Communion

We are having communion this morning

I want to truly meet with my brothers and sisters around the Lord's table

I need to look into their eyes as we share the bread and the wine

I want to break one loaf and drink from one cup to demonstrate that we are one body

I long for a real communion with Christ and a real communion with others

I want us together to remember the Lord's death with deep joy and sincere gratitude 

I want to eat and drink and receive and be full of Christ

I want to pass the bread and pass the cup from one to another

I want this act to be a corporate proclamation of Christ's death until he comes again

Instead...

We will sit in pews and will be ministered to by the ordained

We will drink from individual small glasses instead of from one cup

We will have small pre-cut squares of bread rather than break a whole loaf 

We will participate but only by opening our mouths to eat and drink

We will be less than a handful of individuals dotted around a mostly empty chapel

We will be sat facing the pulpit not gathered around a table

And we won't celebrate this act again until the fourth Sunday of next month

I want to come away feeling full, instead I fear I will leave feeling empty

I long for more than this...

There is a beautiful song written by Claire Cloninger and Martin J Nystrm which sums this up

Come to the table of mercy

Prepared with the wine and the bread

All who are hungry and thirsty

Come and your soul will be fed

Come at the Lord’s invitation

Receive from His nail-scarred hand

Eat of the bread of salvation

Drink of the blood of the Lamb