Sacraments 2
- Communion
Basics of Faith 6 – July 30,
2017
A Sermon by Rev. M. Gayle MacDonald
Texts read on July 30: Psalm 122; 1 Corinthians
10:15-17; Matthew 15:29-39
Forward
In this
forward to the sermon, I have included the outline of the Communion Prayer used
in the Worship Service of July 30 where this sermon was delivered. The
Communion Service has each section titled so people cabfollow the format as the
Prayers of the Table are Spoken.
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
- · Call to Give Thanks Sursum Corda
- · Thanksgiving Preface
- · Song of Creation Sanctus-Benedictus
- · Remembering Jesus at Table Institution Narrative
- · Prayer of Self-Giving Anamnesis-Oblation
- · Affirmation of Memory and Hope Memorial Acclamation
- · Prayer for Transformation Epiclesis
- · Remembering the Community Intercessions (optional if not elsewhere in the Service)
- · Concluding Praise Doxology
- · Amen
- · Prayer of Jesus The Lord’s Prayer
The Service of the Table (or Communion Service) usually begins with an
Invitation followed by the Communion Prayer.
The prayer may begin with a Call to Give Thanks (Sursum
Corda) or opening dialogue.
The body of the prayer opens with the Thanksgiving (Preface),
offering thankful praise to God; some or all of the following thanksgivings may
be included:
- · for God’s work in creation and in covenant history;
- · for the witness of the prophets;
- · for God’s steadfast love, even when people turn away;
- · for the gift of Christ;
- · for the immediate occasion or festival;
- · for contemporary causes for thanksgiving.
Next The Song of Creation (Sanctus and Benedictus) may be spoken
or sung; musical settings are found in VU 932-944.
- The prayer continues with a thankful remembering of the acts of Jesus, the Christ, such as:
- · Christ’s birth, life, and ministry;
- · Christ’s healing, teaching, and gifts of wholeness and life;
- · Christ’s death and resurrection;
- · Christ’s presence and the promise of his coming again;
- · the gift of the sacrament of Communion
- · (including Remembering Jesus at Table (Institution Narrative), if not used elsewhere).
A Prayer of Self-Giving (Anamnesis-Oblation) offers
ourselves and our lives in faithful remembrance of Jesus’ self-giving and provides
a transition from Remembering Jesus at Table to the Affirmation of Memory and
Hope.
A communal Affirmation of Memory and Hope (Memorial
Acclamation) may be said or sung. Music settings may be found at VU 932-944.
The prayer continues with a Prayer for Transformation (Epiclesis)
by calling upon the Holy Spirit:
- · to bring all who share in the feast into Christ’s presence;
- · to make breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup participation in the body and blood of Christ;
- · to make us one with the risen Christ, with all God’s people, and with the communion of saints;
- · to nourish us with the body of Christ, so that, as Christ’s body, we may share ourselves, as gifts to one another and the world;
- · to anticipate the fulfillment of God’s promised realm of shalom.
The prayer may include Remembering the Community (Intercessions),
prayers of intercessions remembering particular people or concerns within the
community or beyond.
The prayer concludes with Concluding Praise (Doxology),
a unison Amen and the Prayer of Jesus (The Lord’s Prayer). Musical settings may
be found in VU 932-944.
All of the above is taken almost word for word from Celebrate
God’s Presence, which is the current Service Book for Worship in the United
Church of Canada. This is the longest and oldest form of the Communion
Prayer and I have used it as a way of talking about and explaining some of what
goes into the Service of the Table. Also, notice that each part says “may
include”.
Reflection
The format of the Communion Service used here is actually an
outline for use in the creation of original prayers or as a guide to
extemporaneous prayer. The historic creedal-like status of eucharistic prayers
suggests that great care be used in their composition. However, in the early
church, it was also a criterion of worship leadership that presiders be skilled
at praying this form freely, yet with integrity and substance. – Celebrate God’s Presence[ii]
There are other forms and
styles of Communion prayers, including some from the Reformed Tradition. These
are more brief, and reflect the practice of churches of the Reformed tradition
in placing the Institution Narrative (i.e., the words or instructions of Jesus)
outside the body of the prayer as proclamation or “warrant.” That is the result
of a 16th century debate. We have both forms in our
Service Book and may use either.
So much for the form and content of communion prayers. Whether taken from
the service book, other resources, or composed by the worship leader in keeping
with one of the approved formats, the intention of all the forms of prayer is
to engage all of us in communion with the living Christ through remembering
Jesus at the table with his friends through word and in action; and, in so
doing, we live, through the centuries, the table fellowship instituted or
instructed by Jesus.
Wine
or Juice – When the 3 denominations (Congregationalists, Methodists
and Presbyterians) joined to form the United Church of Canada, it was
agreed that grape juice rather than wine for communion. The Methodists
used grape juice, and this practice came out of their social gospel roots and
the temperance concerns of alcoholism. The legend goes that a Methodist
then developed a juice from the fruit of the vine which was non-alcoholic which
could be used in communion; and that his name was John Welch as in Welch’s grape
juice. There is nothing to prevent us from serving wine and,
occasionally some congregations serve both making clear which is wine and which
is grape juice.
In the United Church, the tendency has always been in the direction of and open
table; that is to make it as accessible as possible to those who sincerely want
to take part in the fellowship of the table. While we believe that
understanding the sacred nature of what we are doing in the sacrament of
communion is important, we simply invite all who are moved to do so to take
part in the fellowship of the table, leaving the decision to the
individual. If we have restrictions at the table, it is on who can
service communion, which words of the service are reserved for the ordained person,
and how the service of the table is to take place – i.e., in community.
We were taught that in the United Church the words reserved for the presider
are the words of institution at the breaking of the bread and the lifting of
the cup; while in the Anglican tradition it is the Epiclesis or Prayer for
Transformation. I always make certain that, as presider at the table, I
say both so that none will be offended.
There is another side to sacraments, and especially to the service of the
table: the most important side – and that is that in this simple act of a
meal remembered there is time to both connect and reflect – time in the silence
to reflect deeply on all that Jesus did and on what it means to be part of the
resurrection community – a community that gathers regularly to remember what
was, and to imagine what could be; time to reflect on the fellowship of the
table, and of the many tables around the world that gather in this same way; to
remember that in our differences we are still one body, one people united here
at the table by our hope that we would be known by our love; and united by the
vision that when we gather, the risen Christ greets us in the bread and the
wine.
A little while ago, I listened to a CBC
radio piece on the problems of children raised on technology, who always have a
screen before them One of the concerns is that a trajectory is being
created where the reflective skills associated with reading are being
lost. Children have been known to say “Why do I have to learn that when I
can just google it?” But what to google? Researchers in pediatric
psychology are concerned that without the same grounding in literature, art,
physics, chemistry and history as previous generations, children will increasingly
display an inability to consider and reflect which could lead to the
inability to even know what questions to ask?
Well, here is a place where reflection is understood and silence is
valued. Here is a place where we connect, face to face and consider the
things that have meaning for us. And here we share in something sacred,
something that cannot be googled. The facts about how communion is
structured which I gave you at the beginning – those can be googled – along
with a myriad of other facts and understandings. But nothing can replace
the experience – it is the experience that is sacred. It is the
gathering, the sharing, the reflecting in the presence of the Holy Presence and
one another that is sacred.
About 16 or 17 years ago I was taking a two-week course in Spiritual Guidance
at what was then The Ottawa Centre for Spiritual Growth. Among the
participants was a young sister who was studying Canon Law at St. Thomas
University. One morning when she came in she told us that she had
recently been working on the meaning of Communion – studying and reflecting on
it deeply. Around supper time, on the walk home from the Centre she was
feeling hot and tired and hungry. Ottawa was in a hot, spell and it was
after 5 pm. She decided to stop and rest for a few minutes at a picnic
table which was set out beside a Mac’s milk convenience store. As she sat
there, hot, tired and hungry, a girl came out of the store with a lunch bag in
her hand. She sat down at the table across from my friend and opened it
up. She pulled out a fresh bun and without a word broke the bun in half
and handed half to the Sister, who wordlessly took it and they ate
together. Then she was gone, presumably back to work. Our
friend said that it was, without a doubt, communion. For in the breaking
of the bread and in the sharing, she felt something of the spirit of Christ.
So I share with you now,
this poem.
Communion Bread
the bread is
set upon the table:
and
fields of golden wheat
stretch out
for miles
against the
endless blue expanse
of prairie
sky;
grain
elevators
with red or
black roofs
black
letters
stretching up, up, up.
in the
silence that surrounds the table:
a threshing machine
cuts its
rhythmic path across the field
i know what it takes to grow the grain
--weather
a hot, relentless
sun,
a sudden burst of showers
a wind that comes out of nowhere
and goes on forever
--and farmers
committed to responding to the earth :
from the start of planting in the spring
to the harvesting in the fall,
making trips to the grain elevator
where the wheat is stored
to feed people they will never see
in places they will never visit.
the bread is
set upon the table:
feel the dough beneath my fingers
pushing
this way and that way
try to
follow recipes
my
mother’s, my grandmother’s, my aunt’s;
discover the bread’s secret is the baker’s love
in the
silence, that surrounds the table:
the clatter of baking pans
the opening and closing of oven doors
the heat of the kitchen
the smell of baking bread
the breaking of bread
overwhelms the silence
the loaf between two hands
sorrows for all things broken
celebrates all things whole
yields to the pulling and the tearing
the morsel held between my fingers
passing now from me to you
lingers in the quiet moment
in the sowing
and the reaping
in the baking and the serving
in the
breaking and the eating
the bread is set upon the table
by
M. Gayle MacDonald
copyright 1989
[i] Prayer A
in Celebrate God’s Presence, United Church of Canada Publishing
House, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2000
[ii] Celebrate God’s Presence, United Church of
Canada Publishing House, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2000, p. 239
United Church of Canada Statements and Creeds on Communion
1925 – Basis of Union
Article
XVI. Of the Sacraments. We acknowledge two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper, which were instituted by Christ, to be of perpetual obligation as signs
and seals of the covenant ratified in His precious blood, as a means of grace,
by which, working in us, He doth not only quicken but also strengthen and
comfort our faith in Him, and as ordinances through the observance of which His
Church is to confess her Lord and be visibly distinguished from the rest of the
world.
. . . . . .
The Lord’s Supper is the sacrament of communion
with Christ and with His people, in which bread and wine are given and received
in thankful remembrance of Him and His sacrifice on the Cross; and they who in
faith receive the same do, after a spiritual manner, partake of the body and
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to their comfort, nourishment, and growth in
grace. All may be admitted to the Lord’s Supper who make a credible profession
of their faith in the Lord Jesus and of obedience to His law.
1940 – Statement of Faith
X. The Sacraments
We
believe that the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are effectual
means through which, by common things and simple acts, the saving love of God
is exhibited and communicated to Hispeople, who receive them in faith.
. . . . .
We
believe that the Lord’s Supper perpetuates the fellowship between Christ and
His disciples sealed in the upper room, that at His table He is always present,
and His people are nourished, confirmed, and renewed. The giving and receiving
of bread and wine accompanied by His own words signifies thegracious
self-giving of Christ as suffering and living Lord in such wise that His
faithful people live in Him
and
He in them.
So we acknowledge Baptism
as God’s appointed means of grace at initiation into the Christian fellowship;
and the Lord’s Supper as His appointed means of maintaining the fellowship in
health and strength, and as the act of worship in which the whole soul of man
goes out to God and God’s grace comes freely to man.
1968
(Rev.
1980, 1995) - A New Creed – Communion is not specifically
mentioned
2006 – A Song of Faith
In grateful response to
God’s abundant love,
we bear in mind our integral connection
to the
earth and one another;
we participate in God’s
work of healing and mending creation.
To point to the presence of
the holy in the world,
the church receives, consecrates, and shares
visible signs of the grace of God.
In company with the
churches
of the Reformed and Methodist traditions,
we celebrate two sacraments
as gifts of Christ:
baptism and holy communion.
In these sacraments the
ordinary things of life
—water, bread, wine—
point beyond themselves to
God and God’s love,
teaching us to be alert
to the sacred in the midst of life.
. . . . .
Carrying a vision of
creation healed and restored,
we welcome all in the name of Christ.
Invited to the table where
none shall go hungry,
we gather as Christ’s guests and friends.
In holy communion
we are commissioned to feed as we have been
fed,
forgive
as we have been forgiven,
love as we have been loved.
The open table speaks of
the shining promise
of barriers broken and creation healed.
In the communion meal, wine
poured out and bread broken,
we remember Jesus.
We remember not only the
promise but also the price that he paid
for who he was,
for what he did and said,
and for the world’s brokenness.
We taste the mystery of
God’s great love for us,
and are renewed in faith and hope.
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