Communion for Those New to Church

As low-key as a Congregational church usually is, the practice of Communion can't escape the elements and the words the Lord uses. "This bread is my body." And "this wine [or juice] is my blood." The idea of eating and drinking bread that is Jesus' body and juice that is his blood is still rather radical from the outside looking in. 

The church must confront the reality that as younger generations unfamiliar with church life come of age, Communion especially must be explained. Here's my explanation.

Jesus was one of the most poetic teachers to ever teach the truth of God and faith. He was an expert at meptahor. He said, for example, "I am the vine." Or "I am the living water." Jesus is not actually a vine, but he produces a good attitude in us like a vine produces grapes. Jesus is not really water, but his teaching and the way of life he taught quenches our spiritual thirst. 

Well, as Protestants, we believe that when Jesus says this bread is my body and this wine is my blood he was engaging in meaningful poetry. He didn't literally mean that the bread is his body and the wine was his blood. He was alive and full intact as he spoke, after all. He used a metaphor. He was speaking in poetry. Yes, the poetry he uses is rather edgy and extreme. But Jesus, as the Good Teacher, was trying to get his students' attention. And they weren't being attentive! 

What was he teaching by saying the bread and wine is my body and blood? 

Well, the word Christian literally means Christ-like. The goal for Christians is to be like Jesus Christ. The best way to be like him, Jesus suggests, is to take his spirit into your spirit, to take Jesus' self in your self. 

I love basketball. I have loved basketball since I was your age. I wanted to be like Michael Jordan. Now, to be like Jordan and be the greatest basketball player ever, I took in everything related to Michael Jordan. Everything he said, every bit of guidance he offered, everything bit of advice he made, I ate it up. I watched every game he played and studied every move he made. I wore his shoes, wore baggy shorts, wore thick socks up to below my lower calves, wore a sweatband on my forearm. Now, I didn't shave my head or stick out my tongue like he did, but I did chew gum like he sometimes did. I even tried to walk like he did.

There's an idiom we hear sometimes. It points to what Jesus was getting at. To be like Michael Jordan, I dedicated myself to eat, drink, and sleep all things Michael Jordan.  

That's what Communion is like for Christians. To be like Christ, we eat, drink, and sleep all things Jesus Christ. We eat, drink, and sleep the life of Christ. We eat, drink, and sleep the spiritual life. 

The Communion service is basically an enactment of the idiom to eat, drink, and sleep all that is Christ.

Maybe you're still saying, the poem and metaphor Jesus uses, well, its still too much. Here's something else that might help. 

Thich Nhat Hanh was a Buddhist monk who became famous for teaching about Buddhism in America and Europe. He was from Vietnam where there are a lot of Buddhists but also a lot of Catholics. Wanting to teach about Buddhism in Christian-based countries like the U.S. or in Europe, and wanting to teach about Buddhism to his fellow Vietnamese who were Catholics, he learned about Christianity and often compared the two religions. He came to really appreciate Christianity and saw Jesus Christ as one of his religious teachers. He approached Christianity and Communion from the outside looking in, too. This is what he had to say about Communion:

Not many people want to become priests in our day, but everyone is hungry.  So many people are hungry for spiritual food, there are so many hungry souls. [Jesus wanted to feed hungry souls with spiritual food.]

‘Take, my friends, this is my flesh, this is my blood’— Can there be any more drastic language in order to wake us up?  What could Jesus have said that is better than that?

This piece of bread is the body of the whole universe. If Christ is the body of God, which he is, then the bread he offers is also the body of the universe. Look deeply and you notice the sunshine in the bread, the blue sky in the bread, the cloud and the great earth in the bread. Can you tell me what is not in a piece of bread? The whole universe has come together in order to bring to you this piece of bread. You eat it in such a way that you come alive, truly alive. 

The same goes for juice. Look deeply and you notice the sunshine in the juice, the blue sky, the cloud and the earth in the juice. How? Because sunshine in blue skies is needed for fruit to grow that gives us the juice. Clouds and the rain are needed, too. Soil of the earth is needed for vines of grapes to grow and juice or wine to be made. All of the universe is in the juice and in the bread. 

When we take into our bodies the bread and the juice we take in the whole universe that God through Christ created. And we also take in the Creator and Christ as well so we can be more like Christ. 

Let me close by saying this. There is no faith that loves life more than Christianity. This was true from the very beginning. Many of the earliest Christians not only didn't take human life, they avoided taking animal life and lived as vegetarians. They rejected and resisted animal sacrifice that was still happening all round them. In the earliest days of Christianity, the culture of Rome didn't care as much about human life. It was not rare for people to leave babies on the side of the road. The early Christians became famous for picking those babies up and taking them into the communty where someone would raise them. That's how much Christians loved life. Communion points to life, the Christian life.

Everytime we take Communion on Sunday mornings, we renact Jesus' last supper with his disciples. Like what happens when we watch a good movie, we become part of the story and Jesus becomes present with us. And as we remember and recite the poem of the bread and wine Jesus recited, and as we renact that poem, we are reminded what our faith is all about - to eat, drink, and sleep all that Jesus is so that we can live like Jesus did, loving others and showing compassion to those who most need it.