Ideas

Why Are Our Communion Meals So Paltry?

Columnist

If we have such an extravagant Savior, we should attempt to create a fuller meal.

iStock

As I enter the sanctuary, I see the cloth-draped table near the podium. Communion Sunday! My heart lifts—and sinks. What will they serve? If they passlittle cubes of bread, I resolve to take three or four. This time I am determined to be nourished.

The problem could be me. Maybe I simply lack imagination. In the churches where mini-saltines are served, my clumsy fingers struggle to find and keep purchase of a single morsel. As I crush it in a single chew while the pastor reads, "This is my body, broken for you," I cannot help wondering if Christ has broken a fingernail on my behalf. At the common cup where I take a single anxious swallow, or in the jigger of juice I down in two gulps, I strain to see the blood that flowed from his face and side, the blood that covers the flood of my sins. I know this should be enough, because I deserve none of it—not a fingernail of bread, not a tongue-tip of the blood that Christ spent for me! But the body talks; its messages are real, and I cannot help listening: We have overspiritualized the Lord's Supper. We've turned an actual meal into a pantomime of a meal, and the church is hungry because of it.

I have some guesses as to how this has happened. Forgive the familiarity of this critique, but we're still trying so hard to be spiritual. The Book of Hebrews tells us that earthly things shadow and symbolize the more real yet invisible heavenly things. If Christ's presence is made real through the elements, then a sliver, a swallow is surely enough! And if the ceremony is mostly memorial, a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice, then tidbits and jiggers suffice!

But we cannot escape another truth: On the night he was betrayed, Christ offered a very real meal. Throughout the Scriptures, the apprehension of spiritual realities behind earthly symbols plunges us into physicality rather than removing us from it. John the Baptist sunk penitents into a cold and decidedly wet river. On his eighth day of life, Jesus was marked with a symbol of the covenant—his body cut with a honed knife.

Nor did Christ overspiritualize the meaning of being a disciple. He flaunted, even hyperbolized the physicality of that meal and what was required: "[U]nless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53).

It is past time to reclaim the "supper" that Christ instituted and to give the body—our own bodies and Christ's body, which our gathered bodies enact—its full due.

I am not asking for an examination of our theology. In truth, I think much of the Communion practices of the evangelical church have less to do with theology and more to do with the behavior of a single congregation, those unruly, factious Corinthians who gathered for the feast but ate and drank with no regard for others. Some left hungry while others left stuffed and drunk, blind to the body of Christ in their food.

We have overspiritualized the Lord's Supper. We've turned an actual meal into a pantomime of a meal, and the church is hungry because of it.

We've taken care of all that—in spades. Our services are precisely orchestrated. Servers march with military precision. We no longer recline at tables; we stand in line or sit upright in pews. We do not choose our serving; portion control assures we're all served the same. We chew and quaff in exact synchronicity. The Scriptures are scrupulously read as we partake. No one is overeating. No one is getting drunk. Check. Check. Check.

And we've managed to go one further: even in the largest congregations, we can get everyone out the door on time for their real meal after the pretend meal. This is my final complaint. In our avoidance of the sins Paul warns against, we are committing another: the crime of efficiency. We're so busy, and our services so short, there's no time for a sit-down dinner or anything like it.

But I can think of no busier night than those two particular nights: Passover, when the Hebrews were readying for their journey from bondage to freedom. Who had time to cook and eat dinner? But God required a meal, however hastily it was eaten. Jesus had betrayal and death before him, and all of history to overturn on his night. Who had time or appetite for a meal? But the events of those nights were too important not to eat and remember.

I hunger, spirit and body, for the day when our Communion tables are freed from regimentation and parsimony, images of a cautious, lugubrious, measurable redemption so unlike the real table God has set before us. Let us find ways to extend the table to a fuller meal, if not every Communion service, then once a month or quarterly. It is now, in this world, when we are parched and starved, that the church needs the meal most. Let's eat the feast already given.

Copyright © 2012 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Previous Christianity Today articles on communion and spirituality include:

Lessons from an Usher | What I learned about humility from a gentle greeter. (December 27, 2011)

Why Doubters and Non-Doubters Share a Common Faith | And why it's really not about "their" faith anyway. (September 1, 2011)

Atheists, the Eucharist, and a Controversial 'Cracker' | The Catholic League treads where no one needs to: the blogosphere. (Liveblog, July 10, 2008)

Previous Stones to Bread columns by Leslie Leyland Fields include:

Intercultural Fiesta Fail | 'We are all alike!' doesn't fly in a fly-infested hut in El Salvador. (November 21, 2011)

A Wordless Presence | Where spit, blood, and sweat are to be found, so is God. (September 14, 2011)

The Power and the Glamour | Searching for Beauty amid Hollywood's beautiful people. (July 25, 2011)

People of the Nook | What Bible smartphone apps tell us about the Book. (May 16, 2011)

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

The Missing Factor in Higher Education

Vicarious Humanity: By His Birth We Are Healed

Wilson's Bookmarks

Review

Could God Have Created a World Without Suffering?

Michael Patton Brews a Potent Theology

My Top 5 Books On Archaeology

Review

The Heart of Christian Life: Pillars of Hospitality

Are Secular Television Shows with Moral Messages Good for Christian Children?

Interview: Julie Lee

The 'Above All' Commandment of the Sabbath

Family as Calling: Finding Vocation In and Near the Home

News

Evangelical Foundations See Surge in Donations

Editorial

The Supreme Court's Religious Freedom Reality Check

The Evangelistic Question That Died

News

Persecution in VBS Materials: How Much Information is Too Much for Children?

News

Tsunami Aftermath: Second Chances in Japan

Excerpt

Your Church Is Too Safe

Sailing into the Storm: Philip Ryken and D. Michael Lindsay on the Challenges in Christian Higher Education

News

Presbyterians Form a New Denomination, Court Upholds Ultrasound Law, and More

Letters to the Editor

News

City Shuts Down Church Club

Learning Life Lessons from Russian Babushkas

Little Colleges That Could

GCB: Desperate Christian Housewives

News

Quotation Marks

News

Is Mercury Pollution's Effect on Newborns a Pro-Life Issue?

Review

Out of the Darkness of Porn

More Media

Books to Note

Two Minutes With ... Julie Lee

Folkie Finds Love

Online Poll

News

Go Figure

News

Passages

Why Last Saturday's Political Conclave of Evangelical Leaders Was Dangerous

View issue

Our Latest

News

Died: Jack Iker, Anglican Who Drew the Line at Womenโ€™s Ordination

The Texas bishop fought a bitter legal battle with the Episcopal Church and won.

Why Canโ€™t We Talk to Each Other Anymore?

Online interactions are draining us of energy to have hard conversations in person.

Church Disappointment Is Multilayered

Jude 3 Project founder Lisa Fields speaks about navigating frustrations with God and fellow believers.

The Robot Will Lie Down With the Gosling

In โ€œThe Wild Robot,โ€ hospitality reprograms relationships.

How Priscilla Shirer Surrenders All

The best-selling Bible teacher writes about putting God first in her life and how healthy Christian discipleship requires sacrifice

The Bulletin

Second Hand News

The Bulletin talks presidential podcasts, hurricane rumors, and the spiritual histories of Israel and Iran.

Which Church in Revelation Is Yours Like?

From the lukewarm Laodicea to the overachieving Ephesus, these seven ancient congregations struggled with relatable problems.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube