So What’s Up With Communion Anyway
January 31st, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in History, Theology
Communion. Holy Communion. The Lord’s Supper. Breaking of Bread. The Eucharist. It’s something all Christians have done (or should be doing) for the past 2000 years. It is one of two “rituals” of a sort commanded and modeled by our Lord. But what’s it all about anyway.
Well, it’s a time to… umm… remember Jesus Sacrifice, you know, the wine grape juice representing his blood, and the bread wafers/wonderbread/croutons/whatever-is-easy-and-on-hand representing his… you know… body…
Is it just a symbol? (really?) Is there more to it than that? What does it all mean? (really?)
This is such a profound and meaningful experience. A wonderful gift that Christians have been given by Jesus to communicate so much! So much, indeed, that eventually Christians came to think of the bread and wine ACTUALLY BEING the body and blood of christ! (After all, he DID say “This IS my blood. This IS my body.” (didn’t he? (actually, no.. he didn’t.)) (triple parenthetical statement +15!)
My point here is that we evangelical types tend to take one of three stances on the issue:
- Happily mystified
- Completely confused
- Overly simplistic and naive
It’s an issue I’ve been studying out for about a year. Grappling with to try and gather a sense of peace about the issue. I’m starting to get there. I’ve recently read a book (recommended by our sound guru) that cleared a lot of air for me. I’d like to formally recommend it to you all.
“Nothing is more central to Christian practice than Holy Communion. Yet, curiously enough, little attempt is made to explain it. So many outside the Christian community are just puzzled by it, and many within the church go to Communion from habit but know very little about how it arose and what it means. This is the ideal book for both thypes of reader. It is written by one of th foremost New Testament scholars in the world, who has the enviable ability to write with engaging charm.”
The back of the book gives a nice summary:
…Tom Wright explains in clear and vivid style the background to the Last Supper, the ways in which Christians have interpreted this event over the centuries, and what it all means for us today.
If you lead worship and communion, you should read this book.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 9:48 pm and is filed under History, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] bookmarks tagged enviable So What’s Up With Communion Anyway saved by 4 others will2k123 bookmarked on 02/03/08 | [...]
[...] over at Rock Worship (a.k.a. GCWorship) has made a post about Communion that I think you need to check out. Here’s a wee snippet: Communion. Holy Communion. The Lord’s Supper. Breaking of Bread. [...]
Matt, thanks for sharing this. Here’s a link to some seminars Wright gave on the subject at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
Communion is very important to me, but I have been neglecting to do it. Thanks for posting this, like your blog, and I think that I will add you to mine for daily reads. Have a great day.
Communion is an interesting aspect to religion to deconstruct. I know that I have personally taken my faith on a very much surface level and only until about 2 years did I ever start digging and trying to understand meaning. I had a life changing event, but before that I happily obeyed, but now I’m willing to obey and even more importantly I’m learning to obey.