, not simply carrying out a divine command.                                                                              __Monroe Hawley