So why do
you come to Sunday morning worship?
People come for all sorts of reasons and that is perfectly fine. However, the theology and practice of the
church says that we gather to worship as a community of faith each week to do
two primary things. First, we gather to
give honour and glory, praise and thanksgiving to God who is our heavenly
Father and Lord of All and who has come to be our saviour in Jesus Christ. Second, we gather to be formed and shaped as
children of God, as disciples of Christ, in order to serve one another and to
be witnesses in the world.
One of the
ways we are formed and shaped as children of God is through the sacrament of
the Eucharist or Holy Communion. What is
a sacrament? One definition states: ‘‘The sacraments are outward signs of inward grace,
instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is imparted
to us. The visible words and actions by which the sacraments are celebrated
signify and make present the graces communicated in each sacrament.’
In John’s
Gospel we hear these profound words, Those who eat my flesh and drink by blood
abide in me and I in them…whoever eats my flesh will live…the one who eats this
bread will live forever.
Holy
Communion is a sacrament of the church by which we partake of the graces of God
that give us life. The outward and
visible signs are the elements of bread and wine along with the Eucharistic or
thanksgiving prayer. Breaking bread as a community of faith to remember Jesus,
especially the events of the Last Supper has been a part of the church’s life
since the early days after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension (the Book of Acts
records this as a common meal in the home after worshipping at the Temple). The sacrament developed over time to become
the Lord’s Supper (this is what Paul called it in his letter to the
Corinthians) and then it became what we call the Eucharist in the 90’s CE in
the document, the teaching of the twelve apostles (Didache).
At the last
supper Jesus took the bread and gave thanks and said this is my body. He then took the cup of wine, gave thanks and
said this is my blood. So the elements
of bread and wine remind us of that last supper. The bread and wine become a sacred means of
remembering what Jesus did on the cross, offering his broken body and shed
blood to bring us our salvation, forgiveness, deliverance, and adoption as
children of God.
The
Eucharistic prayer is a means of remembering as well as we tell the story of
God’s promise of redemption and salvation to his people. Included in that story is the remembering the
resurrection by which Jesus’ death on the cross is vindicated or declared as
more than just a death, but a redeeming act of God to triumph over sin and all
that is evil. The prayer also in effect
consecrates or makes ‘holy’ the ordinary bread and wine to become instruments
of God’s presence and grace. There are
all sorts of theories about how this happens and it is not necessary to get
caught up in all that technical discussion.
What is key is that when we partake of the Holy Communion we encounter
God’s presence is a special and life giving way.
At Holy
Communion we are remembering even celebrating what God did in Christ to redeem
us. And we are receiving through God’s
special presence in the sacrament the gift of grace. In a
sense, because Holy Communion is a sacrament God promises to be present in a
special way. This grace that
comes to us in the bread and wine enables us and empowers us to live our faith
in our daily life. Through Holy
Communion we are reminded of God’s saving promises and work in our lives and we
are renewed in faith to go out and be the light of Christ in the world.
Interestingly,
the church recognises one other key aspect to the sacrament of Holy
Communion. Because it is a family meal,
Holy Communion forms us as community of faith.
Just as baptism gives the person being baptised a new identity as a
follower of Christ, so Holy Communion forms us as the body of Christ giving us
a way to recognise our corporate and mutual nature as a church. As St Paul says, through the Lord’s Supper we
are made into one body.
In all this,
we are simply saying Holy Communion is a family meal. Through it we remember what God has done for
us in Christ, through it by Gods’ special presence we receive strength and
grace to live the Christian life, through it by our fellowship around the table
or altar we are formed and shaped to be the body of Christ.
Yes it is a
bit mysterious. But the sacrament is the
way we have been given to enter into spiritual things in a deeper way.
My early
Christian years were in what we call non-conformist low-church. Holy Communion was celebrated every now and
again, maybe quarterly. It was presented
as a way to remember the Lord’s Supper, as a way of thanking God for what was
done in the past. As I have grown in my
faith and understanding of scripture and theology, particularly with regard to
the sacraments, when I come on Sunday to church, I find Holy Communion a
wonderful moment of encounter with God.
No, I don’t have goose bumps and go all faint. It is that it is more than just remembering
something God did in the past. It is
about meeting God in a special intensified way in the present. It reminds me that God wants to be a part of
my life and it reminds me that I am his and he is mine and his banner over me
is love.
In conclusion, God promises that wherever two are three are
gathered in his name he is present. God
is always present as we gather to worship, to honour and praise our awesome
God. Holy Communion is a special moment
in our worship in which God comes to us in a special way. Through the visible symbols of bread and wine
and through the words we use, God’s grace comes to us to help us to follow
Christ and to be the disciple or child of God calls us to be. May we all be open to receive God’s presence
and life as we partake of the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ.
