Why communion is special

 

Reflection 15th August 2021

A significant part of my calling to be a minister is that I felt a strong call to be able to preside at communion as the phrase has it. In other words, to be able to dispense communion. And by definition a Methodist “presbyter” to use the official term, is “A Minister of Word and Sacrament”. In other words, I preach and share the Gospel wherever and whenever I can, and I give communion.

Now before I go on, I should say that a question posed very often to me is “Why is it only ministers can serve communion?” The answer is that for time immemorial in most denominations only those who have been ordained can serve communion.

For me being able to preside at communion is a central part of my calling. And when I entered ministry in 2007, I held this in reverence. I took it very seriously and felt that everyone who received communion should treat communion with reverence too. So, when one of my churches told me that it had been agreed that children could receive communion as long as their parents were happy with that, I was not very pleased. How could a child treat this “solemn memorial” as communion is sometimes described in Methodist doctrine, with reverence? Nevertheless, I agreed – for the moment – to go along with it.

The first Sunday I took communion at that church a family came up to the communion rail. Mum and Dad and three children including a 5-year-old. I went along the rail and placed bread in each of their hands. Then I came to 5-year-old Jenny. Jenny looked into my eyes and gave me a beaming smile as she held her hands out. My heart melted. And at that moment I felt ashamed that I’d had negative thoughts about children at communion.

One of my other churches also had the practice of children receiving communion. After my experience with Jenny, I was fine with this. And duly gave communion to several children there. Several months later, after one communion service in which a small boy had dropped his communion glass spilling the “wine”, an elderly lady came up to me after service. “I don’t know we allow children to receive communion. They don’t understand what is going on!” I replied to her “Tell me Mrs Evans. Do you really know what is going on at communion for I don’t, and I doubt you do either!”

The Methodist Catechism says that

 “In The Lord’s Supper Jesus Christ is present with his worshipping people and gives himself to them as their Lord and Saviour. As hey eat bread and drink the wine, through the power of the Holy Spirit they receive him by faith with thanksgiving. They give thanks with the whole Church for Christ’s sacrifice of himself once and for all on the cross. The Lod’ Supper recalls Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples. It proclaims Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, unites the participants with him so that they are a living sacrifice in him, and gives them a foretaste of his heavenly banquet.”

 

The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion is a sacrament, and as a sacrament it is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace. In other words, it is just like in baptism. When the water is poured over a person's head or into which a person is submerged, it is a sign that the person has been spiritually changed from the inside out, and they have died with Christ so that they might rise with him. In communion the bread and the wine become for us a sign of what Christ is doing inside us, in our very souls.

American Methodist Minister Will Willimon relates the following story. It was a cold Christmas Eve.  Will Willimon, was rushing his family to get into the car.  They were running late for the communion service.  "Where are my sermon notes?  Where is the pulpit robe?  Don't forget to turn off the lights.  Everybody get in the car and be quiet!"

On the way to the church, rushing through the traffic, their 5-year-old- daughter, Harriet, got car sick and vomited.  "Great!"  Will Willimon thought, "If people only knew what preachers go through."  He wheeled into the church parking lot and jumped out of the car, leaving his wife, Patsy, to clean up the car and get the kids into the church… and he thought, "If people only knew what preachers' spouses go through."

His wife, Patsy, led a still unsteady and pale Harriet into the church.  They sat on the back pew in the darkness just in case Harriet got sick again.  Their son, William junior, aged seven, ran down to the front of the church to sit with his grandparents.  Will Willimon threw on his robe, took a deep breath, and started the service.  He made it through the first part of the service and the sermon.  Then came Holy Communion.  Mrs Willimon came forward to receive the sacrament, but she left Harriet on the back pew.  Harriet was still so pale and so weak and so sick. 

But then something beautiful happened.  Seven-year-old William junior got up and came back to the communion rail.  "What on earth is he doing?" wondered his parents.  "He's already received communion once.  What is he up to?"  They watched him race to the back of the church and scoot down the pew toward his sister.  He opened his hands revealing a small piece of bread.  "Harriet," he said, "This is the body of Christ given for you."  Without hesitation, little Harriet picked the bread out of her brother's hands and plopped it into her mouth and said, "Amen."  And in that moment Holy Communion had never been more holy.  Then 7-year-old William patted his 5-year-old sister Harriet on the head.  He smiled.  She smiled.  And then he turned and ran back down to the front of the church to re-join his grandparents. 

Think of that. 7-year-old brother William thought to include Harriet.  Either because she wasn't being included, or he thought it might help her feel better he reached out to his sister with what really mattered — the body of Christ in the form of communion.  There's a name for that. It's called LOVE! 

 

Let's be mindful of why communion is so special. Let's look upon the sacrament with wonder and awe, and bring our sins, and even our doubts, and behold the very presence of Jesus in the humble sacrament of bread and wine, of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.