October 24, 2014
Empty Cup
I visited a church that offered open communion,
but the setup had me curious. The communion table was set with individual
wafers and two large goblets of wine. I assumed all the worshippers would drink
out of a communal goblet, with the rim of the cup wiped after each use. However,
before the worshippers went to the altar they filed past two ushers holding
communion trays. Each person picked up an empty
thimble sized cup which was then filled from the larger goblet. What struck me
was the image of the ushers serving empty cups and understanding that without
the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin. “In the same way,
after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my
blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:25 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Symbolism is only worth so much. That amount of worth should be only what the communicator puts into it for a communicated message. In any symbol chosen to deliver a message, numerous characteristics and aspects at every level of detail are left over, and are quite unintended to be messages. It is kind of not fair to read ideas out of those trait’s the communicator did not intend to use.
-----Unity is the message in everyone drinking from the same cup. Epidemics can be the result. Wiping the rim of the cup is hilarious. By the time the cloth touches the cup, the drool has already backwashed into the wine. Yummy! And by the time the last soul in the hall gets his sip, he’s drinking more communal spit than wine. But from a cup with a well wiped rim he sips! Double fruit! Double pleasure!
-----If the image of ushers handing out empty cups must have meaning as part of the communion symbolism, then what meaning should we draw from wiping the rim of a communal goblet after each sip? “My efforts are feckless?“ Surely not! How about “You are a disease spreader!” And does that meaning extend to an unwelcome for your thoughts and feelings about the Lord, as if all traces of your presence amongst the group must be wiped clean? Or does it simply mean all the folks want the ceremony to be sanitary? So handing out empty cups to be filled with a dribble from a communal goblet should more connote “No shed blood for you!” -than picking an already filled jigger from a tray of many should connote “You’re on your own, buddy! No communal fellowship here!” However we try to make communion sanitary, there is always some aspect of the effort available to connote an unintended message to someone else.
-----Even words have many shades of meaning. It is the speaker of the word and the maker of the metaphor who gets to chose which shade he means. After all, he is the communicator. It is his thought expressed, not the hearer's. Yet, people love to choose the different shade he did not mean to attack him for what they themselves mean. It is excusable when they innocently mistake a meaning the speaker did not intend. But too often, people deliberately fashion a weapon from unintended meaning for slaying the message bearer. Race baiters are notorious for this whenever anyone might speak the perfectly good and well useful word “niggardly”. It has nothing to do with race or racism. It has everything to do with begrudging stinginess. That makes race baiters niggardly with their affections. Speak that word or any number of others from their long lists of hate bait, and they’ll see to it you will never have a friend again.
-----It is not enough for man to speak honestly. It is not enough for him to carefully pack his communications with truthful metaphor and symbolism. The Bible is the most honest communication ever made, packed full and carefully with meaningful symbolism and metaphor. But for unity to be enjoyed amongst us all, we must also listen honestly and unpack symbolism with a special mind for only what the communicator intends. Paul partly meant this in saying, “I have applied all this to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.” (I Cor 4:6) Yet, Jesus’ precious and beloved bride is hacked up and scattered across the face of this godless planet in thousands of isolated little parts regardless of her reading one Bible. Fellowship depends upon receiving only the messages sent.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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