How do you relate to Communion?

Each week I write a short column in the church bulletin called, The Pastor's Journal. Here's what I wrote this week. What are your thoughts?

It's Communion again. I don't know about you but the increased frequency of this celebration is beginning to have its effect on me. Approximately six months ago I asked the congregation, just before the sermon, what you would think of having communion more regularly. To my surprise, applause spontaneously broke out.

The reason it surprised me is that I grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist Church that had an ambivalent relationship with the Communion Meal. It always seemed to me that the attendance at church went down significantly on Communion Sabbath. I never understood exactly why. I eventually concluded that it had something to do with the heavy guilt message that usually accompanied the ritual. Many Adventists I know confess that Communion means little to them. On the other hand, I have met other Christians that wouldn't know how to relate to their Christian experience apart from Communion. How do you relate to Communion?

I wonder how you're responding to the increased frequency of Communion? Some of you have approached me to say that you really appreciate it and that it adds a kind of stability to our worship life. I would welcome your input if you care to share. I'd love to hear from you.

In the meantime, I hope that as we talk today about the presence and absence of God in the teaching of John 14:15-21, that your participation at the Lord's Table today will mediate the presence of God to you in a very real and meaningful way.

Comments

[Jeff Crocombe]

It's not the communion per se where the problem lies in my experience--but with the footwashing.

[Ryan Bell]

As I intimated above, we have increased the regularity of communion to once per month, but we still maintain foot washing once per quarter. The funny thing is that I basically rehabilitated foot washing when I came to the church almost 3 years ago. I haven't noticed attendance dipping on foot washing Sabbaths either. In fact, people are reconnecting with it as a meaningful experience. I'm wondering if that's happening elsewhere.

[Dick Larsen]

I haven't attended a Communion service for some time but have often wondewred if the silver trays and all a bit of a sacrilege. that not meaning to offend anyone butthere is this pomp and display that seems to clash with the Jesus we see in the Gospels.

I have thought lately that it would be interesting to look at Communion as more of a celebration of the gaift that has set us free.

Foot washing has no immediate relevance in our culture without explaination and then caring it out can feel like no more then required ritual. Hopefully SDA pastors aren't still using it as a sacrament through which we are saved.

[Neville]

Having grown up in the church (many of those years in Adventist ghettos), and having taken many church rituals for granted, my experience with communion was very similar to yours: one of ambivalence, and perhaps a little bit of inconvenience and a sense of irrelevance (at best) or "cultic weirdness" (at wors)t about the foot-washing.

I'd have to say that has changed; and I'm beginning to enjoy a renewed sense of relevance and meaning toward communion. I don't even mind having it monthly instead of quarterly at Hollywood. What has changed? Perhaps it's the context. Having to truly grapple everyday with our multi-cultural (not just ethnic but generational, socio-economic, political and yes, even theological) church environment, and the almost insurmountable challenge posed by the diversity of world views, brings a certain appreciation for the necessity of "gathering around the communion table"--and my continuing amazement that it even happens in our local church context.

With respect to foot-washing, perhaps it's not so strange and cultic after all when servant-leadership truly becomes the dominant culture in the church. And because we have many uninitiated visitors, we find ourselves constantly having to explain the "ordinance of humility" and its relevance to our service posture (toward each other and to the larger Hollywood community), and every time we do, we re-affirm that culture to our visitors and to ourselves.

[Ryan Bell]

Dick, I think your point about the silver trays is a good one. I think ours are made of cheap stainless steel, but still - the little thimble-sized cups kinda miss the point. I think the common cup is closer to the Biblical vision, actually.

You also bring up something important when you reference "sacrament." It's good you included the whole phrase, "sacrament by which we are saved" because I don't think that's the only way of looking at a sacrament. I think there is/would be great value in a sort-of "sacramental renewal" in low-Protestant churches like Adventist churches. But it's not about "getting saved," in my view. The meaning of a sacrament is that a tangible practice mediates God's presence and grace to people. We are embodied/enfleshed humans beings. By our nature we connect to God through physical participation. Why kneel to pray? Why stand to pray? Why repeat any ritual, like baptism? We might argue, in a derivative form of Peter's complaint, "Lord, I had a bath this morning, I don't need to be baptized." Naturally that's not the point. Whereas foot-washing was a practical matter of cleaning the feet when Jesus and his disciples did it, Jesus imbued it with a deeper meaning. So, yes, I think it's sacramental in some sense. But we, at least in Hollywood, would never teach it as a legalism, by which we gain favor with God. Actually, it's the reverse...we put ourselves in a place where God can minister to and through us.

Rituals - shared practices - are vitally important to the formation of Christian community and identity. We do it whether we want to or not. The question simply is, do we want to consciously decided which rituals will shape our lives or will we let it happen without our conscious attention? When done "by accident" we will most likely embrace rituals that simply reinforce modern, "worldly" values rather than the values we claim to hold in the gospel.

[Dick Larsen]

Ryan, I agree with your comments on ritual and sacrament. The are what give our worship texture. It is all to common to move towards the worship of the texture.

Have you ever read about or watched (video or in person) religious ritual that you had no connection with, no way to relate it to your own reality? Then try to step away from Christianity and view what is happening in Christian ritual, as in a church service, baptism or communion. It isn't really possible to disconnect but a good exercise.

[Alex]

Since the Spectrum site is once again down, I thought that I come over here and hang.

Anyway, I had communion this last Tuesday at Grace Cathedral in S.F. for Earth Day. My boss, a minister there, invited me up for the noon service and we listened to the CA Bishop preach a thoughtful sermon on Lev. 25 on Sabbath for land and how we humans come from the earth and then we all drank the wine and ate the bread. Afterward we had a little nosh and then it was back to work.

I really enjoyed the unexpected spiritual experience.

Kudos to you for moving us toward Christ's example in symbol and ritual.