We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 7
by Joetta Handrich Schlabach
Faith Mennonite Church
Minneapolis. Minnesota, 11 January 2009
Jeremiah 31:7-9a, 12-13; John 1:1-5, 10-14
A number of years ago the speaker at a retreat I attended gave a couple of pointers for dealing with difficult people. By difficult, she didn’t mean the mildly aggravating kind, but the person with whom one is in deep conflict, perhaps to the point of loathing. Imagine that it’s almost impossible to speak with this person without getting into a shouting match, or having dead silence settle between you like a wall of ice.
Janet Hagberg told us that when she anticipated an encounter with the person with whom she had become estranged, she did two things mentally and spiritually to prepare herself. First, she pulled out an imaginary electrical cord so that the negative current from this person would not flow to her. Second, she imagined offering this person the bread and wine of communion. “I cannot hate someone with whom I share the body of Christ,” she said.
Mennonites have historically believed in a close relationship between reconciliation and communion. In former days when communion was a somber, holy, and rare occasion, practiced only once or twice a year, the pastors and bishops in some regional conferences would pay individual visits to each church member to ensure that no conflicts or hard feelings existed between any of the members. If such discord existed, people were expected to go and seek forgiveness and to set things right before receiving communion. In that framework, peace-seeking and peacemaking preceded the table. This was the living out of the teaching of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church that they should not eat and drink “in an unworthy manner” (1 Cor. 11:27).
In recent years many Mennonite churches, and we are among them, have begun to practice more frequent communion. They and we have come to believe that our communion practice and our commitment to peacemaking might be strengthened by greater frequency and by recognizing that peacemaking is linked not just to the preparation for communion but to the very eating and the drinking, and the actions that follow.
The essence of what we commemorate in communion is encapsulated in the words of John 1: “…and the Word became flesh and lived among us.” However we understand the mystery of the incarnation—God entering the human experience in Jesus—we are offered the ultimate example of peacemaking in the incarnation. No matter how many times humanity turned its back on God, no matter how many times those who considered themselves “God’s chosen people” broke the covenant relationship God had established with them, no matter how cruel and barbaric people were toward one another, God chose to enter that fallen, broken reality and express through a face-to-face human relationship the love that God has always had for all of creation. Even without dying, this would have been more than anyone would expect. To go even further and let this beloved humanity misunderstand and deal a death blow to the Holy One represents a love we cannot fathom. This is our example and our call to peacemaking.
Communion is not merely a reenactment, a memorial of something that happened in the past, the once-and-for-all death of Jesus for the sins of humanity. It is also an affirmation of the current commitment each of us who partakes makes to allow this saving love to operate in us so that we are ready to give our lives—our body and blood—in service to others. And it is a proclamation of a future reality—God’s Kingdom—that we believe, by faith, is already breaking into our world to be completed when Christ returns.
Therefore, when we take communion, we are fed and nourished by the saving love of Jesus. We are drawn into communion with our brothers and sisters in this congregation and in the worldwide body of Christ, which bids us to care for their needs as we care for our own. We are called to compassion for the wide world of suffering, which has not yet tasted life in the kingdom of God’s shalom. This includes compassion for those who inflict the suffering, just as Jesus had compassion for his assassins.
Our participation in communion is practice: a holy rehearsal for the way Christ calls us to live, to interact, and to pray each day. Each day we need to be in communion with God, thanking God for coming to us despite our brokenness and sin and granting us forgiveness and peace. Each day we need to be mindful of our brothers and sisters in Christ, here and around the world, seeking reconciliation with any who have wronged us or whom we have offended. And each day we need to counter the messages of despair that shout out from headlines with prayers of persistent hope for God’s kingdom to come. When we pray for wholeness for others, we cannot at the same time wish or do them harm. When we thank God for saving us, we cannot at the same time wish God’s wrath on others. Communion calls us to a total life of peacemaking.
As we gather for communion, we will give expression to these various dimensions. We invite you to come down the center aisle and approach the servers in pairs (whoever arrives at the same time you do). Each of you will take a piece of bread from the basket and place it in the hand of the other and then eat it together; you will do the same with the cup. In the coming week, please be mindful of and pray for the person with whom you share communion.
After you have received the elements, you may move to the large table where you will find small pieces of paper and pens. Here you may write the name of a person, a relationship, or a place in the world that needs peace, which you will commit to pray for throughout this year. You may use a paper clip to hang your prayer on the tree.[*] Everyone is invited to take part in this prayer exercise, even if you do not participate in communion.
When Jesus knew that his time with his disciples was coming to a close, he reassured them with these words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” As if words were not enough, he took bread and after giving thanks said: “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”
As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes; we proclaim his presence with us here; and we joyfully anticipate his coming kingdom.
[*] The tree that was part of our Advent/Christmas/Epiphany visual elements was still standing on January 11 when this sermon was preached. It became our peace tree as we decorated it with prayers for peace.