Something is Missing
Let’s consider for a moment what might be to some, a very unusual question.
Is it possible that something is missing in the way the Church in our generation celebrates what we call Communion? That question nagged at me for months. I had just finished compiling a collection of firsthand accounts of the Second Great Awakening in Tennessee and Kentucky. After I had thought the book was complete, that question began circling around in my head. When I asked the Holy Spirit what Communion looked like from His perspective, I was shocked by the answers I received. I think what I heard was just the tip of the iceberg.
What are we missing and how long has it been missing? What did they know that we don’t know? What did they experience that is missing from our experience?
In every instance where I had documented a frontier meeting, I discovered an interesting pattern. The event lasted for 7 to 14 days (sometimes more), but they had one very important thing in common. In each of those extended gatherings, the entire focus and culmination was securing a place at a Table.
The days before that event were days of intense spiritual preparation. There was preaching, sometimes because of the sheer number of people attending (thousands), there were more a group of preachers all speaking at the same time in different areas of the large open field: most standing on stumps, or anything higher than the ground passionately preparing the way for the Table. What they called repentance, we might assume was chaos, but what I learned was that what we call chaos and what the Holy Spirit calls chaos might be a very different thing. Wherever the people were, there was a cacophony of sound. Shouting praises, weeping over sin, singing joyfully and intense laughter: all at the same time. It was not unusual to see hundreds swept off their feet by the mighty power of God that would lay on the ground for hours under intense conviction unaware of anything around them. The results were always the same. Intense conviction of sin. Deep, heart wrenching repentance. Loud shouts of praises to God when the breakthroughs came. And then, a type of worship and singing proceeded from those individuals that can only spring forth from grateful hearts and mouths that have been rescued and redeemed from a downhill spiral by the Lamb of God. Elderly people, young men and women, children- all arrested and captivated by the One Who is Altogether Lovely- all standing (and laying prostrate) together with one single goal: to have their hearts prepared to sit at the Table of the Lord together.
And then, and only then came the culmination. All of those that were able to convince the ministers that examined them, of their absolute surrender to God, and living, intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, obtained a metal token that allowed them to sit at the treasured Table of the Lord alongside others in whose hearts also burned with a passionate fire and shared hunger for God.
It was not an obligation, but an honor. It did not last for minutes, but for hours. And many would not have moved from their place at the Table at all, if there had not been hundreds (or thousands) waiting for their seats, and the process would begin all over again.
As I ponder what is missing, there is one scripture that always comes to mind.
In II Kings, in the days of King Josiah, something was discovered when they were clearing debris from the Temple as it was being restored and prepared for use again. Something that had been missing for generations: missing for so long that nobody even remembered it.
And when it was found, it set up a chain of events that sparked a revival, first in the heart of the king, and then in the hearts of the people. How could something so important have been utterly forgotten? It was not until they began the heroic effort to clear the Temple of the what should have never been there in the first place that had collected there over time, that they discovered a great treasure. They found written words detailing what had been lost. And, when these words were read out loud before the king, his first response was mourning and brokenness. And then he gathered all of the people and commanded that the words be read out loud in their presence. Once again, the response was mourning and brokenness. And finally, they became painfully aware that what had been missing. Those words were the catalysts to initiate a progression of events that led them back to a very important Table, an ancient Table.