communion

First Communion

Posted on by Betsy

Different faith systems have varying opinions on when the time is right for a young person to receive their first communion. In United Methodism, we believe that the table is open to all, and so we serve all people of all ages. There is no prerequisite for receiving communion in our church. We pay very close attention to educating and training our children in Sunday School and eventually confirmation classes about what communion means, but the table is a shared opportunity to receive the sacrament even if you don’t fully understand the sacrament. Jesus seemed to be cognizant of the fact that you have to catch the fish before you clean the fish, and Methodists like that idea.

I had a unique opportunity to serve communion to two of my grandchildren a few weeks ago. My niece’s baby shower brought my Florida daughter, my Atlanta daughter, and me together for the weekend and we attended the church where they grew up. This is the church that I served for 16 years. The opportunity to serve communion to the children’s workers arose and my dear friend Barbara and I took the bread and juice downstairs after the service to do just that. My five-year-old grandson spotted us as he was coming out of KidMin and my eight-year old granddaughter was with him. She was visiting from Florida and had spent the hour with him in his class.

They immediately tagged along as Barbara and I visited the classrooms and nursery, offering the elements through the pass through windows and over the half-doors. We met the children’s director and her amazing lay volunteer in the hallway and served them there. Then we headed down to the youth wing to find the youth director and served him in front of a pool table. Along the way, my grandchildren simultaneously asked if they could help and also could they be served. So right there in the hall in front of the youth room, I served communion to them both.

My granddaughter has received communion on a few Christmas Eves, but this was my grandson’s first time. Usually they are in the children’s programming during worship services. Both of them assured me they had never had communion before. I think they may have said that so that they could have some that morning. This was my first time to serve them, and it left me in tears.

1 Corinthians 10 (Common English Bible)

16 Isn’t the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Isn’t the loaf of bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one loaf of bread, we who are many are one body, because we all share the one loaf of bread.

Paul asks a beautiful and poignant question in this passage. Isn’t this blessing a sharing of Christ? Isn’t this loaf a sharing of his body? How many loaves are there? One. In our diversity, we are still one body because we share the one loaf.

So whether first communion is a formal process in your faith system or an automatic response to God’s grace that happens once a month, whether you receive it at the altar or in a downstairs hallway, this cup and this loaf unite us in our love and understanding of the sacrifice that is marked every time we break bread together.

I asked my five-year old grandson what he thought about receiving his first communion. His response: “Well, the bread was better than the juice.” Fair point, young man. The bread is home baked by a church volunteer who specializes in creating a delicate, fragrant sourdough.

I would say it is to die for, but Jesus already did that.

One Loaf by Becca Ziegler

The Power of Broken Things

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever heard the old saying that in order to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs? People say this to comfort us when we are feeling broken by life. It suggests that in our breaking, we can become something new … a more refined version of ourselves, if you will. But breaking is hard work, and recovering is even harder. Good omelettes take time to perfect.

Now think about the broken bread that we receive at communion. There is such power in watching the loaf being torn in half! I bet you have received communion in many places and in many forms, from the casual retreat setting to the most formal of presentations in a church. I once took communion at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which may count as the most elaborate setting for communion. But probably the most profound communion experiences I have had were the day I was confirmed in my childhood church in Gibbsboro, N.J., the first time I served it as a newly ordained pastor at my church in Peachtree City, GA, and the communion settings of the Walk to Emmaus retreats. Communion is one of two sacraments in the United Methodist Church and truly is the place where God meets us right where we are. I hope you feel the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit every time you receive the body and blood of Christ, given for you.

Our passage today marks the moment when the Last Supper became the Lord’s Supper for all eternity. Read it and feast:

Mark 14 (New International Version)

12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”

20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Amidst the disciples’ confusion, Judas’ betrayal, the ritual remembrance of the Passover (when God delivered his children from death at the last plague in Egypt),and the gathering of friends for one last meal, Jesus abruptly broke the bread and raised the cup, instituting the new covenant and the Eucharist. When we gather in our churches tomorrow night for Maundy Thursday services, we will remember this exact moment. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for “mandate, command” and refers to the new commandment that followed this evening’s actions, as recorded in John 13:34-35 “34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

How well do we follow that new commandment? Do we live up to our communion invitation to participate in Christ by loving as he loved?

I hope you are able to attend a Maundy Thursday service. When you receive that broken body and shed blood, remember the new covenant.

Then go out and be the new covenant for the world. It is your mandate.

Take and Eat by Becca Ziegler

Mandated

Posted on by Betsy

I recently had a fun conversation with a friend from my old church about Christmas Eve services. We were a large church that became huge on Christmas Eve, and at one point we had to offer four services to accommodate all of the worshippers. Calculating the amount of people that I personally would serve at one of three communion stations, my friend estimated that I would need to say, “the body and blood of Christ given to you” several hundred times that night. At our pre-Christmas Eve dinner with church members at our favorite Mexican restaurant, somebody suggested that for the ones gathered there, I could save myself and simply say, “Here!” That got a good laugh. Unfortunately, my oldest daughter was seated at the end of the table and missed the conversation. So imagine her surprise (and displeasure!) when she came forward in Mom’s line and was met with, “Here!”

Think for a moment about the power of taking communion. I bet you have received it in many places and in many forms, from the casual retreat setting to the most formal of presentations in a church. I once took communion at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which may count as the most elaborate setting for communion. But probably the most profound communions I have received have been the day I was confirmed in my childhood church in Gibbsboro, N.J., the first time I served it as a newly ordained pastor at my church in Peachtree City, GA, and the communion settings of the Walk to Emmaus retreats. Communion is one of two sacraments in the United Methodist Church, and truly is the place were God meets us right where we are. I hope you feel the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit every time you receive the body and blood of Christ, given for you.

Our passage today marks the moment when the Last Supper became the Lord’s Supper for now until eternity. Read it and feast:

Mark 14 (New International Version)

12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”

20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Amidst the disciples’ confusion, Judas’ betrayal, the ritual remembrance of the Passover, (when God delivered his children from death at the last plague in Egypt) and the gathering of friends for one last meal, Jesus abruptly breaks the bread and raises the cup, instituting the new covenant and the Eucharist. When we gather in our churches tomorrow night for Maundy Thursday services, we will remember this exact moment. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for “mandate, command” and refers to the new commandment that followed this evening’s actions, as recorded in John 13:34-35 “34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

How well do we follow that new commandment? Do we live up to our communion invitation to participate in Christ by loving as he loved?

I hope you are able to attend a Maundy Thursday service. When you receive that broken body and shed blood, remember the new covenant. Then go out and be the new covenant for the world.

Come to the Table by Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church