Eugene Peterson does his usual thing of getting to the heart of the matter.
Remember and proclaim are the magnetic poles of the Eucharist: they operate simultaneously but in polarity, the 'remember' a continuous reorientation to the North Pole in the action of Christ on the cross that accomplishes salvation, and the 'proclaim' a continuous reorientation to the South Pole, the articulation of that crucified Christ in kerygmatic words and acts, for 'how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?' (Rom 10.14). If the 'remember' and the 'proclaim' get isolated from one another, the eucharist compass that keeps our salvation participating lives headed the same direction and in step with the salvation accomplishing life of Christ malfunctions.
The Eucharist stands as a bulwark against reducing our participation in salvation to the exercise of devotional practices before God or being recruited to run errands for God. It is hard to get through our heads, but the fact is that we are not charge of our salvation and we can add nothing to it ... At the Supper we renew our understanding and obedience in this salvation reality and receive over and over again what we cannot take or perform for ourselves but only receive. 'Do this.' This Supper, receive in the fear-of-the-Lord, is the remembrance and the proclamation that keep salvation rooted and grounded in Christ, and only Christ.
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Without the Eucharist as focal practice, it is very easy to drift off into imagining Jesus as our Great Example whom we will imitate, or our Great Teacher from whom we will learn, or our great Hero by whom we will be inspired. And without the Eucharist it is very easy to drift into a spirituality that is dominated by ideas about Jesus instead of receiving life from Jesus. The Eucharist says a plain 'no' to all that. The Eucharist puts Jesus in his place: dying on the cross and giving us that sacrificed life. And it puts us in our place: opening our hands and receiving the remission of our sins, which is our salvation.
Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Hodder & Stoughton, 2005), pp.201-203.
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