We had known for sometime that our pastor was going to be out of town this weekend to officiate at his step-daughter’s wedding, and earlier this week he shared with us the plans and individuals who would help cover the various elements of our Sunday morning service in his absense.
Notably missing from the list was who was to cover communion - we usually celebrate communion on the first Sunday of each month. Midweek I was copied on an email from a fellow member of our leadership team to our pastor, who suggested that perhaps I officiate over communion.
To which I responded rather like Bill Lumbergh of “Office Space”, “Uhhmmmm, yeah…about that TPS report…”
Hah. Me? Handle communion? I think that’s a Call that I want going directly to voice mail.
I covered my ears singing the theme to the Banana Splits, trying in vain to avoid that Call. My pastor responded back, saying that we could delay communion until the following week, but then I realized that we have too many other activities occurring on Sunday that communion would only serve to lengthen the service on an already busy Sunday.
Sure, I responded, I’m in.
Trepidation set in. I have delivered a handful of sermons in recent years, but somehow, the thought of officiating over communion was more frightening than speaking for 20 to 25 minutes over some theological topics.
But as God seems to do more often than not these days, He reminds me that He’ll take care of it. I calmed down, recalled a passage I read about the beauty of the communion meal in one of Donald Miller’s books, and coupled with the notes my pastor emailed me, I knew I had the approach. Early on Sunday morning, I spent about 30 minutes reviewing the notes and asking Him for some guidance on what else to say.
So below is what I said and read prior to serving the communion meal as highlighted in the passage from 1 Corinthians 11:23-27.
We all come to the table every month but it is easy to forget what it really means when we hold the small wafer and a thimbleful of juice. I think Donald Miller, in his book “Searching For God Knows What”, reminds us so beautifully what it means:
“As I wait in line, go to the table, take the bread, and dip it into the cup of wine, I forget that the bread and wine I eat and drink are of absolutely no spiritual significance at all, that they have no more power than the breakfast I ate that morning, that what Jesus wanted was for us to eat the bread and drink the wine as a way of REMEMBERING HIM, the bread representing His flesh, that He was a Man who, come from heaven, walked the earth with us and felt our pains, wept at our transgressions and humbly beckoned us to follow Him; and the wine is a symbol of the fact that He was killed, that His body was nailed to a cross, and that He entered into death, dying to absolve our need to die, our need to experience the ramifications of falling away and apart from God.
How odd would it seem to have been one of the members of the early church, shepherded by Paul or Peter, and to come forward a thousand years to see people standing in line or sitting quietly in a large building that looked like a schoolroom or movie theater, to take Communion. How different it would seem from the way they did it, sitting around somebody’s living room table, grabbing a hunk of bread and holding their own glass of wine, exchanging stories about Christ, perhaps laughing, perhaps crying, consoling each other, telling one another that the Person who had exploded into their hearts was indeed the Son of God, their Bridegroom, come to tell them who they were, come to mend the broken relationship, come to marry them in a spiritual union more beautiful, more intimate than anything they could know on earth.”
So as we eat and drink today, let us be the disciples, let us exchange stories about Him, let us laugh with Him, let us cry with Him, because we are sitting with Him RIGHT NOW, thanking Him for mending our broken relationship with the Father, thanking Him for the intimacy of the love we share with Him.
After serving the meal, I ended with this prayer:
Thank you for your sacrifice, thank you for your resurrection, thank you for mending our broken relationship. May we continue to come before you, to listen to you, to obey you, to love you. Make us One with you, Father. - Amen.