Those words seemed appropriate for communion. It’s not just
about partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but a reminder that we are united with Him in one body. “Now
you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). In
the words of Henri Nouwen, “The Eucharist is the sacrament through which Jesus
enters into an intimate, permanent communion with us. It is the sacrament of
the table. It is the sacrament of food and drink. It is the sacrament of daily
nurture… Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a constant memory of his life and
death. Not a memory that simply makes us think of him but a memory that makes us
members of his body. That is why Jesus on the evening before he died took bread
saying, ‘This is my Body,’ and took the cup saying, ‘This is my Blood.’ By
eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ, we become one with him” (Bread for the Journey, Sept. 30).
The other phrase that was triggered by my “twin” cracker
was “becoming like Him.” That could come from 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, we are God’s
children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when
He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” Another
verse is Philippians 3:10, “that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”
I wonder sometimes whether it is outwardly evident that I
am becoming more like Him, or is it too hidden from view? Is my “cracker” being
absorbed into His, or am I something else altogether? (You may be thinking I’m
a nut.) As Pastor Matt pointed out, our modern perception of the church is that
of independent “small bites” without any consideration of the fact that we are
one body, all melded into one another and into the larger Body of Christ. (The
worst marketing device I’ve seen was the “prepackaged communion cup and wafer.”)
Perhaps our efforts at convenience and visitor-friendliness have backfired when
it comes to the unity of the church.
During communion I also remembered a previous time when my
communion cup had a slight crack in the side. I had to hold one hand under the
cup to catch the drips. It makes me wonder whether a lot of Christians want the
“sanitized” Jesus, enjoying the Baby of Christmas but avoiding the suffering,
blood, and death on the cross. They want the joy and peace of knowing they have
eternal life, but they don’t want any interference in daily life, and certainly not any real pain or suffering. They want
a little bit of Jesus, but they don’t want to “get any on them.”
We’re probably all guilty at various times of thinking that
church activities and the Christian life are too inconvenient, too intrusive, or
just too much. Have you heard the old line, “Jesus gave His life for you. The
least you could do is give your life for Him!”? I’m not sure guilt-trips ever
work for long-term motivation. But perhaps if we begin to see ourselves as one
body, living and functioning together, we’ll find a growing desire to
participate more fully in life together.
May our local body
be visibly conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).
