The other day a congregation member came in my office and referenced a passage in 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:27-30) about the proper manner in which we as humans ought to take communion. First of all, I have to complement this person on their thoroughness of reading scripture! And second, I'm glad they are thinking about it actively with their spouse.
It has gotten me thinking about the routineness of the Eucharist celebration, which many people find to be a very special thing. In The Bridge we were dealing with "the cattle stampede" problem that was distracting people from their spiritual journey, and some churches prepackage communion bread and juice in "to go" containers...so I guess I'm wondering if it really is special to people anymore?
The passage suggests that we are to examine ourselves as a body of Christ, and I think individually as well, before we partake in communion. Communion is one of our sacraments and John Wesley mentions it as a "means of grace" in which forgiveness through God's grace can directly be experienced by taking on Christ's body (and into you!).
That's really a lot of pressure to take on the body of Christ and to really think about being Christ on this Earth...so a lot of people take this passage to mean only that we should examine ourselves for sin and make sure that we are not in a sinful state before we take communion. I think this to an extent, but honestly...how often would we be able to take communion?
Communion is actually the time to take all of your sins to the Lord's Table and realize them, so you can let yourself be forgiven and move on from them, not something to condemn you further. It'd be great if everyone did take a little time to examine themselves and then go find forgiveness at the table...instead of just going through the drive through. Just something to think about.
After some thought and research, it seems as though this passage has to do more with examining the whole body of Christ, to make sure that we aren't taking our divisions and exclusions to the table of the Lord. According to commentary the Corinthians were leaving the poor and oppressed out of the communion ritual and, knowing that Christ died for all, this is perverting the meaning of the communion meal and using for impure purposes. I'd point you down the page to 1 Cor. 11:33 where it says, "So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wati for one another." I believe Paul is more talking about the apostacy of leaving out people from communion, rather than examining our own sins and staying away from the table.
That goes to say that communion has been shared by billions of people throughout history, which I think is awesome, and next time you go to the table remember all of the Christians who have suffered, been imaginative, showed devotion, and brought you to where you are today...and go and sin no more.
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We usually do intinction for Communion here at University, but I have a number of requests each month for "kneeling communion" instead. I usually site the time factor as the reason behind intinction, but in our situation, both methods take about the same amount of time. I really don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but I do like the symbolism of eating from one loaf and one cup when we do intinction.
ReplyDeleteDo folks at the Bridge generally prefer one way over the other?
Thanks Pastor David!! I had never thought about communion in the church (body of Christ) sort of way. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteAnd to answer rev_deanl above, as a Bridge goer I like that we do intinction but then have the opportunity to kneel and pray afterwards. So we get a little of both!
Yeah, I'm not sure if The Bridge has ever done any method other than intinction. If we ever do Ash Wednesday in there, or in our other service, I think I'd like to take the time and do a kneeling communion in groups with a communal blessing. They would still take it intinction style, but have a little more time to process. Thanks for chiming in y'all!
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