just a snack.
I gave out communion for the first time ever this Sunday. Well, let me qualify that. I have done communion with groups of people before, I lead them in the whole, "and Jesus broke the bread, saying..." thing. This Sunday was different. I actually broke off the bread from the loaf and gave it to each person.
It went something like this:
I tore off a piece, raised it to their eye level... almost in a taunting way; emphasizing each word with the movement of my hand I said to each person (using their name if I knew it) -
"Bo Sho, this is the body of Christ broken for you."
I'm pretty big into tangibles, and breaking off bread and pronouncing the brokenness of Christ's body for our sins is pretty tangible in my book. I've been on the receiving end of many communions, but never have I gotten to administer it.
After about the 20th person it got kind of frustrating, because it felt like they weren't getting it, me included. What I was tearing with my hands and passing out was no longer bread. It was the most beautiful representation of Jesus' body, and we were feasting upon it. We sat at the table of grace and were asked to have our fill.
I remember as a little kid I looked forward to communion more than anything else . One, because I got to move around the church and look at everyone's faces rather than the back of their heads; and Two, because it was a nice snack to tide me over until lunch.
Sunday lunch was an event at my house.
Some might say that I was missing the point. And to that I will say... "I was 8, what did you want me to think?" I had just mastered the art of subtraction, what I am supposed to do with grace?
I wonder if any of the people this Sunday looked at communion the same way that I did when I was 8?
just a snack.
But I wonder... How far off are they? Communion is an experience of spiritual nourishment. We come as a community to feast upon the grace of God. And to be honest, sometimes grace is all that gets me through the day. Maybe communion is that which gets us through life. It eases the pangs of our hunger until we come in full to the kingdom.
My friends, communion is a snack, a taste of the divine, an experience of the grace of God, and that which will most assuredly tide us over.
EAT HEARTILY.
jared.
