What's In YOUR Pocket?

It is the tradition of my church to offer Communion on the first Sunday of the month.  Last Sunday the sermon was a bit shorter to accommodate this liturgy.  As the broken bits of crackers and teeny little plastic cups of grape juice were being passed down the rows from one person to the other, I considered what I needed to confess before the LORD.

Nothing big, I thought at first, as if I was rummaging through my purse for a few coins.  And for some reason, I thought about how I pass through the security line at the airport, placing on the tables my shoes, keys, my backpack, and my suitcase of which has already been purged of anything more than three ounces.  What seems like nothing backs up the line out the door of the terminal.

And so, what do I have, not to pass through the scanning machines at the airport, but to place on the altar before the LORD?  What is on His radar? Well, pride is always an obvious one.  But by the time I had lifted that heavy load up, along came a lot of other stuff out of my pockets equally unwieldy.  What about those pangs of jealousy last week, feelings of despair in the middle of the night, those sharp words not even spoken?  All of which are linked inextricably to the selfishness that so desires to consume me.

Ok, so what else is in there?  What else do I don't recognize or consider as sin?  Fear of the unknown?
Fear of the known, the maybe possible, and "what if's?"  Oh yes, and give me a bigger altar, worry takes up a lot of space.  Hurt feelings, not THAT too?

We leave church as different people because of Communion.  Because Jesus paid with His life for all that junk in our lives.  LORD, have mercy on us.  We worship God by leaving on the altar that which we were never meant to carry.  And realize His unbelievable grace.

That changes everything.

But He was wounded for my transgressions,
He was bruised for my iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement
            that made us whole,
and with His stripes
                           we are healed.

                              Isaiah 53.5