Communion – sharing God’s meal of bread and wine with one another – raises many questions. If you are new to church, the entire rite might seem like foreign territory: strange words, strange actions, what does it mean? who is it for? If you have attended other churches, it might also seem strange. Not all Christians regularly celebrate this part of Jesus’ life. And if you have been involved in Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, or various other churches in your past, you could still be left with questions. There have been numerous pre-requisites set up around God’s table. You can receive Communion if you’re a member of this church, if you’re a member of this denomination, if you’ve been confirmed, if you’ve been baptized.
You’ll hear in our worship, though, the words, ‘this is the table at which God is host and all are welcome guests.’ Jesus used food and table fellowship, the ordinary everyday act of eating, to proclaim a new kind of world – God’s kingdom, where all are welcomed and all are fed. Jesus spoke to people through their stomachs, through their hunger, in order to open them to relationship with the One who created them with love, to connect them to one another as brothers and sisters in God’s beloved world, to show them the way of abundant life, a way marked by compassion, justice, service and joy. The meal became the central symbol of all God wants to offer us: the taste and flavour and goodness of receiving God’s good gifts as we share those gifts with one another.
At St. George’s, we like to keep the invitation simple . Any one who feels drawn to receive God’s gifts is welcome to join in the Communion we find at God’s table. It is the witness of our faith that many of our tradition’s most faithful and committed disciples began their walk in faith by first being fed, then beginning to follow. “Taste and see” what the way of Jesus, the community of faith, the life offered by God, is all about.
As you come up to receive Communion this morning, whether you have done so countless times before or whether this is your first time, here are some points on which you may wish to reflect:
–What am I hungry for in my life? What do I desire?
Name this hunger, these desires, to God. Look and listen for where God is
answering, or perhaps seeking to transform, your need.
–Where in my life do I feel most alive? The Christian witness is that joy is found most fully when we are able to both receive with gratitude the blessings of this life, as well as allow our lives to be a source of blessing to others. Receiving the bread and wine this morning can be a simple step in becoming more aware of what you have, and what you have to share. God wants to shape us at this table into creatures who are Generous and Grateful.
-What is my relationship with Jesus? We are promised that in sharing the bread and wine together in Jesus’ name, he is with us. More than that, we are promised that we are formed into his life, The Body of Christ, the hands, feet, heart of Jesus in this world. Maybe you feel an easy friendship and intimacy with Jesus. Maybe you prefer to keep him at arms’ length. Maybe you have never really thought about it. But here is a chance to sit with the question, let it resonate and reverberate in your being. Am I drawn to his words and teachings? His healing touch? His courageous ways? His prayerful closeness to God? What do I find provocative and intriguing about him? Disturbing? Look for where you want to draw closer – to the human face of God, to the way of abundant life, to a loving and courageous embrace of the world around us.