Following Jesus into God’s Family

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of man walking on the moon.

I’ve heard about Apollo 11 my whole life. But this week I was surprised to discover it was also the 1st celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the Moon. 

Buzz Aldrin, an elder at his Presbyterian church in Houston, brought Communion bread and a silver cup.

He planned to share the Communion with the world over the radio. But the atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair had recently sued NASA, so they told him to keep his comments more general.

After unpacking the Communion elements and laying them in front of the guidance system, Aldrin said:

Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM Pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence… to invite each person listening, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.

He then read John 15:5 which he’d handwritten on a scrap of paper. Where Jesus says

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Then he partook of the Supper. Aldrin later said.

“In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup.  It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.” 

As much as I thought I knew about Apollo 11, that was a surprising story.

Back in May, we looked at the surprising response of a Syrophoenician mother.  

Today we’ll look at the surprising statement Jesus made to her. And how this surprising story points to the reason we’re here today—gathered around this Communion table.