Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Bread and Wine
>> Monday, October 1, 2012 –
communion,
Old Testament,
Southwood Lutheran,
Use It on Monday
 |
| Noah at his first communion class |
I was seven years old. I didn’t understand the significance of the bread and the wine. I didn’t get how the sacrament related to the ancient Jewish celebration of Passover. And while I may have heard the story of the Last Supper in one of my CCD classes, I certainly didn’t understand its importance.
I’d like to say I’ve matured from a dress-veil-and-sheet-cake-obsessed child to a more spiritually grounded adult with a deeper understand of Holy Communion. But that wouldn’t be the truth.
The fact is, I’ve never felt particularly moved by the act of receiving Holy Communion. I’ve tried to contemplate the gravity of partaking in the body and blood of Jesus Christ himself, but I’ve never quite wrapped my mind around it. I’ve tried to tap into an emotional connection with God in the quiet moments following Holy Communion, but I usually feel distracted.
A few weeks ago Noah and I spent three hours in a Southwood class to prepare for his first communion. As Pastor Sara began the class, she asked each of the fifth graders in the room to share what they were most looking forward to about their first communion. “I’m not really looking forward to anything,” mumbled Noah when it was his turn. “It just feels sort of boring.”
Avoiding the eyes of the other parents at our table, I shot Noah my most irritated, “Are you kidding me?” look. Then, sighing loudly, I crossed my arms over my chest and slouched in the chair, forgetting, of course, that was only the dress, the veil and the cake that had engaged me 35 years ago.
By the end of the three-hour class Noah had changed his tune about Holy Communion…and so had I. Together we poured over the verses in Exodus that describe how the Israelites fled in the middle of the night to avoid the final and worst plague, after eating a quick meal of unleavened bread, bitter herbs and roasted lamb.
“You’re the first-born,” I reminded Noah, when we read aloud God’s promise to “strike down every first-born son and first-born male animal in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12), saving only the Israelites who had marked their doorposts with the blood of their slain lambs. He nodded solemnly, eyes wide.
We then compared these verses from Exodus with the ones in Matthew 26, in which Jesus led the Passover meal to make a new covenant with his people.
I’m not sure how much Noah really understood of the connection between the verses in Exodus and the ones we read from Matthew. After all, at 42 I am just now beginning to wrap my own head around it. But I do know this: it was a gift to walk through the history and significance of Holy Communion with my son and to glimpse even a shadow of understanding flicker across his face.
And it was a gift as well to realize that it’s never too late to catch a glimpse of that holy understanding myself.
Do you ever feel disconnected from God during the sacrament of Holy Communion? What do you think might be the cause of that distance?
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I receive Holy Communion during mass every morning and I have to confess that it's not always easy to understand and believe. I just have to go back to the last Supper and know that if Jesus instituted it, it must be important. He said Do THIS in memory of me! I'm a Catholic and go to confession and one of the sins I constantly recite to the priest is that my mind wanders during mass. Should I just NOT go to mass, I asked, cause it makes me sin? He said the grace is innate in the mass and not in what we do or don"t do. I guess the same is true for Communion. We can do it out of obedience and not because we can wrap our minds around it? After all, God said what he desires is obedience, not sacrifice. He did the sacrifice for us!
I honestly don't remember my first communion. It was not special like your church is doing for the children. I think that is wonderful so that the children have a concept of the meaning behind the cup and bread. Now when I take communion, I think back and remember that Jesus gave his body and blood for me and because of Him, I have eternal life.
i thought of my first communion just yesterday. i remember that i smiled a lot, but i think it had more to do with feeling grown-up than anything else....
Michelle, I've come to really enjoy hosting an annual Passover meal with my family.
Throughout the meal, each food has special significance, and becomes an opportunity for retelling both the story of Israel's redemption from Egypt and of our redemption from the kingdom of darkness.
It is a time of covenant remembrance punctuated with bitter herbs, salty water, sweet dishes, songs, and retelling of God's redemption.
The heritage I come from has the Lord's Supper offered every Sunday, so it was always a mental thing to try to keep it fresh and meaningful each week. Where I attend now only offers it periodically and it's easier to connect through it.
Love your stories and honesty, Michelle. They always make me reflect on my own.
We take communion every other week at Southwood, so I do think that's part of it -- it becomes routine, and it's a challenge, like you say, to keep it fresh.
I LOVE this idea, Joe. I think it would be a meaningful and interesting practice to introduce to my family. Thank you for the suggestion!
Yes, feeling grown up -- I remember that, too - the long gown made me feel like a bride!
That is the bottom line, isn't it Hazel: that Jesus sacrificed himself for us. I think perhaps meditating on that during communion might be a way to draw closer to Him.
I LOVE this comment, Patsy - thank you so much for breathing so much insight into communion for me. And I love your priest's response to your question as well: that "grace is innate in the mass and not in what we do or don't do." Yes! Thank you SO much, friend!
It took me a long time to really appreciate the significance of communion and appreciate what it means to partake it in community. I love that you and your son were able to learn and grow together in your understanding and appreciation. You are right, it's never too late.
As a Catholic, we believe that the Eucharist is a gift - truly Jesus' body and blood. I don't feel a sense of disconnect, but rather a sense of unworthiness. I ask God to help me be transformed into the woman He intends. It's an amazing gift, and one that I don't receive as nearly as often as I should.
It is so wonderful, Michelle, to be involved in a church that takes seriously to teach kids truth in a fun and meaningful way.
Fondly,
Glenda
Were you able to figure out why? That is cool.
Praise God for the new covenant in the shed blood of Jesus, foreshadowed by the Passover lamb and remembered, ideally, every time we break bread (to symbolize His body, broken for us) as well as in every Lord's Supper communion. Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God and God Himself, suffered on the cross, shed all His blood, died, was buried and rose again. In a mystery of substitution, all our sins were placed on Jesus, and His perfect righteousness was placed on believers, to reconcile sinful man to Holy God. When God looks at believers, He no longer sees their sins, but the perfect righteousness of His Son. All who place their faith in this as the only way to Heaven will never die, but will have everlasting life.
Thanks for the great post & for hosting the linkup, & God bless!
Laurie
http://savedbygracebiblestudy.blogspot.com/
I think because the surroundings were so intimate - I was at a writers' retreat at Laity Lodge in Texas, with a community of people I love and surrounded by the most stunning display of God's creation. Sometimes I think just stepping out of our normal worship routine can trigger a deeper connection, perhaps?
Hey, I'm with Noah! Communion does seem 'boring' unless my heart engages with my brain with my senses. It's tough for a little guy. it's even tougher for a grizzled veteran of hundreds of communion. "God, keep it fresh!"
Amen, brother!
Here I come, late to the table as usual, always ready for the physical food, but missing the spiritual. To answer your questions . . . yes and I don't know. It is certainly something to ponder. It truly is a gift to witness the dawning of knowledge in a young boys heart and mind. It can also be painful when that knowledge brings sadness.
Love your heart Michelle, keep up the good work.
-Sydney
I always feel like I'm not prepared enough. Partly because we have no set date for our communion and partly because I feel like I need a week of Sundays to set my heart right at times. But in that moment of silence before we partake, I can gather my thoughts, seek His face and revel in the Father's love. Just like that.
My first communion took place when I was 27 years old, so I'm surprised to find that I don't remember it one bit. I was very pregnant at the time, so maybe that had something to do with it. Benign encephalopathy of pregnancy. That's my excuse. I've had both a very intimate reaction to communion and a removed one. My favorite was when I was an elder at my church and served the bread and wine myself. It could move me to tears to call my brothers and sisters by name and offer them the blood and the Body. I love that you got to experience the class with your Noah, Michelle. I think we all need refreshers on these things.
My first would have been when I was 14, and I don't remember it either. I'm often kind of undone by communion. I think it sometimes makes a difference whether the elements are being passed down the pews or one goes forward to receive it.
Sometimes I think about all the people who have communed in the particular space I'm in that morning, over a long span of time. Sometimes I think about friends afar, and imagine them in their own worship spaces, or remember when I worshipped with them, if I'm fortunate enough to have had that experience. Sometimes it's the knowledge of what has been forgiven.