Column on World Communion Sunday

In the Great Depression, a pastor in the Pittsburgh area had an idea. The economy was in shambles, and people were struggling mightily. To see generosity and sharing in the midst of desperation, he proposed sharing the sacrament. To open foreshortened horizons, he proposed celebrating a World Communion Sunday.

Almost all Christian churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper. As a sacrament, as a ritual of unity, it marks our divisions. Some churches open the sacrament to all, and some close it to its own members in the church. In our time, many Christians share the ritual of the sacrament, but do so thoughtlessly, as part of a religious checklist.

As we approach the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, maybe this is a good time to review some interpretations of it.  What doe sit mean when Jesus says this is my body when he broke the bread at his last Passover meal? Does something happen in the bread and wine? The Roman Catholic Church made a decision to follow Aristotle’s understanding of the world as a way to explain it: transubstantiation. (I’ve often thought that Catholic schools do well, in part, as children are exposed to words such as this at a young age). Even though it looks the same in outward appearance, its basic form changes, is transformed.

Most American Protestants emphasize the sacrament as part of the phrase- do this to remember me. If we think about it all, we use it as a memory aid to recall the death of Jesus. This is good, as far as it goes, but it neglects far too much of the sacrament’s links to our past, present, and future.

I was raised Catholic, but find the Reformed wing of the church as struggling to present an acceptable view of the sacrament. After all, when we are talking about a sacred ritual, we are trying to speak about inexpressible depths. Some of the arguments about communion stem from questions that emerge from trying to describe and analyze a liturgy. The Reformed wing sees the Holy “spirit as elevating us into the presence of Christ through the sacrament. So we are elevated with enhanced elements, instead of speaking of the risen Christ descending to us as contained in the bread and cup.

Whether or not one participates in World Communion Sunday, whether or not one happens to receive Communion this Sunday, the sacrament is a presentation of an ongoing miracle. It is a sacrament of communion, of community, of mutual participation, of bringing together. It is built into the Christian view of divinity, as the cross is the story of a continued movement to our level. It then is reversed to draw us up toward God. This enacts communion because we share in each other’s lives and the life of Christ. It points the way that we are being reformed, reshaped, conforming to the very image of Jesus Christ. This is mutual indwelling. Christ enters into the lifeblood, the current of our lives. What could be more humble than to have a broken body and spilled blood as a constant representation of the divine life? What could be more humble than to share, to   continue to demonstrate the life of Jesus Christ in a crust of bread and a thimbleful of wine? Just as Jesus bridges both divinity and humanity, this sacrament bridges the gulf between earth and heaven. In Our tradition, the spirit acts to bring us into full contact with Christ. We also see ourselves and each other as Christophers as bearers of Christ. What respect, what reverence we would then present to one another.