This Sunday I’m speaking about communion — about how it has historically been for the church a weekly opportunity to celebrate the risen Christ and to re-enlist in his mission.
Most of us have some special times in our lives that are connected with communion — maybe a time of rededication, a time of forgiveness, a time of joy or of grief.
Anyone willing to share some of those stories?
Prior to going to Sudan last summer the group going fasted together and prayed for our time in Sudan. At the end of the third day we all gathered together and shared communion before a pot luck meal (how CoC is that). I am sure the lack of food helped to increase the moment, but it was hearing a dear friend say “take and eat, there’s plenty”. This statement helped to connect the joy of fellowship with each other, the joy of joining with Christ, and abundant provision of Christ. It felt a bit like heaven and I think it was.
Mike,
Without a doubt the most memorable communion service I had was at Pastors’ Prayer Summit. Every year in our county a group of pastors from many of the Brevard County churches meets at a retreat center in Orlando to affirm each other, pray for each other, and pray about the unity of all Christians in our county.
On Tuesday night of the last summit I attended we met in the chapel. When I entered I saw all these basins with water and a number of cloths and towels. I immediately became a bit uncomfortable knowing what was coming. I had never to that point participated in a foot washing and I don’t think I will ever have an experience quite like that again.
Each person was asked to choose someone from the week that he knew needed affirmation in one or more areas that he had shared during our prayer time. As you washed the person’s feet you affirmed him in this area and assured him of God’s love and forgiveness.
Of course it is simply not possible to get on your knees in front of another person in this situation without a feeling of humility and inadequacy. God can work his wonders when we are on our knees!
At the end of this experience we sang and listen to the ringing of our voices in this beautiful chapel in the woods as we participated in the body and blood of Jesus.
I have never had an experience of community that was more powerful than this one.
I have reflected on this experience more than once and thought, “We need to return to this kind of environment as the body of Christ. service, communion, prayer, affirmation, and praise are all so much more real when you join hearts in this way.
Peace.
My dad was our youth minister when I was in high school and our youth group used to make the trip to Six Flags every summer for Soul Lift. One year, he had decided to have a short church service and communion in our hotel early on Sun. morning so we could get back on the road. When the grape juice came around, I noticed it tasted very, very sweet. After “church,” I walked past a trash can and saw a purple plastic bear with a crazy straw coming out of his head. “Dad!” I said, horrified. “You didn’t!” Yep, he did. Walking around Six Flags the day before, he realized he had forgotten the fruit of the vine at home so he stopped by one of those overpriced drink stands and got a purple plastic bear filled with 98 percent sugar water and 2 percent grape flavoring. I guess it counted. I hope it did.
Then there was the time he served communion on a similar trip out of a grape juice bottle that had been riding around in the church van so long that it had fermented and he inadvertently served wine to a bunch of junior high kids.
The first communion following, and really most of them since, our family’s car slipped on a wet road and collided with another car, killing the single mother of two teenagers, many years ago. Those who feel little need for forgiveness, or who have not felt the guilt which I believe was a very real part of Christ’s suffering on the cross, perhaps do not experience communion in the same way as those who feel the absolute necessity of that sacrifice to get up every day. Our family truly understands the longing to be forgiven for an accident, but also understands the greatness of our Lord’s forgiveness for our daily actions which are not accidents, but should cause us similar sorrow. Communion gives me hope that there will be a time when there is no more need for forgiveness and joyful gratitude for the One who makes that possible.
I think the communion I participate in during Emmaus gatherings is always so significant. You get to partake with the larger body of Christ and there is precious unity there. It also helps to remind me of the links to those who love and serve you even though they do not know you, love expressed to individuals because of the love of Christ.
Jack Reese, whom I worked for at ACU for 5 years also helped me see the bigger picture of communion in the words of the great song, “and thus that dark betrayal night, with the last advent we unite, by one bright chain of loving rite, until He comes.”
My most significant experience with communion came at the camp where I am camp director, Camp of the Hills. Sitting around a lunch table with 8 inner-city kids and hearing them talk about Jesus and what his life and death means to them. It was incrdible to see some of the connections those kids were able to make and to be able to share that conversation with them over a meal. It was a blessing that so many of them focused on the life to come part of communion because they have so little with which to be caught up in or distracted by here on earth.
When I was in the hospital in Lubbock after THE accident my small group came up from Abilene (3 hr) to share communion with me. The week before I was not able to sit up without getting very sick and passing out. I practiced several day’s so I was able to sit up for 30 minuets that Sunday. Along with all the love during communion there was a chance to forgive and be forgiven between to of us. Living communion during communion. God is Good.
When I was in college our CoC campus ministry group joined up with a Christian church group for a weekend retreat. We prepared for the Lord’s Supper by stomping the grapes with our feet and baking the bread. Then we prayed in a true prostrate position and served each other. Never done anything like it since.
A little different twist on the topic … Since leaving for the CoC for a fellowship that breaks bread twice a month (once in the worship assmebly and once in small group settings), I was challenged by someone about my newfound “liberalism.” After doing the most exhaustive study I could muster, I could not honestly find any support for weekly Lord’s Supper. IMO, there is no support for doing it at all, as a “command.” (Jesus asked 12 men to remember Him with the meal, but was not specific beyond that).
However, the early church gathered on Sunday. And it seems that when they gathered, they “broke bread.” We can assume that was the Lord’s Supper. So, if we put two and two together, there is a precedent for the church to continue in Communion today.
Consider this though … the early Christians met much more than weekly (see Acts 2 and Acts 4), perhaps daily. It says they were breaking bread when they came together. I think its easy to conclude that the Lord’s Supper could have been shared more than once a week (and I don’t mean Sunday morning and Sunday night), maybe every day. The sentiment of the ealry church certainly may have called for this … these baby Christians in Jerusalem after Pentacost certainly would have been overflowing with joy for the Savior and love for each other.
This is one of those areas that, in my opinion, the frequency is less important than the motivation. Each of us most decide by our own conscience what it means to be “committed to the breaking of bread” (Acts 4).
Any thoughts?
First of all, I have been heavily influenced by John Mark Hicks “Come to the Table.” A must read!
My most memorable experience was last December, Kayci and I had Troy and Bonnie (our best friends) over to our house with their 3 children. Before the meal we placed bread and juice in the middle of the table. Throughout the meal people were free to reach out, take bread, and share the body of Christ with another person. It was an amazing experience. We shed many tears; told many stories; gave many hugs, etc. Even the 3 children (ages 13, 10, 7) extended their hands as they took bread and spoke words of Christ over one another. It was a powerful night.
Last fall, a group of 8 ladies from our church took a road trip to KC to hear Beth Moore. It was a wonderful time of growing closer to God and to each other. We were going to leave Sunday morning and had talked about having communion together before we left. Saturday night, we were having great conversation and it was getting late. Someone suggested we have communion at midnight. One of the girls had brought juice and crackers. We sat in a circle in the hotel room and different ones would just start a song or prayer. It was very intimate and I imagined at the time, what Jesus must have had in mind when he first instituted it. For me it was a time of total connection with Him and with friends that I love so dearly who help me in my every day walk with Christ. There was one humorous moment though, as we passed around “one cup”. :o)
Clint - I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was a most amazing time of communion for sure.
My first communion after watching “The Passion of the Christ”. The images and emotions were fresh and new.
Mike,
I find communion to be a renewal each week of the hope found in Christ. For years it became stagnant as a memorial service…until I accept more of the roots of my first tradition in Christianity, Catholicism. Right before communion the congregation says, “Father, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the words and I will be healed.” I cling to this more and more. Knowing of my unworthiness to receive His love and grace, but know with just a whisper from Him, I am healed, I am restored and I am renewed.
For me, it’s not always a memorial, and sometimes not a celeration, but mostly a time to reconnect with His presence who lives in Me, an affirmation of the hope and the healing found in Jesus alone. Just as His body and blood were shed to save us, it’s in contact with them that I am healed. In communion, I come in contact with them, symbolic or otherwise.
Peace.
Emmaus Walk; Thursday nite w/elder and fellow minister following tuf elder meeting; Monday morning w/fellow minister listening to Ray Boltz; watching pre-schoolers take during Bible Hour; last week’s high school retreat w/each sharing spontaneous thots about Christ; private time w/wife and daughter; ANY time after I’ve been away from my church family. (No symbolism involved in the fact that i shared 7 special communion memories with you)
On another note, one of the most “memorable” times are not within the four walls of the church house! Usually it’s in a hotel room with my family on a Sunday morning when we are away…..and I remember the first time I realized I could take communion any day…and did so with another couple from our home church.
(No symbolism involved in the fact that i shared 7 special communion memories with you)
Great topic and great stories. I appreciated this blog series on the Lord’s Supper. I have not “celebrated” it the same since.
b blessed
russ
I remember my first communion as a true realization. I was baptized on a Sunday morning. We’d already taken communion that morning, so when I came back that night, at the end of the lesson, I was escorted to the basement with various others who had all “missed” communion that morning. We sat in the cinderblock basement in deskchairs. There seemed to me to be a bit of “guiltiness” in the eyes of the Sunday morning “absentees” I was with. Prayer, bread, prayer, juice, and we left.
I realized then that it would take some investment on my part… not just mental focus, not just cracking the Bible and flipping for show, but a real pursuit of connectedness with Christ to make this thing what it was meant to be. It takes that same kind of pursuit and focus for us to really commune with each other– to have true fellowship. So much of our tradition moves us away from connection and towards mere compliance.
I was only 9, but it stayed with me.
Vicki died on a Sunday morning. I think as one person said it, we were a small band trying to hold off the hosts of Heaven, but one person did duck out to go “borrow” some elements from an unsuspecting nearby church. We sang and prayed and shared the Lord’s supper one last time with her in our company. It seemed very holy and especially poignant. That’s my most memorable communion.
Raisins steeped in river water…
The Ugandan missionaries had done a good job of stressing the right emblems, and since juice of the fruit of the vine was not available in the small village, they did the next best thing and let raisins sit in a jerry can of water for a few days. It was putrid and I don’t remember anything particularly joyful about the event.
I wish they had done what another village had done, and laid out a spread of chapati (like tortillas, but not really at all) and Coca-Cola for our communion time!
I really love taking communion in churches where you go up, kneel and are served. It’s precious to me to hear the person serving say “The body of Christ, broken for you” and “the blood of Christ, shed for you” and to respond with my “Amen” before partaking. And I just about cried every time my younger children received a blessing from the vicar as others were having communion.
Perhaps it seems more special to me because it is different than what I grew up with - but I think in part it is that the physical connecting with the other members and clergy reminds me more strongly of our shared connection in Christ’s sacrifice. (I’m not sure if that makes sense, but there it is.)
We have different people prepare the communion elements at our church each month. One month about 15 or so years ago, someone was preparing communion on each Sunday afternoon for the follwing week. That wasn’t so much of a problem. The problem emerged when they left it un-refrigerated for the whole week. When Sunday finally came around, the juice was a bit fermented. Word got around to the elders. At one elders meeting someone asked, “What brand of grape juice are we getting these days.” Another elder replied, “Bartles and Jaymes.”
That story has entered church lore now.
We have served communion in our home on various occasions, most recently when a couple from our church were moving away. We invited them and a few others for dinner, but prior to that meal, we begin in our den around our coffee table with bread and wine. We started by stating that we are an odd group in that we would not likely be together except for Jesus. He brought us together into this great friendship. We remember the fact that his wounds made these relationships possible. So we ate bread and drank wine happy for the depth of our friendship, hopeful that time and distance from our friends wouldn’t change that, and certain that Jesus, sitting there with us is somehow pleased by the fact of our love for each other.
My favorite communion experience was this one time when I sat really quietly stuffed in a row with hundreds of my friends, passing a metal tray with little individualized cups and pieces of cracker. Then I bowed my head and tried not to think of anything but the bloody death of Jesus, my PERSONAL Lord and Savior. Truth is, it was hard, because I wanted to rejoice that “He is risen!” and that so many fellow travelers were there with me. I also couldn’t stop thinking about how I needed to have a “heart-to-heart” with my friend a few down with whom I was having a tift. But alas, communion is about me and Jesus (on the cross — not living, working, eating, laughing…), so this particular Sunday I just bowed my head and kept to myself, hoping maybe someday it would mean something more…
Oh, another memorable communion experience was when someone accidentally poured cranberry juice instead of grape juice. The collective reaction was pretty funny.
I guess that Sunday, we had “fruit of the bog.”
One of the most memorable for me happened just this past January, at Butlins in Bognor Regis of all places!
Hope you don’t mind, Mike, but I shared that moment my husband and I had on my blog with the post ‘The Stone Gathering’ …
http://kibbelznbitsbydeb.blogspot.com/2006/03/stone-gathering.html
All these stories are beautiful testimonies, and it’s a blessing to cull some special ideas. Thanks!
Communion is profound for me at many levels, for many reasons…so connecting, and yet…so personal.
My mother was murdered when I was 15…leaving my 17 yo brother and I alone in the world. or, so we thought.
My mother had given us the great gift of being introduced to Jesus in life and set us upon an incredible journey.
We knew the place we needed to be was amongst God’s people.
That Sunday, following the trauma……within the midst of 3500 people, sharing the Lord’s supper, sharing Him….we knew we would never be alone. We knew..”this to shall pass”.
Christ enveloped me that day…as I had never known Him before.
Thank you Father for the blessing of your Son…in whom we can commune, and in so doing commune with our brothers and sisters too.
kitty
Choosing my top communion memory is harder than chossing my 3 favorite worship songs. Here are 2 that stand out to me.
1) We sat in a hotel in Kenya with a bunch of other interns. It was nighttime– I can’t even remember if it was Sunday or not. The “emblems” were coke and cookies, which was a total stretch for me at the time. We had an intense hour or more of prayer for a situation beyond our control, prayers of confession of our weakness. Emotions were raw and hearts laid open and we felt God’s throneroom door open and we sat with Jesus before the father. I think this was the same day that I realized that when I am going through my remembrance of Jesus, Christians all around the world are doing the same thing. As we recognized the body of Christ (his physical suffering), we also recognize the body (members of body that functions as a world-wide church with Christ as the head).
2) Several years ago we started celebrating Passover with a Seder dinner. Each year as we talk through all the symbols that God laid out as shadows to foretell reality, I am struck by how deep God’s plan and his sacrifice run. Only a few weeks ago we shared this special meal with 36 others around the table. It’s a beautiful meal and always reminds me of how important remembering is. The broken bread, ransomed for a price; the perfect lamb; the bitter herbs and tears of slavery and the symbols of new life.
This was not necessarily the most meaningful, but it did shake me up a bit. My four year old was sitting next to me when the trays were passed. When I reached in and broke a piece of bread off, a smaller crumb flew out of the tray and landed on my four year old’s leg. She was stunned. She didn’t know what to do. She looked up at me helplessly, hoping I would take it off. I didn’t know what to do. It was like a live electric wire was sitting on her leg. If she moved or touched it she would be electrocuted. I stared at it in wonder. Why didn’t I view this piece of bread with such respect? Why do I merely reach in so cavalierly and take the bread and drink the juice as if it were merely a brief snack? How did she come to respect it so much? Against my better judgment I did reach down and pick it off her leg. I couldn’t let her sit there paralyzed any longer. As I held it in my hand I wondered what I should do with it. It is in fact the body of the incarnate God. I couldn’t just sweep it to the floor. When no one was looking, I ate it. I hope it changed me.
It was a stormy Thursday night. . . in a run down house. . . eight very poor people sitting around a table of spaghetti, hot bread, and glasses of grape juice. . . enjoying ourselves. . . and eating until we were full.
It must have been about 1985. There were about 1000 folks at the Church of Christ in Henderson, TN. Sitting at the end of the back pew, packed in with a bunch of other students, was Gavin Gossett. When the juice finally made it to him, all of the cups were empty. A dozen or more people who realized it were watching to see the drama unfold. Gavin surveyed the tray for a long time. When he finally realized that they were all empties, he picked up one, shrugged his shoulders, and “drank” it. It would have been memorable if anyone had done that. But Gavin took it to another level.
Btw, the connection between symbol and meaning hit me hard one time when, as a kid, I helped “clean up” after communion. It included dumping the trays into a trash can in the kitchen. How wrong that felt, even after hearing all that rhetoric about the merely-symbolic character of the “emblems” . . . that Jesus said was his body and his blood. Sometimes I wonder why our doctrine of communion hasn’t “caught up” to our doctrine of baptism.
I see some common themes: a small group, a traveling bunch, or meeting with brothers and sisters in a foreign land. (or, I guess also, the odd/funny things that can sometimes happen).
My wife and I would go monthly with other missionaries to an orphanage outside Mito, Japan to play with the kids and to worship. It was always a special time. An interesting twist, in answer, I assume, to an age old question: how many “cups”? A cafeteria tray. Soup bowl with juice in the middle. Clean spoons on the left. Used spoons on the right. Pass it down. Worked great, as long as you remembered which side was which!
Brian–
IMO, and study, sharing communion weekly and meeting weekly, and the arguments in support (or against) stand or fall together. My understanding is that the scriptures one would use to reason that the church should meet together (at least) weekly are the same scriptures used to support sharing communion weekly.
Thoughts?
Jeb.
One Sunday I was sitting in church when a man taps me on the shoulder and asks me to serve communion to my section. I nod.
Only when it is that time do I realize that, in my section, it was just me and my son in the section for communion. My wife was in nursery and my young children weren’t participating (as is our custom).
After the comments and prayer, I sat next to him and said, “The blood of Christ for you, my son”. It was amazing…
thats cool
One night my wife and I were preparing communion. Our church had one of those contraptions that was supposed to be able to fill an entire tray of communion cups at once. What I didn’t know was that it didn’t work. The template of the tray filler did not fit the pattern of the cups in the tray exactly. When I hit the button to pour the juice, it went all over the pristine, stainless steel tray. Instinctively I said, “What a bloody mess!” That’s exactly what it looked like, blood. It was then that I realized how “messy” it was for Jesus to come to this earth and offer his blood for us. We try to keep it all clean and neat in these little trays and cups. That thought crosses my mind often when I pass the tray on Sundays.
It’s interesting how many of these meaningful communion experiences involved fellowship or communication on some level with brothers and sisters in Christ.
Many have been in the context of meals.
Curious, considering 99% of the Lord’s Suppers I’ve been a part of have been completely silent.
In 1999 about 65 of us from North Atlanta visited the Holy Land. Steve and I had met and married the year before. We have always just known the Lord had brought us together. We had communion in the garden in Jerusalem. It was so overwhelming. Being in all the places in Turkey and Greece, The jordan River. The Bible seemed more alive than ever to me and then that morning in Jerusalem.
For our Easter service last year we placed a large cross at the left side of the stage with a basket beneath it. We moved the communion table to the right side of the stage. Our songs focused on drawing near to God and laying our burdens down. When I stood to preach I had some children pass out black stones to the entire congregation. I spoke of the “exceedingly large” stone that lay in front of the tomb of Jesus. This stone blocked the world from receiving the eternal life in Christ. I then had everyone name their stone; that which is standing in their way from receiving the full life Christ offers—sin, depression, failed relationship, chronic pain. I also invited people to name their stone for someone else—a prodigal child, a spouse, a neighbor. We then worshipped some more. I stood to speak again and preached from the Emmaus road text and how their eyes were opened and Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. We then had a special song sung by a ladies’ quartet—“Lay Your Burdens Down.” People were then invited to come and lay their stone in the basket at the foot of the cross and make their own Emmaus road journey across the auditorium where they were served communion by the elders to have their eyes opened in the breaking of bread. It was very meaningful to a lot of people. It was stunning to see the entire church come forward giving and receiving encouragement through words and hugs as they came to the cross then the table. Many came and spent time near the cross and sat there for a while. There was much weeping. Some said afterward it was the first time they had been given permission to lay down the burden they were carrying.
Communion time has been, shall we say, interesting in the last couple of years. That’s because we have been trying to share that time with our 7 year old son, who has autism.
When we would pass the bread and the grape juice, Matthew would reach in and want some. Rather than fight a battle every week about “why you can’t have the grape juice”, I decided to let him have it . . . and explain to him WHY we were drinking the juice at that time. The explanation I came up with was, “This is when we say, ‘Thank you God, for Jesus’ body / for Jesus’ blood.”
I would rather have my son’s experience with church be a good one, and be accused of not doing communion “properly” (or showing enough respect for communion) than have to fight a battle every week and possibly turning my son away from church–and possibly from God–for good.
Last week at our church I was so edified by the communion that I asked permission to post the meditation on my blog (the person in question being unfortunately blog-less). Here is the link.
http://rudetruth.blogspot.com/2006/04/eucharisteo_114589827224441186.html
Weird, but I blogged about communion yesterday. You can check it out if you would like. http://www.dancewithme-julie.blogspot.com
My most memorable moment was at Highland, one I was delighted to share at my home church during one of our missions month communion times recently.
As I read these rememberances many brought tears to my eyes and sparked my own memories of past communion experiences.
One at the Southwest Single Celebration at Oak Hills over a decade ago. A singles minister from the Metroplex led over 700 of us in the Communion devotional. Accompanying his words, power point [or were they slides images] were flashed on a huge screen depicting moments of the crucifixion. The last one sent me to my knees in tears and realization of the enormity of Jesus’ sacrifice. It simply showed a bloody forearm and hand resting lifelessly on a piece of the wooden cross bar of a cross.
I also think of the last time my beloved dad was able to Commune. He and I were alone in his rest home room just hours before he slipped into the coma preceding his death.
He was so weak I not only had to place wafer and juice in his mouth, but my sweet dad,that didn’t believe any woman should pray if any man were present, asked me to read scripture, share thoughts about what these ‘emblems’ mean to us, and to pray as we remembered together our LORD’s death and proclaimed His return. The last prayer my dad heard on this earth was that of his only daughter, praying that his would be a gentle, joyful passing into the presence of the LORD he had served and loved for nearly 9 decades.
Just one more, that occured right here at Highland just a month or so ago. As a single gal, I’m accustomed to praying, praising, communing, worshiping God alone. That Sunday morning, the wife of one of our Elders was among those serving Communion. When Jeannie came to my row, suddenly she knelt in front of me asking that I celebrate with her in partaking of our LORD’s body and blood. Writing about it now brings tears to my eyes again. It was one of the most powerful gestures of love, community and family I’ve been blessed to receive in all these long years of life - that moment expressed so perfectly why Jesus died for us - how much He wants us together in family, dedicated to Him - an expression of pure, simple love in Him.
Mike, bless you for bringing these memories to the surface. How thankful I am that you are so faithful in sharing with us your God-given gift.
everytime i have been to stream in the desert in midland they serve communion in a way that i have never taken it before, with the exception of twice at park row.
it is so cool/neat because it is served by having everybody get up and come up to the front where they are individually served each emblem and reminded by name what the emblem is and what it is to them. needless to say it is very emotional. to think of how it Jesus was sacrificed for me.
its an amazing experience.
The best Lord’s Supper scenes in film has to be “Places in the Heart” (Academy Award Winner) with Sally Field, Ed Harris, and Danny Glover.
Divorce pending, deception, racism, hatred, and death are all redeemed by the Lord’s Supper; taken by all the characters at the conclusion of the movie.
I think about this scene often as I’m with a community of Jesus followers. The movie captures Paul’s vision in First Corinthiansins stunning fashion.
Also, every year at the Rochester College Sermon Seminar, believers of all stripes (high church, low church and every other kind of church) break bread together as symbol of our unity/mission in Christ.
Leading biblical scholars, along with regular pastors share the meal together. It is a powerful moment for those present.
Mike-
I have partially told this story to you on email, I hope you don’t mind if I repeat it here. Maybe not my most memorable, but certainly memorable. Last year our mission team was getting ready for our trip, and we were struggling. We had worked and prayed and prepared and prayed some more, and things just didn’t feel right. We got our funding behind us (we thought) but still we struggled while we worked on lessons and plans, etc.. All of us, I think, sensed it, we just didn’t know what was wrong…or what to do about it. Three weeks before the trip, we borrowed a vacationing family’s home and had a party/meeting/picnic on Saturday afternoon with plans to spend the evening. Several of us got into a discussion about the Lord’s Supper at HEB camp. We talked and studied for abour two hours, and went and got some crackers and juice. After supper, we talked to the group about what we wanted to do and why, then we shared Communion together as we had been sharing it in Life Team and at HEB. We shared it EXPECTING to gain strength and health and life (The opposite of Paul’s assessment of the Corinthian church being weak and sick and dead.). We shared it EXPECTING it to make us one. We shared it EXPECTING to see the face of Jesus across the table; we shared it trying to see what the Lord wanted us to see… We looked each other in the eyes and told each other what it meant that Jesus died for us, that it really meant something to be in the body with them. We said “I love you” lots of times. We celebrated each other. We cried and laughed and sang and prayed, and the Bread of Life made us ONE. We participated in his body and blood together. I doubt if any of us will forget the Lord’s Supper around a ping pong table on that back porch, because it chenged us. It really, truly, miraculously brought us together. Everything was different. We went on our trip and took love to a struggling congregation, and lives were changed, especially ours.
It was very, very memorable.
Josh..I am with you..that has to be one of my favorite scenes from a movie..I just wept during that scene..
I hope and pray to my God that all of yo rotten low-life christians die an horrific and abominable death. There is nothing more evil on this planet than God Damned American Christians!!!!
MGDAC
In the love of our Gracious LORD, I pray you are released from your hurt and anger. May you come to know the sweet love God has for you. May whomever it is that has hurt you so deeply be reconcilled to you through healing forgiveness.
mgdac, I am joining Kathy with some words to the throne of God for you.
Father, reach out and touch this person. Let it be obvious that it is you that is touching this one who is holding so much anger. Father, let this one feel your sweetness and graciousness. Also Father, please forgive all of us who have caused this kind of pain. We are human but we long to be more like you. If we were more like you, then, maybe this angry person wouldn’t be so angry. In the precious name of your son, Amen.
It is apparrent that there is no censorship here. I thank God that MGDAC has sounded off. Otherwise I would not have prayed for this soul today. God give him/her comfort, peace and renewal. Father let someone near bring him/her your love. in Jesus name, Amen
Mike, I’m re-posting part of an entry from February 7, 2005:
This morning Mike, Diane and Chris Cope were back for the first time since the accident three weeks ago. Diane and I made eye contact and she gave me that wonderfully sweet smile while sitting next to Chris, who is still in a wheelchair. Mike read a short thank you announcement and I cried. I was able to serve communion to the Copes and the moment was moving.
I pray for MGDAC as well. God is much bigger than people. Often when we look at Christians, even as a Christian, I get very discouraged. Father bring peace to MGDAC this very moment. Allow him/her to see that you are real and alive. In Jesus’ name, Amen
I was traveling by automobile from the Kansas City area to Detroit. Blizzard conditions (it took almost four hours to cover the 75 miles between Terre Haute and Indianapolis) prevented me from arriving in Indianapolis in time to worship with a congregation there. So, I decided to commune with God in my motel room.
Fortunately, there was room in the Inn (Ramada, I think) next to a Krogers store. Unfortunately, since most of the shelves had been stripped bare, there was no Matzos (or any other unleavened bread) to be found in the store. I explained to a helpful cashier what I was trying to do and soon all three of the Kroger employees in the store joined the effort to help me collect the necessary ingredients to make my own unleavened bread.
After I returned to my room, I mixed the ingredients and placed my tortilla-like unleavened bread on the foil wrapper of my fast food hamburger. I removed the lamp shade from the table lamp and positioned the exposed incandescent bulb within a centimeter of the bread. Heat from the bulb eventually, sort of, cooked the bread and within a relatively short period of time all things were ready.
I read from the Scriptures. I sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving. And, then ate the bread and drank the fruit of the vine. For a long period of time, I sat in the silence of the evening and reflected on the meaning of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension and promise to return. Although it wasn’t quite the same as being “in community” as I communed, it was a moving experience.
Great story, BW. I’m impressed by your perseverance and “McGyverlike-ness.”
Probably the most special communion experience I’ve had was on my wedding day. As part of the ceremony, after the vows, we asked the congregation to share the Body and Blood with us. We had just made a covenant before God with one another. We asked that the congregation join us in that covenant and pledge their support of our marriage. We shared communion together as a way of sealing that covenant in the presence of the Lord.
While the ushers passed out the elements, Mark and I served one another. We thought it was a fitting first act as husband and wife, to serve one another at the Lord’s table. Then we turned and watched as the whole congegration partook together as their pledge to us and to God to walk with us throughout our marriage. It was incredible to see the faces of so many loved ones from so many different parts of our life joining together in a unified meal of commitment.
Fifteen years ago, when I was stationed in Iceland with the Navy, my mother, teenage daughter and 6 year old son went to stay at a farm house one weekend. My mother had made the unleaven bread from the recipe that her mother used when she made communion bread every week for their little Tennessee church around the turn of the century.
On Sunday morning we hiked up the moss-covered hill behind the farm, had a family devotional, and shared communion overlooking the valley below and the black volcanic beach reaching out to the Atlantic Ocean. Not only was the scenery breath-taking, knowing there was no other land mass between us and Antarctica, but the warmth we shared as a family in the Lord in that place has stayed in our memories.
Holy ground. I just had a chance to read these stories. Oh, my. Thanks for the powerful memories — centered around meals, around friendship, around common mission, and around times of grief and hope.
I think back a few years ago when my oldest was so very young, and I was a young father experiencing His love like never before. Each Sunday, as I held my sweet boy I would think about the incredible sacrifice God made and it would make me cry. I could never sacrifice my son, but that He would give up Jesus for me, is something I could not, and still cannot fathom. But, what sweet joy I found in that communion.
shalom
Mike
I dont know if you will see this but recently our sweet loving grandson took on Jesus in Baptism and communion had been left to the end of service so we could all take it together with him. There is no greater joy for a grandmother than to share a first communion with a first born grandchild. It reminded me of Zoe’s song about the prayer that all who come behind us find us faithful. God is so good.
Mike-
I don’t know if you will see this, but I will write it anyway.
Tonight our Life Team shared a time in the Lord’s Supper that was……amazing. It is our custom to share the bread by individuals taking it to another and serving them, saying whatever is on their hearts while everyone listens. Sometimes it may be “This is the Body of Jesus”, sometimes much more, but we always look into each other’s eyes as we speak. Tonight we did that, then prayed for God’s blessing on the cup and poured a cup for each person. Holding those cups, we took turns telling the group what that means to us, and how it has changed us. What a blessing it was to be a part of that. To look around the room and feel that I am part of them all and they are a part of me, to weep and laugh and sing with them….it was remarkable. When everyone who felt like speaking was finished, most of us were wiping our eyes. We drank together and prayed, and the Spirit was there with us. Jesus prayed that we would all be one, and God is fulfilling that prayer when we share the one loaf, the one Jesus, the Bread of Life. Wish you could have shared that with us.
I have a couple that really stick out in memory:
I will never forget the Sunday at Highland when Kerri Lane and her daughters served communion. It was indeed a sacred moment.
At an Emmaus gathering a friend of mine and his teenage daughter served the community. I just sat there looking at them and thinking how wonderful it was that a father and daughter could share something like that. It was so precious.
Real Live Preacher has a great post up about communion, in his usual story style. It left me in tears. I wish our communion were more like that in spirit.
Open Communion
MGDAC,
I find it very interesting that it is among some of the most sacred comments I have ever read on Mike’s blog, that you appear. When we are truly in communion with God and our fellow sisters and brothers, nothing distracts us. The power of the cross is too great. We see ourselves and our own bitterness and anger and hatred. Our heads hang in sorrow, then the gentle hand of Jesus touches our soul and reminds us that we are beloved.
Communion transcends any label we may hold onto — whether American, conservative, liberal, rich, or poor. When we engage our hearts and minds and souls in this solemn celebration (not an oxymoron) we are believers.
Some of my most sacred memories of sharing in the Lord’s Supper, is when I am taking it with a sister or a brother that moments before, were dealing with the weight of their sin, and the blood of Christ removed it. With hair still wet from the baptismal waters, we share in this simple, yet profound beyond comprehension, event.
MGDAC — peace
“There is nothing more evil on this planet than God Damned American Christians!!!!”
MGDAC: I have to admit, you’ve got a point there. Generally speaking, we seem to stand out among all Christians in the world. Maybe it’s our materialistic, consumer-driven society, or our wealth, or just plain old greed. We seem to be motivated by a desire for comfort and ease. We are self-protective and suspicious of others not like ourselves. I think of how silent Christians were (generally) during our civil war and again during WW2 when the evilest of all was putting innocent people to death. We didn’t voice much opposition. But let an immigrant enter our country illegally and we’ll rise to the occasion with speeches, laws and rallys. I can see where you might get the idea that all of us are evil. And maybe that’s the point. We ARE evil. God says so. Of all entities in the universe, God knows the truth about us. He knows there is no hope for any of us without his intercession and self-sacrifice. And that’s about all we have going for us, literally. We are open to criticism, open to blame, because we are guilty. Anything negative you can come up to say about us is true. But…
And this is the biggest “but” you can imagine…despite the truth about us, he loves us…crazy! And here is something even crazier, he loves non-Christians (Muslims, Hindus, etc., etc) even those who don’t believe in him all the same. I’m telling you, this God is wierd in that way. So, bring it on…you can’t out name-call God. We’re evil, but we are working on it. Many of us really don’t want to be evil; it just comes out that way sometimes. I am amazed at how “un-evil” some people are. Like the ones who establish hospitals, donate blood, give huge amounts of money to the poor, volunteer to rebuild a hurricane-stricken town, take strangers into their homes, and more. Anyway, I just want you to know we are keenly aware of our label, and very aware of our guilt. (You are probably more aligned with God than you know…you both know the truth about Christians and all other human beings.) I appreciate your honesty.
I was feeling terrible tonight. I have been around people with flu at work. I began to feel that all to familuar feeling when you are coming down with something. I was thinking how can i miss more work etc.. I went to get something to drink and i saw a communion cup and wafer sitting in the drawer. I took it and went into prayer and simply said Lord I partake of this Your Body and Your Blood in remembrance of you now I pray you will remember me in your promises and heal my body. Cast out any sickness…I began to feel better within minuets and the symptoms are gone. We do not give communion enough attention. It is the Holy Scripture going into you. Amen and AMen thank you Lord that all of your promises are yes and Amen.