Today I will sit where most churchgoers sit. I will sing and pray, I will listen and contemplate what God wants to communicate to his assembled people on this day–mediated through the study and insights of another member of the faith community. My public involvement is that I have been asked to guide the thoughts of God’s people as we surround the Table to remember afresh the central reason why we come. (As Acts 20:7 indicates that the early church assembled for the express purpose of breaking bread.)
The cup of blessing for which we give thanks, does it not signify that we enter in communion and fellowship with the blood of Christ? The bread which we share, does it not signify that we are entering into communion with the body of Christ? And since there is only one bread in which we all participate, therefore even though we are many, we form only one body. (1 Cor. 10:16-17)
In the Supper, Christians can see many different elements of their relationship with God. Some see only the Bible, and the need to do what the Bible says, so they are present and partake. This is duty and responsibility. This many be focused on what the Bible says more than on what God or Christ desire. Some go so far as to leave the assembly for other activities after the Supper, because their understanding of the Supper is limited to duty. My ticket is punched; I have done “it” for another week. Such is sadly shallow.
In the Supper, Christians may also see vertical relationship established or renewed. We are proclaiming relationship with God through faith. By faith, we are acknowledging the sacrifice of Christ and proclaiming our confidence in his faithful return. The Supper is sacramental, sacred, in that it reminds of the continuing power of Christ’s blood to heal those who are his followers. The Supper is not for non-followers. Nor does partaking of the Supper establish one’s relationship with God–that occurs in one’s contact with the blood of Christ in baptism. The Supper serves to renew and remind. In this point, notice how the words of Jesus at the Supper, as recorded in the Gospels, are applied in the life of the church when Paul quotes them in 1 Cor. 11:23ff.
Least in view in the Supper (at least for many Christians) is the declaration of horizontal relationship. The spiritual body of Christ, the church, shares the Supper, and thus shares communion and fellowship. The blood which flowed through the physical body of Christ and was shed in his death on the cross now flows through the spiritual body of Christ–and partaking of the cup does not start the flow of Christ’s blood but reminds of present reality. It also reminds us that we are one. We are a unit, a unity, unified, even in our diversity. We are the same–we are treated the same, we treat one another equally. At the cross, no one is special to God, no one is special to any other Christian. The cross, and thus the Supper, declares togetherness.
“Let us break bread together on our knees…..”