Communion Sunday

It is our last day of Spring Break and I am not ready to face the real world yet. But I did want to quickly write about an amazing feeling I had this morning in church. Today was Communion Sunday. Normally our church does a more individual style communion service with tables at the edges, with a cup of grape juice and pieces of bread. The pastor says the usual words but then we walk to the tables sometime during the singing. There are kneeling pads and when it is your turn you get to take a piece of the bread, dip it into the grape juice and partake of communion. It is very intimate experience which I do enjoy.

But today for some reason, the full communion servers were set up at the front of the church. If you are not familiar, they are tall silver towers that separate out into trays that serve a row with little cups of grape juice in one and some sort of bread in the other. These are passed down the row from one person to the next. I am always a little nervous when handed the grape juice tray because I don't want to be the person who drops the tray, spilling grape juice and creating a scene as the tray clamors to the ground. This may be why our church usually uses the tables?

What surprised me today as I was sitting in my usual spot, among the usual people that I know only because we sit near one another in church, was how much joy it brought me to take communion together. To take the tray from the usher, to pass the tray to the girl a few seats away who is sitting with her family that I greet many Sundays but know nothing else about. To see my friends behind me all passing the silver trays as I turned to return to my seat. To see us together as one body sharing in Lord's Supper.

My faith is very personal and intimate. I think as a church we have moved away from community faith to a very personal faith. For those who believe and participate, this personal faith is very real. But we seem to have lost a sense of our community faith, our faith which binds us together because we are a family, a family made up of God's children. A very real family. And seeing us together today, taking part together in a sacrament that started with Jesus at the last supper with his disciples, brought me such great joy. I felt it so deeply and so fully it was almost overwhelming. What an amazing way to spend Palm Sunday!