{"id":44531,"date":"2010-08-09T01:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/first-time-of-communion-changes-womans-life\/"},"modified":"2010-08-09T01:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-09T01:44:00","slug":"first-time-of-communion-changes-womans-life","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/first-time-of-communion-changes-womans-life\/","title":{"rendered":"First Time of Communion Changes Woman’s Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her memoir Take This Bread<\/em>, author Sara Miles shares how the first time she ever took Communion changed her life forever. She writes:<\/p>\n\n

\n

One early, cloudy morning, when I was forty-six, I walked into a church, ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine. A routine Sunday activity for tens of millions of Americans—except that up until that moment I'd led a thoroughly secular life, at best indifferent to religion, more often appalled by its fundamentalist crusades. This was my first communion. It changed everything.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Eating Jesus, as I did that day to my great astonishment, led me against all my expectations to a faith I'd scorned and work I'd never imagined. The mysterious sacrament turned out to be not as symbolic wafer but actual food—indeed, the bread of life. In that shocking moment of communion, filled with a deep desire to reach for and become part of a body, I realized that what I'd been doing with my life all along was what I was meant to do: feed people.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

And so I did. I took communion, I passed the bread to others, and then I kept going, compelled to find new ways to share what I had experienced.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3451,3507,3520,3557,3577,3592,3594,3601,3614,3642,3689,3719,3738,3893,3921,3983,4088,4387,4394,4399,4463,4572,4868,5041,5062,5063,5181],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-44531","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atonement","tax_ctp_tags-blood-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-bread","tax_ctp_tags-change","tax_ctp_tags-christ-burden-bearer","tax_ctp_tags-christian-life","tax_ctp_tags-christian-practices","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-church-life","tax_ctp_tags-communion","tax_ctp_tags-conversion","tax_ctp_tags-cross-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-death-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-eucharist","tax_ctp_tags-experiencing-god","tax_ctp_tags-fellowship-with-christ","tax_ctp_tags-grace","tax_ctp_tags-lords-supper","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-messiah","tax_ctp_tags-ordinances","tax_ctp_tags-sacraments","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-desire","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-thirst","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-transformation","tax_ctp_tags-transformation"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nFirst Time of Communion Changes Woman's Life - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/first-time-of-communion-changes-womans-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Time of Communion Changes Woman's Life - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In her memoir Take This Bread, author Sara Miles shares how the first time she ever took Communion changed her life forever. 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