Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
I had a bit of an epiphany Sunday morning. Don’t worry, it didn’t hurt! But I did enjoy the rare experience of seeing something with extra clarity. It’s a phenomenon more likely to happen when my head and my heart are in tune with God’s spirit, and I am paying extra close attention in church.
This week, instead of one service in the sanctuary, we had an 8:00 gathering in the chapel and then 10:30 with chairs set up in the beautiful walled memorial garden outside.
The sky was a brilliant Carolina Blue and the sun impossibly bright. But it was a beautiful morning and – though it was at least 10-degrees too hot – it felt so good to worship in the outdoors.
Mac preached well, he always does. But it was during communion I felt the beauty of a huge truth settle into my soul. We took the bread and the wine by intinction (my favorite approach), where people line up at various stations to be given bread that they then dip into a chalice of wine/juice. I love the quiet coming and going, the gentle rhythm of the movement, the patient waiting, the buzz of whispered blessings and affirmations: “Rebekah, this is the body of Christ” and, “Derek, this is Christ’s blood shed for you;” “You are welcome” “You are welcome” “You are welcome….”
And, I thought, “You are welcome home…”
And as I watched I saw, I heard, the traffic moving past on Six Forks Road and I wondered if anyone driving saw what was happening, maybe heard the chords of a hymn, maybe felt the urge, the pull, to come home themselves.
I thought about how so much of what passes for evangelism distorts the Good News Story. And I imagined the “turn or burn” way people hand out tracts almost like threats sometimes, and the challenge of “are you saved?” and all the peremptory demands and assumptions and judgements of so much that is done in the name of Jesus…
And then I thought about simply taking people the bread and the wine. About offering communion. About bringing the Lord’s Supper to anyone who might have an inkling of interest. About presenting the body and the blood of Jesus the same way that the Lord presented himself, as an invitation home, as a gift, as a blessing.
Not something to be guarded and protected from the potentially insincere but instead something that stands as an invitation and a gift; a tender mercy.
That was my Sunday morning clarity.
So thanks, HMPC, for the image that is now seared in my mind, the juxtaposition of the bread and the wine with Six Forks Road, one of Raleigh’s main arteries, the singing of hymns against the backdrop of both gardens and city life, the benediction we want absolutely everyone to hear and to embrace: “Know that you are loved beyond your wildest imagination.”
In love, and because of love – DEREK