For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you..1Corinthians11:23
One of the issues that comes up when you are not affiliated with a regular church is: what are we going to do about the Lord's supper? Do people feel it needs to be officiated by a priest? Or do they hold that we are all priests under Christ? How should it be led & how will we incorporate it? What shall we use for the elements? Do we try & celebrate together or do we leave it up to people to make their own arrangements?
One of the issues that comes up when you are not affiliated with a regular church is: what are we going to do about the Lord's supper? Do people feel it needs to be officiated by a priest? Or do they hold that we are all priests under Christ? How should it be led & how will we incorporate it? What shall we use for the elements? Do we try & celebrate together or do we leave it up to people to make their own arrangements?In our regular mix we have Catholic come Charismatics; Anglicans & ex~Anglicans; A Quaker [whose denomination does not practise the sacraments]; Baptists & a couple of non~denoms. Anglicans & Catholics are liturgical & usually feel strongly that a priest should administer the sacraments. The charismatics & non~denoms are fairly relaxed & the Baptists fall somewhere between the two. Never~the~ less we felt we should try.
How do you practise the Lord's supper; or communion; the Eucharist; holy communion? I know theoretically that communion is the high point of a liturgical service but all too often communion is something that seems tacked on to the end of a regular service, by which time the kids are bouncing off the walls & everyone's starving with an eye to getting out the door just as fast as possible. This is not conducive to an attitude of reverence & worship. I've seen communion squashed in between praise & the sermon. I've seen services open with communion before anyone's even 1/2 awake. The problem from my point of view, was simply that communion was not viewed as the *main event* ~ irregardless of what people actually said!
We've partaken of communion organised on the spur of the moment ~ & there is a time & a place for that sort of fellowship. We've done it high, we've done it low ~ & pretty much everything in between. but what did God want us to do? How did He wish us to remember Him at the celebration He instigated?
A number of things were made very clear to us. Firstly an attitude of reverence & worship was to be at the root of whatever we did because it is far more about the heart's attitude than anything else. Then it was to be *intentional*. I've *done church* for a lot of years & everyone follows a pretty similar pattern so undoing those expectations & going back to first things was awkward.
I know I'm a little odd but the first thing that always springs to mind for me is what Jesus was doing when he broke the bread & shared the cup & what he was doing, very decidedly, was sharing a Passover meal with his disciples. Being a devout Jew there would have been a number of pertinent symbols that would have been very much on our Lord's heart as he prepared to become our sacrificial lamb on the very eve of Passover. So as I meditated & pondered how we should share communion that was always in the back of my mind.
The next thing that was very much on my heart is how so many churches have glossed over the need for repentance & a right heart attitude in order to partake of communion. Grace is uppermost is everone's minds ~ & believe me, I'm not knocking grace! We'd be in dire straits without it. It does occur to me though that there is a reason that grace is extended; because we are sinners in need of salvation & God in His infinite grace & mercy has enabled that beyond any right to expectation of ours.
Now I'm a Quaker & right from their inception Quakers recognized the equality of women before God so I'm not going to argue the whole thing about women teachers. I do it; Dearest is happy about it & it is supported scriptually, end of story. What Dearest & I finally agreed on looked like this, Dearest leading:
Opening prayer; call to worship.
Readings:
OT: 2 Chronicles 7:13
NT: 1Corinthians11:27~32
Meditation for confession & repentance
Reading
Exodus ~ the Passover.
which led naturally into the partaking of communion as we read Luke's account
We closed with intercessory prayer.
No; no teaching, no preaching & it took about the same length of time as a more traditional service. The entire focus of our time together was to bring us into right relationship wherein communion was a natural extension of that relationship.
We want communion to remain extremely meaningful so won't be doing it all that often but feel this is a solid foundation on which to build for the future. Interestingly I was at the Baptist service that evening to pick up Liddy & they have a more unusual approach to communion also at their youth service. The bread & the wine is set on small tables in the side aisles & while the music ministry plays praise music the kids wander over to help themselves to communion as they feel like it. I must confess this practise does not make me feel very comfortable & I have yet to take communion at this service. However the sermon hit on many of the same points raised in our time together during the morning ~ which is always interesting & necessary validation. We don't want to become heretical!
So what are some of the more unusual ways you've shared the Lord's supper with diverse believers?
5 comments:
Hi Ganeida,
We had a church service with a couple of friends, and we shared the large communion cup between members of our family. :D
Have a great week,
Blessings,
Jillian ♥
"A number of things were made very clear to us. Firstly an attitude of reverence & worship was to be at the root of whatever we did because it is far more about the heart's attitude than anything else. Then it was to be *intentional*. I've *done church* for a lot of years & everyone follows a pretty similar pattern so undoing those expectations & going back to first things was awkward."
YES, this is so true... cultivating holiness is so important. How do you handle children in this, or is it not an issue presently?
Hey Jillian: We've done that when camping with friends. ☺ It's always been really lovely.
MrsC: We have between 1[Ditz] & 6 children. The younger ones come from an earlier service so we don't mind if they play & draw quietly. They usually choose to sit amongst the adults quietly listening as they play but we are not rigid about this. Sometimes, for what ever reasons, they can't settle. Ditz is usually really good about finding them something if that happens. It is the parents responsibility to decide what is required of their children but we have found [so far] that the children are spiritually sensitive & self regulate at important moments. Eg they responded to the music on Sunday, put aside their toys & listened quietly & were as prepared as anyone else to accept communion. However, we do not have any children with particular needs & all ours are well trained, which does make a huge difference. We very much want to children to feel valued & accepted & able to participate at their level.
Communion... I wonder if, like the encounter on the road to Emmaus, it's something more easily identified by hindsight.
It was - originally - communion because they were travelling along together, and Christ was in their midst, and they wanted to keep on remembering the story of the great family of faith.
They broke bread, they shared wine - and for them that was an ordinary thing.
So I think I might find myself in communion at any point I am awake enough to notice that the stranger who came in to share my supper turns out after all to be Jesus - as the Hindus say, 'Namaste', the divine in me salutes the divine in you.
Sometimes I just can't see that: and then I guess the Eucharist goes on carrying me, travelling blind. x
Ember: The Emmaus story is the one Dearest returns to again & again.
Because we always share a meal too the sense of communion was extended in a far more ordinary way. What intrigues me so much with biblical symbolism is the number of levels it can operate on ~ & communion is no different. The suckling babe is no less in communion than the old man having the wine & wafer brought to him in his hospital bed. Each is a part of the wider body of Christ who recognise each other is surprising places along the way. Occassionally it is helpful to take time out & recognise that in a different way.
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