This Sunday I will be serving my last congregation wide communion service as pastor of Hope Church. It seems only fitting that I should spend time considering this one of our two United Methodist sacraments. Baptism being the other. Only two.
But wait, don't we have many rituals and ceremonies, dedications, and consecrations in the UM church? Sure, but only these two were deemed by John Wesley, the founder of our church, as well as the millions who have followed him in what is called the Wesleyan Tradition beyond the UMC, as sacraments ordained by Christ Himself through His actions recorded in Scripture. Jesus told us all, every one of us, to go and baptize every nation, every people group, every person, in the name of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit. And He ordained the first Holy Communion at His own last Passover Meal. Jesus told His gathered disciples to always remember Him when they dine, and especially in these faith community meals.
Some Christian churches celebrate communion more often than once a month in congregational meeting. Some weekly, some daily, some several times daily. I have taught since making my first study of communion that Jesus invites us to His table every time we sit down at a table we call ours. When we eat, we are to remember His body, broken for us. When we drink, we are to remember His blood, shed for us. Every time we consume a Snicker's Bar or Reese's Cup, so I believe, we must remember, confess our sins as we may recognize them since our last communion (meal, snack, food binge), and give thanks for His providence and forgiveness through the act of providing us with all we have.
Jesus loved a party. There are more dinner parties in the Gospels than any other kind of gathering. And many of these were not just gatherings of the beloved. In fact almost all such recorded dinners, lunches, and snack times included not only unbelievers in Jesus as Messiah, but involved persons whose very occupations labeled them as 'sinners' in the Jewish culture of First Century AD Roman Palestine. Tax collectors, for example, and anti-Roman zealots (called terrorists today), and even, dare we believe, WOMEN!
And so it is hardly difficult to believe that Jesus would teach in these communions the most important tenets of our faith. Nothing new, mind you. Everything Jesus taught God had been trying to bang into His kids heads since Genesis 1. But this time, with FOOD!
Over my years at Hope Church, especially since we built and began worshiping in our own building, I have heard many arguments for and against our current culture of allowing folk to bring food into the worship space during worship. Some have said the crunching, slurping and bag rattling can at times sound like a movie theater. Many have decried the messes left on the carpet and trash left under the chairs by some folk who may only know how to treat a public space with food as they do a movie theater. And some have just said, "We don't need food in church. We come here to worship, not get fat."
Well, I must admit, I have consumed my share of saturated fat over these years in the Hope Church building and on the grounds but I have tried to teach, hopefully through example, that the meal or snack, every time it is enjoyed, in private or in the middle of my sermon, is Holy Communion. And besides, Hope Church has built every space it has constructed to be 'multi-purpose'. This means that so far in it's property-holding life Hope Church has believed that no space, regardless how big or small, is sacred to only one activity. It's a 'God's Money' thing. It's His money, and if we refuse a godly activity in any space His money has created we are pinching off a few opportunities to share the Gospel with a few more people. Maybe especially with those who don't yet know our building is not just a movie theater for Jesus (Well, we do have two screens in there)
I do not know what Hope Church will do with this somewhat unique practice among even more progressive 21st century church attenders but I do know this: when I eat, anything, even bacon fat saturated Trix cereal (one of our snacks this past Sunday- Whoa!), I take at least a few seconds to recognize my wrongs and God's rights in my life, and I thank Him for the gift of His body and blood to me.
Now, for anyone who began this 'teaser' with the thought that it might be an essay on the specific ways and reasons for and of practicing Holy Communion I invite you to click the link below to read the best United Methodist articles on this sacrament.
http://www.umc.org/search/gcse?q=communion
And for those of us who just love to eat, please, go light on that bacon fat saturated breakfast food!
-Pastor Ken
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