So now what?

Dear Friends

So now what? We have received the resurrected Christ, we have received the Holy Spirit. God is present in our lives and gives us the Kingdom freely: we only have to take it, make it our own, live it. But how?

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread;
and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

— First Corinthians 11:23–25

And we read this and we interpret the Lord telling us to remember him, to think about him, to have thoughts about him. “Do this in remembrance of me.” But this only scratches the surface.

Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God.

Numbers 10:10

For what is variously translated as “remembrance,” “remind” or “memorial” is from the same group of words and conveys the meaning of making something present here and now: the offerings reaffirm—bring to remembrance—the covenant between God and Israel. By being made present, the two are drawn together and united.

So earlier in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he wrote,

in Christ Jesus I [Paul] have begotten you through the Gospel.
Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

First Corinthians 4:15–17

Using the same concept that Christ uses, Paul states that sending Timothy to them makes Paul himself present: Timothy is the remembrance of Paul, the making present of Paul, and his teachings.

So the words quoted above could equally be translated, “Do this as my remembrance.” In other words, do this to make the death and Resurrection of our Lord present again in our community. And to affirm this, the Apostle Paul writes in the very next verse,

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes.

First Corinthians 11:26

So now what? We live the Christian life by gathering together and offering the remembrance Christ has commanded us. We come together with our own concerns and hopes, our own joys and sorrows, our own living and our own dying. We come together to become more than our individual parts because we come together and are joined to one another through Christ. And being joined to one another, with Christ our Head and Great High Priest, we become the Church of God, heirs of the Kingdom, receivers of divine Grace.

Let this, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, be our goal, our destiny. Let us be more than a gathering, more than a meeting of those with similar beliefs, more than a group of friends—important though these things be—let us be the Church of the living God.

Come and see!


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Sermon

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

How much do I work, tirelessly at times, to resist Christ. I come up with excuses: “tomorrow will be the day when I start to be a Christian” I deceive myself. Yet if this is the Son of God, the Saviour of the World, I must be changed: but I remain content in my sin, content in my failing life, content in my dying. The Almighty God who made Heaven and Earth, who has given me a path to union with him, is before me and I prevaricate and dither, I find justification for my lack of action and I call out as did the Pharisees, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? … Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.” Any excuse, any reason, any justification why I should resist is taken by me.

And yet the evidence stacks up. The voice of the Apostles “has gone out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (Psalm 18:5 ʟxx) They have stood for Truth where I would not, they have proclaimed the death of Death and the Resurrection of our Lord where I stayed silent, they have remained faithful where I have been faithless. And I stand—today, here and now—at a cross-roads: will I be a Christian or not? Will I receive all that has been handed to me, make it my own and pass it on with neither addition nor subtraction (see Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18–19) or will I pick and choose what I like and leave the rest behind? Will I accept this prophet from Galilee or not?

Read last Sunday’s Sermon, I am the Light of the World.
Archive of Past Sermons.


Services this week

Friday 9th June
Discussion on the Book of Numbers, 8 pm
Online only

Saturday 10th June
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh

Sunday 11th June
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh

Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.

Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.

Attending Church

We meet at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.


Can I help you?

I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.

Can you help the community?

Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.

Your prayers!

With love in Christ

Fr Alexander
[email protected]