What does the image below have to do with the Lord’s Supper?
The above image is a screenshot from the movie Beat Street. That movie, released in 1984 did for break dancing and rap music and graffiti (hip hop) what the movie Colors did for gangs in 1986, it caused the phenomena to spread all across the United States.
Until today, I thought it portrayed a very realistic look at the slice of life in 1984 called Hip Hop. I found out it wasn’t so sugar coated as portrayed by Harry Belefonte in this film. That’s what researching for a blog post will do for you. My Beat Street bubbles have burst : (
Well, the title of this blog post speaks about the Lord’s Supper and whether or not we should treat it each Sunday as a funeral, which is often done, or as a celebration.
In the movie Beat Street (spoiler alert) one of the main characters was Ramo, a graffiti artist. Near the end of the movie, he dies while chasing a fellow graffiti artist who was spraying his “tag” (name) on one of Ramo’s masterpieces like seen in the image above.
Celebration or Funeral?
When discussing the memorial plans for Ramo, his best friend Double K (Kenny) says they will hold his memorial at the Roxy, a night club known far and wide for being THE place where break dance battles were held, hip hop artists would perform and DJs always played the newest rap songs. Double K would invite Melle Mel and the Furious Five to perform and a gospel group from the Bronx. “This won’t be a funeral,” he stated. “It’s going to be a celebration.”
Often times, and I’ve been guilty of it too, we treat the Lord’s supper talk as a funeral message and not a celebration. Are both styles appropriate in talking about the bread and about the cup? I think so, but too often we tend to make it a somber few moments each week. Of course, there are churches where it is never somber, but they may be the exception to the rule.
We should celebrate with joy the sacrifice of Jesus’ life at least as often as we lament his having to die for us. A good mixture of both is probably in due order.
Related posts:
Churches like to be attractional A much respected elder at the church we attended a couple years back stood up one day to announce the church would be changing names. In his talk, he mentioned t...
Should Churches tweet? If you’re ready for that big responsibility, then I’d say, “Go for it!” But as the book of James says, “Not everyone who can teach should be a teacher.” The same can be said of ...
Bible Basics of Blogging Be Nice Don’t use your blog as a platform for attacks on others or as a constant stream of negativity i.e. complaints or rants. People don’t want to be brought down. After...
Do You Have a Successful Church Twitter Account Why are some churches successful at using social media and others aren’t? While I haven’t found any stunning success stories, there are some small su...
The following Twitter advice applies equally well to business, personal or church Twitter accounts The Twitterverse is huge. Of course, it isn’t Facebook, and praise God for that. Now, I understand...
So Phil Robertson quotes the Bible and outrage spreads across mass media and the professional gay community (GLADD). I'm also sure there were plenty of homosexuals who were upset without their profess...
I'm not sure where you grew up, but for everyone growing up in Chicagoland, we know Megyn Kelly and Sarah Palin and everyone else who thinks Santa is white are all totally wrong. Everyone who grew...
Time and time again, the question of why acapella churches of Christ have no instruments is raised. Sometimes , it is simply because a visitor stumbles into an acapella church and sees no piano, o...
