The Event

Just over forty years ago, two human beings accomplished what many deemed impossible: they stepped onto the surface of the moon!  But something else occurred on that day just before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module that did not make the newscasts at that time.  It was an event that Aldrin wrote about in Guideposts magazine some months after his return.

In October 2005, writer Eric Metaxas had the privilege of meeting Aldrin and asked him about this event.  Aldrin confirmed the story and Metaxas wrote about it.

Aldrin and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement:  "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way." He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion.  Here is his account of what happened:

"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... For apart from Me, 
you can do nothing’ [John 15:1, 5].”

After he ate the bread and drank the wine, Aldrin reported, “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.” *

Before man first walked on the MOON, he first remembered what Christ had done for him on the CROSS by taking communion!

The Scriptures teach that the early Christians partook of communion – 
the Lord’s Supper –on the first day of every week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 11:23-29).  This Supper was instituted by Jesus as a memorial to what He would do for mankind on the cross (Matthew 26:26-29): He died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2).

Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2) and can ultimately lead to our eternal demise (Romans 6:23).

But God loved us so much that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16).  Those who believe and place their trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ (Acts 2:38) have their sins washed away and forgiven by God (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Eph 1:7).

As history continues to be written, may each of us recognize the greatest event of all: God came to earth in the person of Jesus and died on the cross that we might live with Him eternally.

Won’t YOU allow HIS-story to change your life today through your trusting obedience?

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

* From “Communion on the Moon: July 20, 1969” by Eric Metaxas at www.cbn.com

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