Robert Longman Jr.

What is Communion about?

Christians call it by many names:
• 'Holy Communion',
• 'Bread & Wine' (also called 'the Elements'),
• 'Body & Blood',
• 'the Meal',
• 'the Lord's Supper',
• 'the Eucharist' (or translated from the Greek, 'the Great Thanksgiving')
• the 'Sacrament of the Table', (or just 'the Table')
• the 'Sacrament of the Altar'.
All of these say about something important about it. For instance, 'Altar' and 'Body and Blood' refer to Jesus
as the sacrificial cost for our sins. 'Table', 'meal', 'Bread and Wine', and 'Lord's Supper' refer to having dinner
together, like Jesus did with his disciples that last time.
But how do we unpack this today, when :
1. we don't share meals as often as they did back then.
2. people of today don't think that offering a killed animal could undo or repay for sin -- it makes no
logical sense and is not a part of the life we live.
3. doing something to recall or remember (and thus bring alive) something that already happened is
something done mostly by 'religious' people. (Or so they think...)

Why does it matter?

This leaves us with a question : why is this meal different than any other meal?
People who take Communion usually have some sense of where they are at (or not at) with God. They want
to be where Jesus is. Maybe it's because they know they need Jesus, or because they just love Jesus, or
because they want to follow Jesus. When they come for communion, they've come to the right place. That's
where Jesus is.

He's Really There!

When ministers get to talking about Holy Communion, they talk about the 'presence' (or, for Lutherans, the
'real presence') of Christ.
It's not about magic or superstition or priestly blessings or chanted verse or bells. Christians argue about how
much it's about bread and wine.
It is most centrally about Jesus himself, and how the gathered believers, together and as persons, take on the
character and holiness of the One they love and worship. Jesus invited us to this dinner.
The Spirit transforms us to bring us into union with Christ.
The task that is ours to do is to obey Christ enough to 'take and eat'. That's not hard to do. Most of us eat
bread daily and drink wine regularly. What matters most, though, is not what we do, but what Jesus did.
Jesus sacrificed himself one time 2000 years ago, and the forgiveness that comes from that has nothing to do
with what we do. When we do as He instructed, Jesus promised he would be there. A Christian is one who
trusts that and acts accordingly.

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It's For You
How does Jesus cut through everything else? "This is my body given for you." From Him. For you.
Not through someone else, if they feel like it or if you do them favors. From Jesus. Not for someone else
who fits the rules or whom a fickle God kinda likes.
For you. And why is it for you? "For the forgiveness of sins". The ancient Nicene Creed also speaks of what
Jesus did as "for us" and "for our sake". And the Anglican 1662 Book of Common Prayer refers to the 'holy
mysteries' of communion "as pledges of his love .... to our great and endless comfort". We meet what we eat.

Sometimes, our lives and those around us can go wrong, sometimes horribly wrong. "Happily ever after" is
where children's stories go, but not so real life. The broken communion bread is a reminder that Jesus was
broken. We are reminded of the "failed" Jesus, the abandoned Jesus. As it is with us, it was even more so for
God. God knows. But with Jesus, the brokenness and failure are not the last words -- there is an empty
tomb, there is a group of followers, there is the start of a community of people unlike any other. And this
was promised to you, too, for sharing in His death, for communing with His "failure".

What makes Holy Communion a sacrament?

Faithful Christians look to certain acts with great importance. These sacraments are seen as special ways in
which the saving grace and the presence of God come to us in material things, something you can taste,
see, touch or hear (like bread, wine, or baptismal water) There has to be a Scriptural command to do it and a
Scriptural promise from God that comes with doing it in faith. Putting that grace and presence into the stuff
of earth and daily experience gives us a way to connect with or link to it. Without a contact point, we lose
touch with the spirit-ness of it. We could more easily pretend that we don't know where Christ is.
'Sacrament' is a Roman Christian term, but the idea behind it is no stranger to the Jewish Scriptures.
Whether it be circumcision for Abraham and his descendents, or when Jews recount the Passover through a
meal, there is something that can be touched, felt, tasted, or seen, something reenacted, with a promise of
something special from God that went with it. God's promises don't just dangle there, floating above our
lives beyond our reach. They show themselves through earthly things.
Sacraments are not about the ritual ceremony itself. The power and new life are in the promise of Jesus'
presence. The miracle starts in that promise, not in the bread or wine or priest or blessing or ceremony.
Sacraments work not because they are done, but because the promise is believed. You come to do it because
you trust God and God's promises, due to the Spirit's work in you to grow that trust. Of course, over the
course of 2000 years, the churches have done some odd things to this sacrament. If Christ wasn't there as
promised, then wouldn't you be rather silly to go through all that fuss of singing strange-sounding songs,
unloading a $20, and listening to a long speech, just to get a single shot glass of watered-down wine and a
cardboard-tasting cracker?
The Christian way of viewing the faith and the world is 'incarnational' (God's purpose is done through
earthly stuff, such as a Jewish nation or a person Jesus) and 'sacramental' (God's saving work, as promised,
is borne through earthly stuff, such as Jesus Himself, and what He said would bear His presence).
Where there is no faith, it's not that holy communion doesn't do its thing, but that the person didn't receive it
right. If someone takes a gift and throws it in the trash bin, they get no gain from what was given, no matter
how good or effective it is.

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Come Together
The name 'Communion' comes from it being something done with others. It's done with Christ. It's done
with other believers. In sharing the meal, 'I' becomes 'us'. The same stuff, physical and spiritual, food and
Christ, goes into each of those who are there. Yes, with those present, but just as important, with all of those
who have ever shared the meal in faith. Every martyr, every laborer, babushka, apostle, farmer, e-worker,
king, knight, peasant, slave, male, female, adult and teen, from eras past or present or future, every place and
all sorts of denominations, factions, and orders. Everyone who shares, had shared, or will share the meal in
faith. Can even the Internet claim such breadth?
The unity found in holy communion has many facets, like a well-cut jewel. But the key one is that if each of
us is united in Christ, then each of us is united with each other. If B is connected to A, and C is connected to
A, then B is connected to C through A. Christ is A. And if the risen Christ rules over time and space, then B
might be a serf working a farm in Gaul in the 800s, and C might live in a space station 100 years from now.
Since the Spirit has brought Christ to both B and C in holy communion, they are both joined to a common
history and a common future, and they both have a common call to follow Christ in their time and place.
Communion links us to the future, not only by making us one in Christ with future believers, but by our
trusting in the Lord of the Last Days, the One who's in charge when time itself ends. Or, to put it as an
ancient creed puts it, "we look for the resurrection of the dead / and the life of the world to come".

Spiritual Food
How can we take bread and wine to be Body and Blood? By faith. Faith is not some sort of hocus pocus that
makes food into something un-earthly. It is done trusting that our identity with Christ is not merely a mind
game, that through the Spirit and the food, our bodies are taking on something of this identity with Christ.
It's like the way that the proteins and vitamins and other good things in food get taken up by your body and
spread all over it so it becomes what you're made of. In communion, Jesus is doing the same thing.
When you eat it, God looks at you, but sees Christ.
The Eucharist is not a place for superstition. Even once it has been set aside and blessed for this use, the
bread and wine have no special powers and do no magic. Those that believe that they do, believe a lie that
takes the attention away from what really matters : sharing in Jesus. They are important precisely because
they are everyday material -- the kind of thing God uses to convey grace to you. If they bear any powers,
they wouldn't be doing their job.
Communion is not a mere symbol. Scripture says Jesus said otherwise : "This, my body", and that is what
Christians are to go by. So why do most bible literalists consider it to be just a symbolic act, and rarely do
it?
Communion is not only or merely a symbol, but it is a symbol in many ways. A symbol is something that
reminds us of something else that is much more important than the symbol itself. In communion, eating has
a symbolic meaning. So does coming forward to do it, and kneeling to receive it. The bread and the wine
have symbolic meanings. So does the fact that it's not a B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bread) affair, but the food
is provided.
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Eat His Death

The very earliest accounts (such as 1 Corinthians 11:20-25 and Luke 22:19) have Jesus saying 'do this in
remembrance of me', and referring to the bread and wine as his body and blood. What was to be
remembered was that he died and why he died. Not just Jesus' life and resurrection and coming return, but

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more than anything else Jesus' death. Somehow, in many churches, talk about Jesus' death has either become
so routine it doesn't faze us, or it becomes so unsettling we avoid thinking about it. But Jesus wants it re-
called, to bring it back before us. This death happened to Jesus because of us. It happened to Jesus because
of me.
As you're waiting for this food, you may hear a voice saying "Don't look now, but you're in this thing pretty
deep. You could end up as a corpse, as dead as Jesus." Indeed. History says that real faith could kill you, just
like it did Jesus at Golgotha, and countless martyrs. So? Answer the voice : "Hey, that'd be great! To be as
dead as Jesus ! He's not dead -- he lives!"

How old is communion?

The first written account of communion was in Paul's letters (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), and he does it in a
way that suggests his readers already knew what he meant by it. Paul also is the first to call it 'the Lord's
Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20). Acts reports on a time earlier than Paul's letters, and in Acts 20:7 it was
already said to be Christian custom to 'break bread' the first day of the week (Sunday). Unless they meant
something special by 'break bread', something more than just dining together (which was a custom in
Mediterranean cultures), it would not have been worth writing about. Almost all of the writers of the early
church mention or refer to this supper. Thus, it is the earliest and best-attested activity of the Christian
church when they met together, as ancient as singing worship songs (which was also done at the last supper).

What's Our Part?

Communion is the most central common act that Christians do together.
1. We remember. When Jews celebrate Passover, and they are asked what it means, they are to retell
the Exodus story. Christians do the same in Communion.
2. We take part. It's not a show put on by the priests. The people do something here; in fact, they do the
most important thing.
3. We do it together. Trusting God that Christ is in us as we bring ourselves back to Christ's death. The
Christ that is in me is the Christ that is in the others. The need is the same in each. And we know that
Christ wants us to stand together.
4. We receive. We don't give, and we didn't buy it by way of the offerings. We simply receive. We don't
have to, you know. God's not going to zap you as you leave the room. But we do it anyway. And we
do it for all the times in life we refused to receive God's gifts.
5. We thank God. God has done a wonder: the Lord has given life to those who are hell-bent on death.
We have a new start, and it is Christ.

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"I forewarn, and testify, and proclaim this with a voice that all may hear! 'Let no one who has an enemy
draw near the sacred Table, or receive the Lord's Body! Let no one who draws near have an enemy! Do you
have an enemy? Do not approach! Do you wish to draw near? Be reconciled, and then draw near, and only
then touch the Holy Gifts!"
--- St. John Chrysostom, Homily 20

Holy Communion In Worship

In liturgical traditions, the Eucharist is properly the central act of the worship service, above hymns, chants,

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readings, offerings, and sermons. (You'd never know it at some parishes in liturgical traditions.) The rest of it
is praise to God; the Eucharist is for taking in God's presence.
The act itself is easy to separate out; if rightly done, it can stand on its own as proper worship.
• Prayer
• Preface
• Sanctus
• the Great Thanksgiving, w. words of institution
• the Lord's Prayer
• (some have a time of reflection)
• Agnus Dei
• Communion
• (sometimes chants or song are sung during communion)
• Hymn of Thanks (Canticle)
• closing prayer
• blessing and dismissal
The service is called 'Eucharistic' because we come in thanks, we take actions together in thanks, and we
leave in thanks.

Different Rules
Most churches are sensitive about the way people behave or act when taking communion. Some churches
are very strict about who can and can't eat it. If you're a believer and you visit a congregation other than your
own, ask how it is done and who is allowed. If they say you can't do it with them, the best way is to accept
that ann not have communion there.
For example, some pastors are really into reverencing the bread and wine, since Christ is in it and they must
respect the awesome God who uses these foods. However, it's often forgotten that in the original Last
Supper, it is likely there were crumbs when Jesus broke the bread, and spilled wine from the cup as the
disciples drank. Exactly like what happens today when we eat our other meals. That would drive these
neater-than-Him ministers into a panic. But in that original supper, Jesus was too busy thinking about
something else to think of the mess.
Different congregations have different rules about the age children start having Communion. The rules
usually stem from the church's belief about when the child knows enough to make a real choice of their own
about their faith. I wonder, though, what really is 'enough'? "Enough" for a baptized child is probably when
that child is aware enough of Jesus Christ's love, and of what 'for you' means in holy Communion, to want to
receive it. In my own case, I was very aware of such matters at age six at the latest, and probably earlier. I'm
certainly not alone in that. Yet, there are many children who are just reflecting what their parents want them
to do, or they want to have it because their older brother or sister does it. It's best to guide the child in the
faith until they meet your congregation's rules. Yet, it may be that the best rule is almost no rule at all. Let
the child sort it out until they ask. Then, a few quick questions (were you baptized, what does 'for you'
mean), to show their grasp of Christ's love. That child would be much more ready than many of the adults
are.