Communion
Last week we celebrated Holy Communion during the morning service. It is probably my Anglican background but I feel we do not do this often enough. In the catechism (which, unfortunately, I am old enough to have studied before it went out of fashion) it states that the Lord’s Supper is “for the continual remembrance of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ and for the benefits we receive thereby”. We take Communion, therefore, both to give thanks and to be fed by the Holy Spirit. It is not just a ritual that we have to carry out to be a member of the “club”.
When reading the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) we find detailed – and unnecessarily gory to my vegetarian mind – descriptions of how Moses’ people were to worship. First they had to recognise man’s imperfect and sinful nature and wish to atone. Then there had to be sacrifices, burnt, sin, peace etc., of animals “without spot or blemish” as substitutes for imperfect humans. Flesh and blood were to be separated and differently handled by ordained priests, the family of Aaron. If these actions were correctly carried out and were acceptable to God then the people continued to receive His favours.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the form of a sinless human, died as a “full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world” (Book of Common Prayer). Thus we no longer need to make all those different types of offering, we need no priests to intercede for us. They were only for those people alive before He came to save them.
Just before He died, Jesus shared bread and wine with His Disciples and using these to represent His body and blood, said “do this in remembrance of me”. His death was to obviate the need for the old rituals; we were to honour Him instead; He had made our sacrifice for us. No other rite or form of service, matins, evensong etc. is mentioned in the Bible only the “breaking of bread”. Yet regular participation in Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, Mass or whatever you wish to call it is not enough.
We are one Body, but different parts, all with different skills or functions. We have discussed the variety of gifts of the Spirit, now we need to work out how to use them. The purpose of the church is not to be a cosy little clique that meets on Sundays but to play an active part in the Church of Christ. As Bob M keeps telling us, the walls of the church cannot contain God’s message because we go out at the end of the service. However, we do need to start as that small and cohesive group in order to be effective in carrying out our mission.
To achieve this we need to do the other things that Jesus taught, to meet together for prayer, teaching and study and to communicate, over food where possible. We have the opportunity to do these things on Wednesday evenings and after the Sunday service. If you are not taking part in these activities you do not know what you are missing (often a good laugh). We have a corporate responsibility in the organisation that is NMEFC and fellowship is an important part of that. As my music teacher used to say, “there is no room for passengers” – but that’s a different leaflet!
