Taste and See: Communion During Corona
By Bob Rognlien
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday on which we kick off our traditional commemoration of the tumultuous events marking Jesus’ final week on earth, often called Holy Week. The four main events we remember this week are Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the final Passover meal he shared with his disciples, his brutal crucifixion at Golgotha, and his glorious resurrection from the nearby tomb of Joseph. Imagine the emotional whiplash Jesus’ followers must have experienced during that final week as every day brought a radically different and completely unexpected turn of events!
We are going through our own time of tumultuous events. Every morning we awake to new reports of a pandemic unfolding across the globe, get bombarded with a multitude of recommendations about how we should respond, and try to connect with people we care about from the isolation of our own homes. It could be that we will relate more closely with the experience of the disciples this Holy Week than ever before.
Historically, the Thursday of Holy Week has been set aside to remember Jesus’ institution of Holy Communion by his reinterpretation of the Passover meal that night in Jerusalem. This raises the question for us, how do we celebrate communion in a time of social isolation? The gift of technology has allowed many of us to stay connected to our job, our family, and our church community in this time of quarantine. It has been wonderful to see how creatively many of you have found ways to continue to minister to your congregations and reach out to those around you in spite of the restrictions on gathering physically! I wrote an earlier blog on the limitations of broadcasting our worship gatherings and offered some suggestions on how to help people engage and interact within their own households. But what about the Lord’s Supper?
Jesus said he “eagerly desired” to share that last Passover meal with his disciples and went to great lengths to make sure he was not betrayed before he could establish this unique meal to help his followers remember and experience the power of his sacrificial death, “as often as you drink it.” There is something about a physical experience that words cannot convey. I told my kids and grand kids that I love them over Zoom for two weeks during a time of quarantine, but finally getting to hug them these past two days is so much better! In this season of great stress and challenge people need to experience the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to find the strength to trust God and overcome the obstacles they face. While YouTube and Facebook Live can convey images and voices, no digital media can convey the physical experience of eating bread and drinking wine together.
What would it look like to empower our people to share Holy Communion with the people in their households this Holy Week and throughout however many weeks of social isolation lie ahead? Tomorrow some members of my extended family will meet on online after our various online church gatherings are over and share in a time of communion together. Each of us will have some bread and wine or grape juice ready and then log into the Zoom room. Here is a simple outline of how we are going to spend our time together:
· Celebration: We will some time sharing the good things God has been doing in our lives these past couple of weeks. Lots of clapping and cheering will follow each testimony!
· Scripture: We will read the appointed Gospel reading for the day and invite anyone to share something God is speaking to them through that passage.
· Communion: I will read Jesus’ original words of institution from Matthew 26:26-29, pray, and then invite each household to share their bread and wine/grape juice with each other saying the words, “the body of Christ, broken for you,” “the blood of Christ, shed for you.”
· Intercession: We will conclude with a time of prayer for each other and the world.
What would it look like for your community to engage in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection with more than just words and images this week and in the weeks to come? You can invite your people to “taste and see that the Lord is good” through sharing Holy Communion together in their households. Your tradition may have certain requirements associated with the Lord’s Supper, so you will want to take those into account, but it will be relatively easy for most of us to find a way to invite people to the Lord’s table during this time of physical isolation. Or maybe you are not a church leader, but you can find ways to experience this gift within your own family. What would work best in your context?
It is good for us to remember that Jesus instituted this meal in the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, around a family table. For three centuries, during times of persecution and pandemic when public gatherings were not possible, this family meal continued to nourish and strengthen the faith of Jesus’ followers in the face of challenges much greater than our own. God bless and guide you as you shepherd and lead the people entrusted to your care. I want to encourage you to find ways to empower them to share this holy meal together in a time when we need faith and courage most of all.