Revisiting the Lord's Supper Part 6

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’s Supper  Part 6 

In my earliest years as an Episcopalian, when I was about thirteen, I became an acolyte and helped serve at Sunday morning worship.  It was in an elegant New York City Episcopal Church.  The ushers were dutifully dressed in suits, men wore ties and women wore dresses and gloves plus a hat.  No one was allowed inside the Communion rail except the clergyman and his assistants, all of whom were vested.  The altar guild, a women-only group, were the ones who set the altar, took care of vestments and did the cleaning in the altar area but only permitted in that area if they wore a head covering of some kind, usually a laced napkin. 

The first Sunday of the month was Holy Communion at the 11am hour and the other Sundays were Morning Prayer but there was a sparsely attended Holy Communion service every Sunday at 8am.  The Morning Prayer services had to be no longer than 55 minutes.  Historic hymns were sung and prayers read.  It was non-participatory prayer except for printed responses.  Holy Communion always took longer and was a watch-watching service.  What I’m really saying by this is that all of it was very religious and very impersonal.  Even the sermon was a Vestry-guarded assurance of a15-20 minute time slot for the sake of not only keeping the congregation happy but protecting the non-personal religion to be private and unchallenged.  The thought of sharing personal spirituality would have been a violation of the 11^th Commandment, “Thou shall not be tacky.”

However, what I do remember was the character of the Rector.  It spoke reams.  As I look back on that time He seemed more to be a missionary in a foreign setting.  What I mean by that is his message seemed to break the barrier of the Episcopal Church’s social atmosphere with its upper class genteel sophistication.  That 20-minute sermon was always a spiritual invasion of a secular religious setting.  He spoke to me and others and I knew it.  Even after having to memorize the Catechism for Confirmation I knew that he was saying something personal beyond the Creedal and liturgical setting. 

But I resisted its impact for 24 years. I didn’t know at the time He was saying things that long after, at 37 years of age, would be foundational in extending God’s grace as a reality in my life.  It took hitchhiking around the country, working my way through college, attending seminary, being ordained, married with a family and serving churches for 10 years before the whole of my semi-spiritual living experience came to a head and I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord.  I gave up religion and became a disciple of Jesus.  “I once was lost but now am found” and having been found I’m the one who is finding more and more out about the Lord, His Word and what He is continuing to do in my life and the lives of those around me. 

Revisiting is also re-capturing the personal impact and external purpose of the Lord’s Supper.  If we treat it as merely a church service that’s as far as it will ever get in our lives.  If it just a service we do periodically because Jesus did it, you just as well chuck it altogether.  It will become just another religious ceremonial tradition to be attended and seen as a positive check mark on our spiritual resume.  God’s in charge for an hour and I’m in charge the rest of the week.  You know, one of the good things I do because I’m really a good person at heart.  The real purpose is its reminding quality that I am a forgiven sinner, pride broken, humbled disciple and renewed child of the Father through the blood of Jesus, my personal Savior.  The taste of the bread and the sip of the wine reminds me what He did to recover me for the Father and Himself.  He allowed His Body to be broken and His blood shed to show me and involve me and move me to do the same in the context of the Holy Spirit’s leading.  Somehow, He makes Himself present in the experience.  He has given me faith and that faith is how He chose to have me know His presence in it.  It’s a heart thing.  The Lord touches our hearts right there.  It’s not what I do but what He does whenever two or three are gathered together in His Name.  

From taking that bread and wine in the context of other believers in the spiritual family, His Word leads me the rest of the way by His Spirit.  The Lord Jesus is my ever-present boss moving me to place Him first while I’m on my way.  He is both my worship center and action motivator.  The hour or so I spend in a week’s worship service is what drives the 126 waking hours I’m involved in the world of others.  The Lord’s Supper is that demonstrative and personal.  That’s why we want to look at His four action words again---take, thank, break and share.  That’s next.