My father-in-law is dying of cancer, and we’ve been taking
rotations in the hospital to keep vigil. As I type, I’m sitting across from my
spouse as my father-in-law sleeps. This afternoon has been quiet.
But the question on what communion shows us and tells us has been resonating deeply with me today. I
was struck by this question today as my spouse’s family gathered together in
the hospital room. We entered into the afternoon hours when a family friend,
who is also a phenomenal pastor, came to commune the family. We stood in a
circle around my father-in-law’s bed and heard the words of death and
resurrection, and that the risen Christ comes to meet us in this simple meal.
We partook of the risen Christ’s body and blood on this Trinity Sunday, this
Sunday that can go beyond the confines of doctrine and proclaim a God of deep
and abiding relationship. We wept as we communed together, that we weren’t
united just as a family, but as the body of a resurrected Christ and partaking
in this meal with the communion of saints. We were met by the risen Christ who
meets us in death and life.
Thoughts on life and death can stir one’s memory. The
question of communion practices also made my mind wander... back to the
practices of my internship parish and first call. The people of my internship
and first call concluded the meal by pouring all of the wine back into the
chalice and having the pastor and assisting minister finish the wine out of the
chalice. When I first arrived to the congregation in 2011, I simply thought
that this was a good practice of treating the elements with reverence and
respect. It was later in my internship that the drinking of the wine at the end
of the meal communicated something else along with the reverence of treating
the elements.
In the 1980s, the people of the congregation created an HIV/
AIDS Task Force. So many in the Bay area were dying in this epidemic. The church
held services of healing that were picketed. They flung open their doors as a
place of welcome for people who were being turned away by their families and institutions, who were stigmatized,
and who were dying. The Task Force also visited patients at the AIDS ward at
one of the Easy Bay hospitals (and that ministry continues to this day).
Members of the community that had nursing and medical experience became
caretakers for their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
This ministry was also brought into the sanctuary into
weekly worship. The senior pastor I served with was a solo pastor at that time.
He wanted to communicate that this welcome was a serious welcome that did not
come with any conditions, and this was communicated at the Eucharist.
The
consecrated wine imbibed by congregants on every end of a multitude of binaries
was poured into a chalice at the conclusion of communion. The pastor then drank
the wine, communicating to the congregation that HIV/ AIDS could not be
transmitted in the sharing of the meal. The gathering of the body of Christ
also communicated that death does not have the final say over our lives.
Communion is a powerful sacrament that can communicate so
many things. What we do at communion can also communicate something powerful to
the body of Christ.
The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you
and keep you in his grace.
Amen.
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