Very First Communion
Originally scheduled for October 4
Most of us would never think about this problem. We come into a
church that already has established customs for serving communion.
As long as they are not too objectionable, we accept them as being
the way things are done in this location. But suppose, for the
moment, that you are missionary to someplace in equatorial Africa.
The locals are sitting out there first communion service and have
asked you to tell them how it is to be done correctly.
You
will of course see the difficulties. It must show a respectful
presence to the world, but do so in terms of the culture of those
who are native to the area. You would probably get a table of
sufficient size to hold all the items. If it was customary to
decorate those tables with colored tablecloths, or put flowers on
them, you would do so as long as it was done respectfully.
Similarly, if there are people who are going to serve the community
from the table, you would instruct them to dress properly. This
being equatorial Africa, that probably does not include a suit and
tie. The same question, put to a city nearby, might prove to be full
of different answers. You will notice that Christ, in giving
instructions to the apostles, does not waste much ink on the polite
and respectful side of communion.
But you have to get across
her these things:
· the stuff
in those little cups is a liquid. It has color. That color, that
liquid nature, are to remind you of the blood which Christ shed on
the cross for our salvation.
·
Next to it will be a tray of some sort, carrying the bread. Bread is
a solid; you use a cup for a liquid and a tray for a solid. The
important thing is that you recognize this is his body, broken for
you on the cross so that he might reach out to one and all,
“whosoever will.”
· Then by
logic, by commandment, by custom or by all three, you must convince
them that it is time to examine their lives. You wash your hands
before dinner; you clean up your act in any number of ways for many
occasions. This just happens to be the most important one.
The
reason Christ prescribed such a simple ceremony is that he did not
want us to get fouled up in the details. The size of the communion
cup is about as relevant as the number of angels who can dance on
the head of a pin. The important thing is, the condition of your
heart. Is he Lord and Savior? Do you recognize his body and his
blood? Have you gone to him in repentance so that he might assist
you to grow more and more like him?
Our Lord did not specify
the details. He knows that we can do that ourselves. What he did
specify was the state of the human heart. He is coming again to
judge the living and the dead. Be prepared.
