Communion and Community
Alexander Shmemann in his book The Life of the World talks about the story of Christianity in light of food. He points out that at the beginning God gives few commands to humanity one of which is to eat (Gen 1:29). Seemingly Secondary, the act of eating is also the act of humanity’s downfall. That which is given to Adam and Eve, or perhaps inherent to the structure of human being and all of reality, is communion with God. The only negative command is to avoid the food whose “eating was condemned to be communion with itself alone, and not with God. It is the image of the world loved for itself and eating it is the image of life understood as an end in itself.”
Historically there has been a great deal of debate on the subject of the Lord’s Supper. Our Catholic brothers and sisters would speak of transubstantiation the literal ontological change, which takes place at the mass. Christ becomes sacrificed anew at the altar and then consumed by his people. John Calvin spoke of the great mystery of communion, that God would make himself known to human beings in some intangibly tangible way. The Orthodox would say that the Eucharist makes the church and the church makes the Eucharist, that by taking part human beings truly become the Church at that moment.
Biblical images of food abound (Gen 6, 9:3, 27:4, Exodus 16, Psalm 23:6, 34:8, 63:4 Mark 9:1 to name only a few) and food is central to the action of Jesus. The Gospel of John is filled with the smell of the Eucharist (meal of thanksgiving). Jesus ministry here begins with turning water into abundant wine. He continues to tell the woman at the well that he is “living water and the bread of life” (Chapters 2, 4, 6, 7, 13, 19, 21). The unrecognized resurrected Jesus is made known to the disciples “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35).
I think that Communion is the great challenge to the Western minds. The great gift and curse of the enlightenment to the church was a deep sense of the individual in relationships. As Americans we enter churches as individuals and often stay that way. Yet it calls us “forth from our rugged individualism and self-centeredness” (Willamon) and into the Church. We are people of science and logic. The Eucharist is deeply mysterious, clearly important but not explained. As such it is difficult to call the Lord’s Supper “a meal” at all (calorically speaking it has little to offer). Yet it nourishes us with his presence. Christ was the perfect meal and in eating we remember this and He is made known to us. In eating this meal we reject the fall, and claim community, both with Christ and with his body the Church.
written by Luke Parker
Note: In writing this I read Calvin A Short Treatise on the Lord’s Supper, William Willamon Worship as Pastoral Care, Veli-Matti Karkkainen Intro to Ecclesiology.
