shopify site analytics
Skip to main content
#
JCPC
 
Reflections

Welcome to the JCPC Daily Reflections Blog. Reflections are daily devotionals authored by JCPC pastors, staff and members and provide insight, guidance and comfort to help you make it through each day. If you’d like to receive Reflections each day via email,  provide your email address.

Monday, August 05 2019

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon 50 years ago, history was made in several ways. Armstrong's words, "one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind" have been memorialized in our memories. History was also made by Buzz Aldrin through a ritual; a remembrance he observed. Not many of us remember his words that day:

 

 

"I would like to request a few moments of silence," he said. "I would like to invite each person listening in, 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."

 

A Presbyterian elder, Aldrin brought communion elements blessed by his pastor to the moon. What came next, his holy remembrance was observed by two men alone on the moon.

 

"In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing." I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O'Hare [sic], the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements. And of course, it's interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon - and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the "Love that moves the Sun and other stars."

 

 

Prayer for Today

Holy God, we confess that all things were created through Christ and for Him. Through the gift of your Holy Spirit, hold our lives together so that through our prayer and praise we will proclaim the Lordship of Christ and remember his call to be his disciples. Amen.

Posted by: AT 03:45 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Latest Posts

Activities & Events
Online Giving
Request Info

10950 Bell Rd, Johns Creek, GA 30097
Church: 770-813-9009 
Preschool: 770-476-1166