Paul's Recollection on Communion; a Gift for His Times and for Our Times
I am a little concerned here in our sort of new world that we citizens have lost something quite important.Consider how far we’ve come in just the last few decades.Here are a few simple immediate examples related to how fast out world is moving on.I am thinking here in the specific area of data, ideas, pictures, images, even written words and how incredibly fast these move in our times.
As I had the privilege of transporting the Ivorian ambassador to the United States through beautiful East Texas a few weeks back he was having a lengthy conversation on his cell phone.We were in areas around Palestine where, not so long ago, not even a local signal could be found.But now it is different.Ambassador Dubate had perfect reception on his cell phone as he spoke with his charge-de-affairs back home in Africa will passing through rural Anderson County, Texas.
A few short years ago I was in Russia with a mission exploration team. Tomsk, the city we were visiting, is exactly twelve hours from Houston in time zones. It is therefore literally half way around the world.One night at dinner in Tomsk I noted that it was 7:00 p.m. their time, I borrowed a computer and emailed Susan who was just getting to school here in Houston.Within ten minutes I had a reply from Susan on her RiverOaksBaptistSchool email address.Within such a short time we had communicated over a period of half the world, and back again.
The most telling experience about how far we have come was quite unexpected. About five years ago I was in Bolivia with a Methodist mission group.We were way out in the middle of no where, even further than “no where.”As far as we could see there was nothing to see but rocks and hills and fields of llamas.On occasion we would stop at a Bolivian style toll plaza.A Bolivian style toll plaza is actually a long chain extended a few inches above road level, one that completely crosses the road.It was at one of these little stops as we sat waiting that I was approached by a very native looking Bolivian woman.She knocked on the window near where I sat.I expected the usual offer to purchase bread, or water, or perhaps the opportunity to purchase a handicraft.Instead she asked a question, “Are you an American?”Of course I answered, “Yes!”She said, “I don’t like that was in Iraq.”Then she turned and walked away.
Here we were hours from anywhere and she knew about the war in Iraq which was at the time was only a few days old.I spoke of this later to some local folks who were with us.I was told that even though her life was rural and probably not very complex, that her home was more than likely modest at best, but even at that in her home she would have satellite television, even out there, and had at the very least CNN and probably BBC as well.
All of us have some stories or observations that can demonstrate how close we are and how global we’ve become.We all take for granted things that were considered amazing and unbelievable just a few decades before.What concerns me now and concerned me back in Bolivia and at others times, is with the ability for things to become so quickly familiar we have lost the aura of wonder that is so important to life.So little today is considered to be amazing, interesting, and yes, even odd, or perhaps amazing.I worry that the basic wonder that we had about life in the past has been replaced with a degree of moderate interest, instead of with the excitement of something encountering extremely new.
Back some decades ago when the World Council of Churches and its partner bodies of faith created “World Communion Sunday,” there was a need to recognize the differences that existed within the community of Christ faith, yet also to acknowledge that despite the difference there was a point of commonality, that is faith in Jesus Christ who chose to give up life at the cross as a sacrifice of all sacrifices, which would show God’s love and open the way to salvation for all the world.Now as then we do choose to gather on one specific day a year to celebrate Jesus’ love for all people and to share in the new covenant which God placed in the midst of the world one open to all for whom Christ died, which is everybody who was, is, and shall be, upon this earth, a way to know God’s love and to express salvation.After two thousand years of change, in a world where information isn’t amazing anymore, it is still important for us to live in the joy of Christ’s love and to once again come to the table and receive that which we have had hundreds of times before.
Even though some of the wonder and excitement has gone from the communion event there is still the message for head, and mind, and soul, and yes, even for something to amaze and perhaps add a little awe to the routine of life.It is still amazing to know that God does care for us all.It is wonderful to acknowledge that Jesus did make the choice to go to the cross.No technology, no international closeness can take away the fact that for us and for our individual salvation, as well as for salvation to the entire world, Jesus came, and chose to come because he loved us.World Communion Sunday is one of the major events in the life of the church that reminds us that even though things change, the basics remain the same.God still loves us.God still wants to the world to be at peace.God calls holy people of all sorts to live the Kingdom.God loves the world and its people so much that he is willing to go to the cross, and through the Christ event, to die for the church by dying and rising again for the people of the church or all nations.
The Lord’s Supper is part of what we are.World Communion Sunday in specific and communion as a celebration of God’s love in general, is part of our nature.We often take it for granted as the year’s past.There are many reasons why.But Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the holy feast, whatever you want to call this time together, remains a part of the Christian walk which is as important today as it was back in the time of Peter and Paul and of the early church when the idea and the encounter was new.As we come to the table in the next few moments let us not forget how important it is for us to be offered and then to receive the bread and the cup, to choose to receive the person of Christ in this way and at this time.
I grew up in a great HoustonMethodistChurch, one which is still growing and doing quite well in its 100th year.I recall going there just about every Sunday when I was growing up, even going on Communion Sunday.My parents set the example and wanted us to do so as a family.So worship and communion have always been part of my life.
Unfortunately on Communion Sunday back then we did what so many were want to do.We would work through the ritual, pray according to design, say and hear the ritual and then come the table, by walking down the aisle, more looking at who was there and what they were wearing, instead of focusing on what was before us.And sometimes, and I’m guilty of this at times myself, the ritual becomes simply that, “a ritual,” and is read or shared as a ritual, not as a living, working word and presence of love.Communion, the Lord’s Supper is that part of what we are which every time we come together to celebrate ought to remind us of some amazing truths of faith.
Communion is the recollection of God’s great gift of a new covenant.No longer do we have to do anything of a physical nature to acquire God’s favor.We don’t have to offer specific things on the altar; we don’t have to follow laws for the sake of following laws.All we have to do is to listen with new ears of faith to what we have heard a hundred times and more before.We need to come to the table to receive the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Communion, the great feast of God’s love, and to do so with no other expectation than simply to receive the presence of God in Christ which brings life to the world.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians so long ago, he wrote even before any of the Gospels had been prepared.The faith was still new.There were great ideas to receive, wonderful truths of faith to perceive, blessings to grasp and spiritual insights to experience.When Paul wrote of this practice, in what is now called I Corinthians, he was writing out of his own amazement, out of his own observations, and thoughts.
You see Paul had to discern in his own life what Holy Communion, what the Lord’s Supper had to offer.We have had two millennium of discussion and scholarly work to call upon in our understanding and thinking.Paul had only his own experience, his insight into the mind of Christ, a curious and inquisitive spirit, as well as an inquiring mind, which, yes, wanted to know.Even so close to the time of Jesus, folks had forgotten that celebrating together, consecrating the elements, is settling them aside as sacred, and meaning something beyond the act itself.The bread is more than bread; it is Christ’s body.The cup is more than the cup; it is the gift of love and sacrifice which cost Christ’s blood.
In the times in which Paul wrote the communion meal wasn’t just a little piece of wafer and a little sip from a cup.It was a full fledged meal to which all persons were invited.It was a time when those who had much would provide for those who had little.It was an expression of the love of God made alive, by the sharing of love, by the offering of blessings that each could give to another.It was a moment when there was in their memories and minds literally the presence of Christ among them once again breaking and blessing the bread and passing the cup.It was an amazing time when no one had less, and all had plenty.A time of true Christian fellowship and Christian community.
But the problem was that there were a few who were no longer gathering with such motivation.Some who had much were sitting at their own table and over eating and even getting drunk.Others, who had nothing of a food nature to bring to the table, were going away hungry.The community meal, the communion time, was not a time to bring people together, but had become a moment to emphasis their differences, not their unity as people for who Christ died.
Communion then as now is a special time.Communion reminds us of Jesus’ love for us, his sacrificial love.Communion opens the door to God and points to a new covenant.We don’t need to follow precise and picky laws to get to God, nor do we need to sacrifice in larger ways, because Jesus chose to make the sacrifice which would open to all the world the love of God.Those who receive with open mind and heart will receive the blessings of God’s love even into eternity as well as the great gift of salvation and forgiveness of sin as we are and where we are.
In I Corinthians 11 Paul delivered to his hearers and to us a great challenge for the first time.He said when you come to the table to receive that which is placed before you, take time to remember and to proclaim Christ and the cross as a way to free us from sin.Receive what is before you not out of ritual practices, but out of reverence and respect, as though what is offered is of Christ himself.And then as you prepare to eat, examine yourself and pray for forgiveness of un-confessed sins or resentful attitudes which would serve to keep the community apart.Then, remember to share the table experience, by being considerate of one another as fellow worshipers and persons on the walk of faith under the direction of God’s perfect love.
There is no place of preference at the table because.The table is open to all who seek a new or closer walk with God.All of us are sinners in need of God’s strength and hope. No one is better or worse, at least in the forgiving eyes of God.Communion calls us to be the church in a unique way.It teaches us the art of caring and sharing.It reminds us that we are one people, and that we need each other.The Lord’s Supper recalls the fact that hunger comes in many forms, that there is Spiritual hunger, that there is physical hunger, that there is hunger for forgiveness of sins.The privilege of the Lord’s Supper, the openness of the table to all who choose to come to receive a closer walk with the Lord, the thought which certainly came to Paul, is that the privilege of faith isn’t in guarding what is received, but in sharing that which is on the table of life and faith.We have God’s love to share, and the things of life to offer to those who have great hunger which faith and even food cannot satisfy.When we come together and share what is before us at the table of the Lord, there is fulfillment and satisfaction in God’s love offered through Christ.Communion is good for many things. Communion is one of the greatest gifts. Communion received, prayed over, thought about, and duly shared with others helps us remember who we are and why we are here.We are here for each other.We are here as God’s people.We are here to be the Kingdom of God in the midst of life.We are agents of change in the world, those responsible for sharing the great and eternal love of God.
I am a little hesitant to offer this story, but here goes.Many churches have financial reserves and the that do it the right way, like we do with our endowment progress, do it quite well.Others don’t do so well with the gifts with which they have been trusted.I know of a church which at the time, and this has been twenty or more years ago, had been given a great gift, a financial gift.These folks really had no plan for the gift.It sat in an interest bearing checking account and was controlled by a small committee.Basically those who cared for the gift didn’t talk about it, and guarded it with every bit of secrecy they could.The presence of this gift, which was a substantial sum of money back then, wasn’t even something they would show on the end of year report under “other” in the church financial section.
The problem was that through the years between the donation and my coming, which was only about five years, the money had become almost the object of their existence.Nobody wanted to talk about it.Nobody wanted to report it to the conference.Nobody chose to use it.It just sat there.The result was that I had the most grumpy, unconstructive meetings because people were fighting over what they had, and were so protective of it.
One of my successes in the three years we were at that little church was to focus the attention of the folks away from hoarding and into giving.By the time I left they had converted the funds into an endowment format.They used some of the interest for things at the church and they used some of the other interest funds as gifts to places in need.One of the first positive steps was the gift to an area church which suffered great loss in a fire.My little group gave them $5,000 out of the endowment money.It was quite an accomplishment.I tended to view it from the perspective of a blessing God, God blessed us with a new experience and a new insight, God helped us see what we could do as people who were not isolated, but who were part of God’s Kingdom.
This is what should be done as we come face to face with the Lord at communion, and even more so when we leave the table after receiving communion.The bread and the cup bring Christ’s presence into our hands, our hearts and our lives.It is a time which is worth sharing.Even though we don’t do this at a massive meal as they did in Paul’s time; still there is sustenance here to share.It is our privilege to receive, but it is also our challenge to give.
Ask yourself, as you come today, what gifts do I have that can benefit the kingdom of God?To whom can I offer God’s love in a unique and special way?What donation can I make of what I have in abundance that will help sustain or even change a life?Communion is not an isolated privilege.It is a time of challenge that thrusts us out into the world with joy and hope and commitment because we know that we are truly forgiven and redeemed people.
So when we come, let us do so with an open and expectant spirit, ready not only to receive but also to give.Paul said it first in another way.I Corinthians 11: 23 Paul states his remembrance; “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.”This is where communion starts.Where it goes from here, is up to you.
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