For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 1 Corinthians 12: 23-25

The Christian church has celebrated holy communion since the very beginning. In fact the earliest Christian writing, written 20 years before any of the books of the New Testament, deals mostly with the disciples receiving Holy Communion. And in the 2000 years since, we have never ceased. But why? Do we just do it because they did? It was good enough for Paul and Silas so it’s good enough for me? Do we do it as a memorial to the crucifixion of Christ?

Well, one thing I have learned about the human race is that we don’t do a whole lot of things, certainly not sustained for 2000 years, unless they benefit us in someway. But the strange thing about communion is that most of us enjoy receiving communion, know that it benefits us, but can’t quite put words on what it does for us. In fact, the church has struggled to find words for this throughout our existence. And while different theological backgrounds have argued about the nuances of how it takes place, the majority of Christians throughout our history have agreed that holy communion is a sacrament.

What does that mean, to be a sacrament? We recognize two sacraments in our church, baptism and holy communion. Sacraments are sign acts. In other words, they are a physical representation and embodiment of a spiritual reality. And we believe them to be a sacred moment. A moment in which we perform a sign act, but God is present and does something exceedingly above everything we could ask, think, or imagine.

This has a few implications. First, the method we choose doesn’t matter. Weather we dip or we use a little cup doesn’t matter. Whether the bread has yeast or not, whether the juice has fermented or not doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if we come down front or if it is passed through the rows. But it is to be a sign act. So, it needs to be done in a way that points to God. That means that that we must be serious and intentional about how we perform this ritual including what words we use.  How often we celebrate it doesn’t matter. But more frequent is certainly better than less. As stated, we believe the presence of God to be at work during this time of ritual more powerfully than any other reoccurring time in our life. Why would we ever argue for a less frequent observation?

I offer you these musings about how important holy communion is. But I can’t do it justice in this article. I can tell you that the reason I give this teaser is because we will restart receiving holy communion on a regular basis in the month of July. We have maintained a active Covid case count in Jackson County of around 5 cases in a population of 11,000 people. And, thanks to people self quarantining when they have symptoms, we have not had one single person pass the disease to another at church. If you have not re-joined us in person yet, now is a good time. Come and receive this sacrament and learn more about it.