Easy
Originally scheduled for October 28
You have probably seen the commercial. There’s
a stationery company which advertises its services by the use of
what they call an “easy” button. The gimmick of the commercial is
that you press the easy button and all of your needs (at least in
terms of paper goods) are instantly met. It’s a giant red button;
therefore, you won’t even have any trouble finding the button to hit
it.
Have you ever asked yourself why they use this
method? The answer is simple enough. They know that you think
ordering products like this is something that’s hard. Stationery
stores typically carry a very wide variety of products, and this can
make finding exactly what you want rather difficult. They know that
you think it’s hard.
But what if you’re right? What if it is hard?
After all, not everything in life can be easy. In fact, we tend to
avoid those things which are hard and do the things which are easy.
So let me ask you: is Communion hard or easy?
At first it seems that Communion is easy. After
all, you’re not the one who is dying on the cross; your job is to
remember the death on the cross. You’re not the one doing the
suffering. Someone else paid the price for your sins on that cross —
and that absolutely has to be the hard part of the entire thing.
More than that, you’ve already gone through the process of accepting
your salvation. Most of us remember that as a rather emotional
experience — but it’s over. It’s done. Remembering that sacrifice is
easy; remembering the benefits that it brought you is a joyful
experience. Communion is easy.
But perhaps it is not easy. We are told that at
Communion we are to examine ourselves. Self-examination is never
particularly easy, especially when it concerns something like sin.
It is intrinsic to the nature of self-examination that you are
looking for something which is defective; nobody ever looks to see
how wonderful they are. You look to see if something’s wrong. At
communion, you are looking for sin in your life, and that’s not
easy.
Once you find it — and there is nothing like
looking to cause finding — you are told to confess it. Own up to it;
“man up,” as they say in the military. It’s not that God doesn’t
know that you’re a sinner; he just wants to hear it from you. He
wants you to know what he already knows. So admit it. That’s hard.
Then once you’ve admitted it, repent of it.
Most of the difficult things in life involve change, particularly
change for the person. We are often creatures of habit; we don’t
really want to change the curtains in the bedroom, let alone the way
we behave towards others. But that’s what repentance is; a change of
you. It’s a difficult thing to do; Communion is hard.
So you tell me: is Communion hard or easy?
Maybe it depends on the amount of practice you’ve had.
