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Communion Meditation

Ezekiel 2.8f – 3.2
And now, Ezekiel, open your mouth and eat what I am going to give you. Just then, I saw a hand stretched out toward me. And in it was a scroll. The hand opened the scroll, and both sides of it were filled with words of sadness, mourning, and grief. The LORD said, "Ezekiel, son of man, after you eat this scroll, go speak to the people of Israel." He handed me the scroll and said, "Eat this and fill up on it." So I ate the scroll, and it tasted sweet as honey. (ASV)

Revelation 10.8-11
Once again the voice from heaven spoke to me. It said, "Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel standing on the sea and the land." When I went over to ask the angel for the little scroll, the angel said, "Take the scroll and eat it! Your stomach will turn sour, but the taste in your mouth will be as sweet as honey." I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. The taste was as sweet as honey, but my stomach turned sour. Then some voices said, "Keep on telling what will happen to the people of many nations, races, and languages, and also to kings." (ASV)

Ezekiel and John are both given a scroll and told to eat it. John is told it will taste sweet in his mouth, but turn his stomach bitter. Ezekiel tasted a scroll that was sweet. These are not the only people told to eat a scroll. Jeremiah is also told to eat the word of God.

After they eat the scroll, on which is written what God wants announced, both John and Ezekiel prophesy the word of God. The word, because they have eaten it, is readily on their lips; they need not read the scrolls. The word of God has become them; they have become it in the eating.

Just like God provided His word for the prophets to eat, He has given us His Word. Not on a scroll, but lived and evidenced in the life and death of our Savior. This is a Word of submission, of sacrifice, of death. Death to self for the glory of God. Sweet and bitter.

As we eat this remembrance of that Word, we take it in us, it becomes part of us; we become it. As we do, we proclaim, and we claim for ourselves that same submission, that same life of sacrifice of ourselves for others. We commit ourselves to that same sacrificial existence as we become God’s people in this world, moving among men to bless and minister to them.

Given at Sierra Vista, Arizona, September 3d, 2006

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