Holy Communion

I was reading last night's blog about the time last Saturday when Cindy, Kate and Cindy's Dad and I shared some time at the Red Brick Pub. It makes me think about a connection between family and breaking bread together.

When I was growing up we ate together at the dinner table. We didn't eat at different times. We didn't eat in front of the television. As a matter of fact, we didn't eat outside of the kitchen or dining room. It still makes me nervous when I am at home in Dunwoody and Cindy or Kate take something into the den. I can't remember there ever being a specific proscription against it, but it just wasn't done.

But the beauty of sharing meals together is something different, higher. We were called to the table for meals by our parents. We were always invited. Meals were the time when we shared communion with each other, sharing our days and our thoughts and concerns. In a family which wasn't really expressive a lot of times, mealtime was the time when that sharing occurred. It created a stronger connection between the family members.

And it makes me think about Christianity and the centrality of the Lord's Supper as ritual. When the Lord decided to share the mystery of spirit and life, he shared it in the form of a meal. Of course, this ritual comes as an extension of Passover, another ritual involving a meal. Why do the central rituals of both of these religions involve a meal? In Judiasm, the meal involves rememberance of historical deliverance by God, the gift of physical salvation from slavery in Egypt. In Christianity; however, the celebration of the Lord's Supper involves the gift of spiritual salvation and a connection with the divine through ingestion of same. I know this sounds strange, but the ingestion of the elements signifies the ingestion of the spirit into ourselves, the intaking of the Holy Spirit as exemplified through the physical ingestion of the bread and wine.

What did we take away from the dinner table when I was a child in my parent's house? A connection was created or enhanced. A relationship was built between us. I think the essence of the Lord's Supper is the same. We seek a closer relationship with each other and with God. The physical relationship between the congregation is built by a communal taking of the elements. The spiritual relationship is built by an acknowledgement that God is present in the elements and that he is present when we celebrate the ritual. It is rememberance as in the Passover Feast, but it is also a rational acknowledgement that God gave us salvation from death and our former lives of selfishness and self-ruin and that God is here with us, through his Holy Spirit.

So the meal takes on a higher significance, for God was there before we were born, working his action of universal salvation offered to all and God is here with us in the gathering.