A Place at the Table: Communion, Community, and Connection
Happy October, friends! October is my favorite month of the year (and not just because of Halloween). There’s something about a New England autumn that no other region or season could provide: there’s an encroaching crispness in the air, leaves swirling away from a shedding tree amidst a gust of wind, and – owing to the chilly temperatures – a refocusing on ‘inside’ activities. Included among these indoor activities is what some pastors refer to as ‘full church’ -busy committee schedules, fall-time events and craft fairs, and a recommitment to being together more consistently, on Sundays and beyond.
A Special World Communion Sunday
Our first Sunday this month was, indeed, a special and full day: it was World Communion Sunday – a kind of ecumenical holiday coordinated to invoke and unite the billions of Christians holding fast to the sacramental truth of communion. Our denomination, the United Church of Christ (UCC), accepts that many people define and understand communion in their own way; they supply a number of explanations as to why communion might mean in a ‘big tent’ church like ours. Like I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday, we all have a different understanding of communion: some of us are former Catholics, others cradle Protestants, and yet more have no solid definition of the strange and sacred right we practice once a month. But what I saw on Sunday superseded any difference of understanding.
This past Sunday, the sacrament I oversaw was a remarkable one: not because anything haphazard occurred, but because of what it represented. Before service, our deacons prepared a variety of the world’s different breads for our congregants to take and eat as Christ’s body; they did this as other congregants wrestled with the logistics of our church’s first-ever full immersion baptism, held on our beautiful (and functional!) new patio. When the time for communion arrived, our deacons were joined by some of the youngest people in our congregation – children who have never participated in a formal church service – as they brought the Table of the Lord to those in each pew. One of the participant youth was the young person who we’d baptize only moments later.
Passing Faith from One Generation to the Next
For a brief few moments, I watched as young people, guided by older and more experienced congregants, gained their footing in our church and tried something new. I watched as our veteran deacons shared their knowledge with new church-goers, passing on and teaching a tradition in a way those children might never forget – in a way, perhaps, that might help those children find church a little less scary; a little more welcoming; a little more theirs. Communion was served in our church, just as it was being served in thousands upon thousands of other churches, uniting all of us – young and old, seekers and stalwarts, all different stripes of Protestants and Christians beyond classification – in the beautiful and ongoing mystery that is Christian community. It was, in the UCC’s own words, “an intimate experience of fellowship in which the whole church in every time and place is present, and divisions are overcome.”
The Church at Work
As your pastor, I’d like to thank you for making days like this past Sunday possible and special, through your willingness to engender the intergenerational sharing of wisdom; for your willingness to involve new folks in your traditions, and to receive communion – the body of Christ and the blood of the New Covenant, symbols of Christ’s glorious ministry and sacrifice – from those who have never served it before. My soul stirred on Sunday, and not just because we joined hands and sang the Lord’s Prayer afterward: it stirred, because I saw the church at work.
We are doing deep and beautiful things in this congregation, my friends. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for taking part!
– Pastor Sean