June 07, 2010
The Last Drop
I had a pew partner, a lifelong believer, who is suffering from dementia. As the communion emblems were passed he took the bread and ate it and then took the cup. Similar to sipping tea, he sipped the grape juice by putting it to his lips and then moving it away. Each time he moved it away he looked at the juice that remained. Somehow he just couldn’t manage to either tilt his head back or tip his wrist so that he could fully drink the juice. Patiently and quietly his wife tried to get him to just return the cup to the tray and pass it on, however he was focused on finishing the juice. Often the emblems are quickly passed from person to person with no thought that every drop of the Lord’s blood is precious…His cup was indeed emptied for us.
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Gail;
-----At the church I presently attend, we use the disposable plastic cups. So we do not return the empty cups to the communion tray. This comforts me. Not so much because folks like your pew partner can take their time, but rather because of an experience I had at a different church that used glass cups. Of course, those empties had to be returned to the tray. When I took the tray there, one Sunday morning, I quickly chose a cup with some juice in it and lifted it from the tray. But as I was bringing it to drink, my mind was beginning to register that it was only half full. I didn’t want to fuss and stir around with returning it to the tray and selecting another just because there wasn’t as much in it, so I just drank it. But as I returned it to the tray I quickly scanned the rest of the unused ones, and none of them were only half full. In fact, they were all pretty carefully filled to the same levels. Then it struck me that whoever prepared this tray was conscientious enough to have not half-filled one cup. Backwash immediately came to mind. And it didn’t leave my mind all too soon.
-----However, I survived. This experience made me think even more upon I Corinthians 11:20-21, “When you meet together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk.” I had always noticed the difference between our communion service and the ones Paul addressed. Theirs was an actual meal, as was the first communion before Christ’s sacrifice. Ours are just symbols. The fellowship at theirs was actual. The fellowship at ours is only symbolic. What we do for communion today may be very convenient, but what has been the price paid for that convenience is sad.
-----One of my clients was telling me of a practice at the church she attended when in Colorado Springs. Every Wednesday evening this church served a good dinner, and then served classes on practical Christian living and behavior. I remember a church here which used to do that as well. Char and I loved those Wednesday evenings. There was something about enjoying a meal offered at no charge. But that was nearly no reason we enjoyed them. There was more reason in knowing some who were enjoying them really had trouble making ends meet. These could be special meals to them like those Paul to which alluded in verse 22, “Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?”
-----And I also enjoy pot lucks. But the greatest reason I enjoy these kind of community meals is because they most resemble what the communion service was intended to be. Especially at the Wednesday night events, the fellowship was rich and real. Even though no mention of communion is made at such events, I receive them in my heart as communion services, knowing the only way to elevate the actuality of participation when drinking from the communion tray is to finish the cup another only started.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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