On Thursday, at 10:40 a.m. the Campbell Divinity School family gathered together for a Maundy Thursday service. This is a time to celebrate the Last Supper which Christ served to his disciples on the night before he was crucified.
As I entered the gathering place I noticed that the pulpit and communion table were covered in purple, the liturgical color for Holy Week. The communion table was set with gold plates and centered at the front of the room.
We were led through a service of scripture reading, singing, and reflecting. We had a time of prayer and centering before communion was served.
The bread comes first, just as when Christ served the bread. We are to take, eat and always do it in remembrance of Him. When the bread came around I took my piece. It was a nice square of sandwich bread.
After the eating of the bread, we took of the cup. We were each served our little cup of juice. As my professor sat in front of me, I noticed I could basically see through his cup. When I looked around, I noticed on the back table a loaf of Food Lion sandwich bread and a bottle of juicy juice. And it hit me, someone took the cheap route for communion. While I know it should not matter what brand the communion elements are, I do think we shouldn't go cheap. Personally, I am embarrassed for the person who purchased those items.
After having this experience and reacting to the cheap bread and juice the way I did, I was told about the Jesus Movement in the late 60's and early 70's. On beaches in California persons were served communion, only the elements were potato chips and pepsi cola. Personally, I think that is a little far out, I believe that Christ set the example of this communion meal by serving bread as a symbol for his body and wine as a symbol for his blood.
Like I said, the brand of the elements should not matter, but this just hit me the wrong way. Here we are to worship and to remember the sacrifice that Christ made of his own body by dying on the cross for us. Since Christ made the sacrifice for us, why can't we spend a few extra dollars on the communion elements? When I take communion, I shouldn't find myself thinking about the cheapness of the elements. I should be remembering the significance of what Christ did on that cross 2000 years ago.
2 comments:
i sat by the table with the "extra" elements, and as i looked at the juice tray, i couldn't help but think that it looked like tea.
interesting that our thoughts were sort of the same...
Maybe this is a good object lesson for how we can easily slip into the old habit of thinking of God's gift in Bonhoeffer's term of "cheap grace."
Good thing we're not a sacramental bunch...
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