1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 24: 13-18, 28-32
Friends, did you ever ask yourselves why we celebrate Holy Communion, and why we do it the way we do it? Depending on your own Christian heritage, you may be inclined to talk about Holy Communion as the Last Supper, or the Lord’s Table, or even “the Eucharist,” which is a couple of Greek words together that simply mean “in thanksgiving” or “with thanksgiving.”
Right after the Resurrection, some of Jesus’s disciples recognized him by the way he broke and share the bread, as we just read in the Gospel of Luke – remember this incident on the way between Jerusalem and Emmaus? How those two followers of Jesus who accidentally met with him eventually recognized him by the way he blessed and shared bread with them?
Because of Jesus’s resurrection, the traditional Jewish practice of taking bread, blessing it and thanking God, and breaking and sharing the bread took on new meaning for those two pilgrims and for all who followed Jesus. From that day on, whenever Jesus’s followers gathered in his name, the breaking of bread and sharing of the cup was a means of remembering his life, death, and resurrection.
Even more than that – also a means of encountering him, the living Christ.
Very soon this thanksgiving celebration became the defining ritual of the church and the central act of its worship.
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Over the centuries, various understandings and practices of Holy Communion developed. Roman Catholicism, for instance, teaches that the substance of bread and wine are “spiritually” changed, or transformed, into the actual body and blood of Christ. Protestant Reformers in the 16th century rejected this teaching but had diverse ideas among themselves. Lutherans, for instance, maintained that Christ’s body and blood are truly present in, and with the bread and wine.
Zwingli, a Swiss reformer, taught that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice, an affirmation of faith, and a sign of Christian fellowship. Zwingli’s views are widely shared today, and most Methodists subscribe to them as well.
Denominations in the Reformed tradition, following John Calvin, maintain that although Christ’s body is in heaven, when Holy Communion is received with true faith, the power of the Holy Spirit nourishes those who partake.
The Church of England affirmed a somewhat similar view, and so did John Wesley, an ordained minister of that same church well before becoming a Methodist by default! These understandings (stated here very simplistically), and several others suggest the range of ideas that were available to John Wesley and the early Methodists.
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Like baptism, Holy Communion is regarded by most Christians as a sacrament – an act of worship instituted by Christ as a means of grace. Now, this does not mean that we become any more worthy of God’s grace by taking part in Communion. Rather, we open ourselves to the divine love that’s already here, already there, and become more ready to receive it and to respond to it.
And everybody is welcome to it, not only those who attend our own church or who are “old-enough-to-understand.” Even children, yes, children too, for we can’t imagine putting limits to God’s grace at work.
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“Very interesting, preacher, but we still have a couple of questions about practical matters: 1) Why once a month rather than every time we worship? 2) Why grape juice instead of real wine?” Great questions, but before I try my best answers, let me tell you about a little girl who asked her mother, “Mom, why do you cut the ends off the meat before you cook it?”
Her mother told her that this way she added to the flavor by allowing the meat to better absorb the spices, but perhaps she should ask her grandmother since she always did it that way.
So, the little girl asked her grandmother. Grandma thought for a moment and answered, “I think it allows the meat to stay tender because it soaks up the juices better, but why don’t you ask your nana? After all, I learned from her, and she always did it that way.”
So, the little girl asked her great-grandmother, “Nana, why do you cut the ends off the meat before you cook it?” Nana answered, “Honey, I had to; my cooking pot wasn’t big enough.”
Friends, my best answer is that quite often we do things the way we do because that’s the way it was done before us.
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So, why we partake once a month, the first Sunday, to be more precise, like most Methodist churches? I believe that the answer has to do with how often an itinerant preacher could show up at any of his eight or ten churches in the early days of Methodism in America. A preacher was required to be around to “consecrate” or “bless” the sacrament, but with so many churches and such a huge distances, they could not do it every Sunday.
So, they tried to do it at least once a month, and as regularly as possible, so they decided the first Sunday of the month—why not? Things have changed –today most Methodist churches have an “appointed” full time or part-time pastor every Sunday, and I haven’t yet found a preacher who does not have a car, or a motorcycle . . . yet the old habit of celebrating Communion once a month and on the first Sunday remains!
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Now, what about our Methodist “love affair” with grape juice? — once again, ask Nana!
The use of unfermented grape juice instead of wine is a rather recent practice among Methodist congregations and many other Protestant denominations. Grape juice, rather than wine, goes back to the late 19th century and a Methodist dentist named Thomas Welch –does this name ring any bells?
Welch had serious reservations about the use of wine because of the ravages caused by alcoholism, so when he heard of Pasteur’s “pasteurization” of milk, he went into the lab and found the way to do the same with grape juice. And soon he began to use it in his own church, where he was a highly respected leader and Communion steward in chief!
His son, Dr. Charles Welch, a dentist like his father, a successful entrepreneur and a dedicated Methodist layman from southern New Jersey, later marketed the pasteurized grape juice as “genuine biblical wine.” As word spread and as the temperance movement grew among many Protestant churches, Welch left dentistry and produced Welch’s Grape Juice commercially.
Our 1964 Book of Worship rubric is emphatic: “The pure, unfermented juice of the grape shall be used.” Our current Book of Worship no longer explicitly define what form of the fruit of the grape shall be used, yet it reminds us that the use of unfermented grape juice has been an expression of pastoral concern for recovering alcoholics, also a practice that enables the participation of children and youth, and a message that supports the church’s witness of abstinence.
Incidentally, you may remember that up until some 30, 40 years ago, your own pastor could be “removed” just because he was caught enjoying a Malbec or a Budweiser.
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Friends, we need to stop here even though we may have a few more questions about Holy Communion — in the meantime, let us remind ourselves that Holy Communion remains a mystery too deep for words, which explains why Christians in general and United Methodists in particular, have many different interpretations. Yet, regardless of so many differences and nuances, we all agree with the central message that we proclaim every time we partake – that we remember that Christ has died for us and risen for us; that Christ is always with us to nurture and to show us how to become a living sacrament to others along the road.
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I once read an Upper Room devotion contributed by a man who had been playing the guitar for more than 50 years. Every three months or so, no matter how much he tuned the strings, the strings began to sound tired and flat. So, he painstakingly replaced the old strings and painstakingly tightened the new ones until they were properly tuned –a lot of trouble, he said, but with the new strings even the plainest melody rang with beauty. What a blessing, my friends, to experience something like that whenever we partake around this table.
Whenever our lives have gotten out of tune – and it happens quite often, sometimes more than once a month, to be honest — we can pause for a moment while God changes our strings, tightening them until the grace notes of Jesus Christ can be heard again in our hearts and minds.
What a blessing, what a joy, my friends, I feel in my heart whenever we partake together, for it is one of those sacred moments in our faith journey when I so vividly remember again all that the Risen Christ has done for us and keeps doing for us.