Faith Works 6-13-20 & 6-20-20

Faith Works 6-13-20

Jeff Gill

 

Communion is togetherness

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Among Christian churches, communion is an act with deep and vast meaning.

 

Deep in time, going back to the upper room in Jerusalem where Jesus had a last meal with his disciples, and deeper still as they were sharing a Passover meal together, which has roots in the bread of haste and the cup of God's blessing shared by the Israelites as they prepared to leave Egypt.

 

Had you ever thought about that? A communion observance takes us on one level back to one place, but it goes across more boundaries to get to that meal eaten in homes and under cover of darkness, behind closed doors, waiting on the Angel of Death to Passover, not to mention the Egyptian oppressors.

 

And how might even that meal trace to Joseph and his brothers, those whose names gave the tribes of Israel their labels, coming into Pharaoh's realm and finding eat and drink in that unexpected place.

 

Or even earlier, in Genesis 14, when Abraham (well, Abram then) and Melchizedek, ruler of Salem, sit down together with bread and wine blessed by this mysterious priest and king.

 

Communion is important. Some call it a symbol, and I'll just let you look up what Flannery O'Connor said about that, but she had strong feelings about the meaning and reality of communion.

 

That importance is guarded, in many churches, by restricting the preparation and blessing and giving of communion to a certain group of people, often those we call "ordained." To have a sacramental, a truly sacred act of communion, some hold, you need to have a presider who is duly ordained and has the standing to do so.

 

This is why the whole period we're going through is so difficult in many faith traditions. If your faith and practice say that communion calls for a presider with certain qualifications, it's not really proper to do "online communion" as some are doing.

Now, I speak from an interesting crease in reality. I am ordained, and a proper presider I have been in many traditions; I have learned over the years what the rules are for communion and how to follow or work with those guidelines in many traditions, as I've done guest preaching in a variety of places. "When in Rome, etc."

 

But my own tradition holds to what's sometimes called "lay presidency," which is a fancy term for saying a lay person can preside at our communion table, for formal worship or in any circumstance. And let me note: some very formal traditions have interesting exceptions under certain circumstances, so you'd be surprised who "can" do communion in certain traditions. But that's a very long essay for elsewhere.

 

In lay presidency at the table, a youth can preside for a special Sunday, any elder can stand at the table of Jesus and share his words of institution from Scripture, deacons can lead a Last Supper on a mission trip or in a home. And we can invite people to watch us as clergy leading worship online to have communion at home, saying that any believer can preside at their own table, and we are (often on tape) guiding them through the act of remembrance.

I want to be very clear: for those who hold to a high view of communion and the sacraments, that's not a path that's open to them in those traditions. And I respect the intention and the implementation of their restrictions. What it does create, though, is confusion among some everyday worshipers, who wonder why their neighbor can "do communion" at home along with the video on their tablet on the kitchen table, and they have to wait.

 

And even in those more liturgical traditions, many are limiting or restricting how they "do communion" such as with bread only, or other ways to manage the contacts and exposure to potential infection . . . which most churches have done in the past, as well, when bad flu seasons ripple across the country, or even in a particular building when a rotavirus hits the congregation. We've all been here before, even if it's not often, and there are many work arounds.

 

My prayer is that we all use this time to reflect on what it is about communion that ties us to each other, and to God; how we are used to participating, and how changes can help us appreciate and reflect on the act of remembrance and relationship and being truly "in communion."

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's presided over many communion services in some pretty interesting places. Tell him where communion has been important to you at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

 

 

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Faith Works 6-20-20

Jeff Gill

 

Or, you could read your Bible
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So many of us miss worship and fellowship and friendship and being physically and personally present to each other. That's a very real loss, and it's a pain which we will be doing physical therapy to recover from for some time to come!

 

I really mean that. This period of restriction and limitation is a wound, and while there are many opinions out there about how necessary or how long it should have been, or even will yet be in some churches, it has been a wound, a nearly physical injury. If it has been a necessary cut, like a surgeon's incision, I'd point out that I don't think recovery times are that different for a sixteen stich injury whether it was done for an operation, after an accident, or done by an attack. It still needs healing.

 

We will need healing from this period, long after it ends. Whenever it ends. However long it has to go for some of us. We will need healing. It has hurt to be apart, and we will not just be able to put a small butterfly dressing on the injury and blow on it. We will need healing.

 

So whether your church is "back in the building" or driving up to it outside or just watching those wonderful if not entirely satisfying video services, can I tell you how we people of faith can start working on our healing and helping and physical therapy it will take to get the body back into shape?

Read your Bible.

 

Yeah, big shock from a Christian preacher, ain't it? But I'm talking about really reading it, for one thing, not glancing at a couple of key verses and freelancing from there in your own head; I'm also talking about reading some extended passages that are relevant to our current experience, from the historical record, yes, but also under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that gave us this Word.

 

So read your Bible back in Genesis, from chapter 37 through 50. Read how Joseph was torn from his homeland, found a new home, and ended up making a safe place not only for his beloved brother and father, but for the brothers who intended to hurt him. He was apart, and then the Spirit of God made reunion and healing possible.

 

Read your Bible in Exodus. Oh yeah, you know where I'm at now, right? From chapter 3 to . . . oh my. How far should you go? All the way through Deuteronomy? How Moses leads the people after God commissions him at the burning bush on Sinai out of Egypt and into the wilderness; how the people Israel long for where they had been, but are tested and tried and sifted with the desert sands until they are ready for a new home, a new way to be together in the land of promise.

 

Or you could jump ahead and read the book of Ruth. Don't be shy, she only asks four chapters of you. Four! You can do this. She is not from around here, but she comes in out of love and faithfulness, and in our familiar place she makes for her self a home. She is a stranger and sojourner, out of Moab, into a Hebrew land, and she becomes a part of the family, an ancestor of the Most High, of Jesus himself.

 

You could, you know, read the Book of Hebrews. Where the unnamed author or authors in the Pauline tradition talk to the Jewish Christians of their own family, now exiled again from Israel, and walks them through a form of healing and reunion that allows them to carry much that is of value, but not more than they can bear, so they can anticipate a house not made with human hands.

Or just read the end of the book or books, as many do before going back and reading the whole mystery or adventure or whatever volume they've picked up: jump to Revelation, chapters 21 & 22. I'd hope you could at least go back to chapter 19, attend the wedding supper of Christ and the church, and see how the plan is for all to be a celebration, marked with healing and hope and eternal joy. If you read ALL 22 chapters, you'll note it's not all joy all the way through. But we'll get there.

Or you could just read John 16:33. Jesus says "In this world, you will have troubles." Truer words there may not be in the Bible. But the next words Jesus says:

"But take heart; I have overcome the world."

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in central Ohio; he's impatient, too, about a great many things! Tell him how you are working on your own healing and recovery from separation at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.