Communion

Pastor Richard Hovey

The Centrality of Communion

Reflection

Pastor Richard Hovey

It is fascinating to reflect on who was served the first “communion” by Jesus when he broke the bread and poured the cup, saying “take, this is my body” and gave them the cup saying: “This is my blood of thecovenant, which is poured out for many.” The disciples whom Jesus shared this bread and cup with were far from perfect. They struggled in understanding who he was, what this all meant; they struggled with belief itself. One would soon betray, another deny, and all scatter – in disbelief, skeptical, doubting who Jesus in fact was. Communion. Communion was served to this group – by Jesus.

We come around the Lord’s table, we take the bread and the cup, not because we have it all figured out; we do this not because we no longer have any doubts, skepticism, disbelief nor because we have ceased making mistakes nor because we are beyond the danger of betraying. We do this because we are invited: invited into belief, hope, new life – relationship with God through Christ by the power of the Spirit, and into true human fellowship with others. In communion we are invited to taste redemption: the offer of pure love to the impure in heart; the offer of fellowship to those distanced from the presence; the offer of abundant life to those struggling to survive. And it is all grace.

Communion is an invitation to right relationship to those still trying to figure it out; right relationship with God and with one another. In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16,17). John Michael Talbot writes:

When you eat my body,

You drink my blood,

I will live in you,

And you will live in my love.

We are one body, one body in Christ,

And we do not stand alone.

We are one body, one body in Christ,

And he came that we might have life.

Let us, in all our brokenness, continue to commune with our perfect Lord and through his grace with one another.