the meal that unites/divides

Tags: God, Church, Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Communion

Date: 04 April 2012 22:28:09

Forty blogs of Lent

38

Holy Communion, or Mass, or the Eucharist, or the Lord's supper or... So many ways of describing the same thing. Is it just a way of remembering Christ's passion? Is Christ present alongside the bread and wine, or in the bread and wine? Do the bread and wine actually become Christ's body and blood. So many ways of understanding it too. Do we cut up, or tear up one peice of bread or give out separate wafers? Do we eat the bread seperately or together. Do we share one cup/chalice that is brought round to each of us or do we pass the chalice round to each other. Or do we each have individual cups? Do we receive it where we are or do we have to make our way to the front of the church to receive. So many ways of doing it. But rather than divide us it can unite us. I have taken communion in churches which used all of the names above. I have taken it in churches which have had all the above understandings of what communion is. I have done communion with others in all of the ways above. And I have never felt it divided me from other Christians in that place, or other places, who have different ideas about what it is called, what it means or how it is done. A couple of weeks ago I involved myself in a discussion online on this very topic. I pointed out that there was a diversity of understandings but used the word 'ceremony' in the singular. Because despite our diverse understandings and practice we do the same thing. Jesus said do this in remembrance of me. The Last supper of Jesus with his disciples is describes four times in scripture. The earliest written account is not in the gospels, but in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 11:17 -34) Paul makes it very clear — the Corinthians were doing it wrong. In those days it was still a full meal. Some were bringing lots of food and eating lots of food, others who were bringing little were going away hungry. The meal was dividing rather than uniting people. But it needn't have done this, there was enough for all. It's the same today, we can be united in communion, or we can divide ourselves by our actions. So let us not concentrate on differences as if my way is better than yours. We understand things differently, but why make that divide us. Better to concentrate on what we have in common. Jesus shared a meal with his disciples before going on to be arrested, tortured, tried and executed. And three days later God raised him up. When we share Communion we share in and celebrate the passion of Jesus Christ until he comes again.