So for this Sunday, I was thinking about talking about communion. I wanted to talk about the history and symbolism for kids. And I was wondering if I could instruct people to have their own communion ritual at home.
I talked to Fr. Jeremiah about this and without saying, “don’t tell people to do their own communion at home,” I got that impression. He told me the Bishop was wanting communion to continue to happen every Sunday–virtually. That is, the online services that people are watching from home should include thee priest blessing the sacraments and celebrating the eucharist.
I was thinking what it must have been like to be an early Christian, possibly hidden away somewhere from the potential persecution, extreme enough that some were killed. Did these little groups gathered together, without an “official” representative of God, commune with bread and wine? Can you produce the emotional/theological/spiritual power of the eucharist just watching it on the screen? Is it heresy if you improvise with crackers and juice at home? What’s the power in this ritual that there’s any controversy about this at all?
So I just read 1 Corinithians 11:17-34 which talks about the abuse of communion. And so I fear that in directing families to have their own ritual at home, I will find that some cannot do it with the gravity required. I don’t want to do that.
But maybe I will talk about ritual. I do, as I think many of us do, find ritual comforting. I think it’s one of the reasons people show up week after week at church. It’s at the same time every week. The order of the service is pretty much fixed. The scriptures read and the hymns sung vary from week to week, but there’s prescription in what is read and sung.
When Rich and I were dating, he still felt most comfortable religiously affiliating as a Catholic. I went with him to Catholic church a few times and found it difficult and somewhat embarrassing to follow everything going on in the service, while those around me know the routine and could follow it by heart. Whether Catholic or Episcopalian, a newcomer to the denomination will struggle to keep up with the page turning or the memorized responses. But the repetition pays off if you keep going. You know what comes next. You know, if not by heart, the responses or where to find them in the prayer book. Or you at least know you had better pay attention to the page numbers in the Book of Common Prayer if you want to be able to recite along with everyone else when the time comes.
So for little ones, maybe a prayer ritual–something short and simple and a place to carry it out with their own religious symbols–would work. For the older kids (middle school +), maybe a “church” ritual of our own making would be a good idea. We’ll see.
So in Luke 22:19-20 gives us the directive of what should happen in communion: we remember Jesus sacrifice of his body and blood when he died for us. When you eat this bread, remember that I died for you, and when you drink this cup, know that in my blood is a new promise of God’s love.
Covenant: promise
Jesus tells his disciples: “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.”
