Heaven’s Food & Heavenly Company
Mark 14: 22- 25; Acts 2: 37 – 42; 1 Corinthians 10: 14 – 18
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Napoleon won his victories by concentrating his forces with unexpected speed. But this meant forced marches for his soldiers, living in the country where supplies soon ran out. Lack of food meant much illness and many casualties. ‘An army marches on its stomach’ he said, and offered a prize of 20,000 Francs to anybody who would invent some way of preserving food. A Parisian chef won the prize with a plan for a process of bottling food previously heated. Later in London the method was improved by substituting tins for glass bottles (the beginning of the canning industry). The manufacturers kept the French name boeuf bouilli, so the English soldiers called it bully beef. [Drinkwater, Quotes & Anecdotes p.216]
Jesus gave us food too. He knew we needed it. Its similarity to Bully Beef is that it is containable and transportable. Here the similarity stops. There are stories of Christians celebrating Holy Communion in countries that persecuted Christians. In Stalin’s Siberian labour camps Christians hid Communion wafers in cigarette boxes and celebrated Communion deep in the mines. In China a Chinese priest, who worked as a lowly market labourer selling soap, wrapped the consecrated wafer in linen and then placed it inside the soap wrapping. He had a method of letting his parishioners know when to come. They met him ostensibly to buy soap, but in reality they were collecting the ‘host’. Then they would go home and gather in small groups and celebrate Holy Communion.
It was not the material food value that mattered, it was the powerful spiritual truth that was important. The elements of grape juice and bread spoke of the ‘blood’ of Jesus shed in absolute love for us, and the bread spoke of the nourishment of his being and teaching for our living.
Holy Communion has always been a special time. I don’t know how to explain or articulate that truth, I only know for me and others who have told me their stories, that it is holy moment. At Holy Communion God meets us communicating sacrificial love. Secondly, it is the risen Lord Jesus who is the host at the table. We give thanks to and worship not only a sacrificed Christ, but also a risen Christ.
The symbolism is simple yet profound. We come forward and humbly stand or kneel – I prefer to kneel – with head bowed and hands cupped to receive. Our physical posture tells us that we are recipients of God’s Grace – God’s love in action. We don’t thank those who have served us because they are not the hosts who are providing the food; they are merely the servants who serve in the name of our Lord. They have prepared themselves to serve us by first receiving the heavenly food of the Body and Blood of our Lord. We receive the bread and wine in thankful silence or with a quiet – ‘Amen’.
The other method of receiving Holy Communion is sitting in the nave. There symbolism shifts. Firstly, for practical reasons, we have to take the elements from the paten and tray of communion glasses, but we now hold them and wait until all have the elements. Then we all eat the bread together and then take the grape juice together. That symbolises our unity as God’s people – one loaf and one cup for one people.
In some mysterious way these actions coupled with our faith quickened the heart and build up our faith. Our consciousness of the others about us is heightened. We are no longer looking at our fellow Christians but receiving heaven’s food for us. Ironically it is in that moment when we are most conscious of communion with Christ Jesus that we become more aware that we are a community of believers bound together by Christ Jesus and the Spirit. To my left and right kneel, stand or sit my brothers and sisters in Christ – my eternal family.
This now takes us to the second profound effect of Holy Communion – we are a community. It makes sense doesn’t it? Jesus didn’t give us a cafeteria to go to, he gave us a table with a meal for all. So not only are we receiving our ‘heavenly food’ but also we are celebrating our community. This is the where the fellowship of the Church begins – at the Lord’s Table.
Holy Communion not only feeds us but reinforces that we are one large family – a fellowship of people so the biblical writers could say; So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. [Eph 2: 19 – 22] The imagery is so powerful. We are God’s children, a family and members of God’s household. We form together the bricks of the spiritual temple of God. As we bond together in Christian love we form a temple where God is present. Here together God meets us and dwells with us. That is why worship is so important. Our fellowship is rooted in these truths: founded on the work of Christ Jesus, blessed by the Holy Spirit, joined together we become God’s temple. This is a spiritual truth with practical implications. We have not met together because of some common interest. We have met together because we belong together in Christ.
This is why Paul could write to the Corinthian church and say; God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. [1 Cor 1: 9-10]
The story of ‘The Rabbi’s Gift’ speaks about fellowship and how it might be sustained. I offer it to you for encouragement.
There was a famous monastery, which had fallen on hard times. The buildings were tired, numbers down, and the worship space1/4 full. A handful of monks carried out the duties with heavy hearts.
On the edge of the monastery grounds in the woods an old Rabbi had built a rough hut he used for retreats. When the Rabbi walked in the woods the monks would whisper, “The rabbi walks in the woods”. They seemed encouraged by his prayerful presence.
Then one day the Abbot said he was going to visit the Rabbi. As he came to the door of the hut the Rabbi was standing there. They embraced like long-lost brothers. In silence they stood smiling to each other. Then the Rabbi motioned to the Abbot to come in a sit at the rude table. On it was the opened Scriptures. They sat there in the presence of the Book. Then the Rabbi began to cry. The Abbot could not contain himself. The two men sat crying their hearts out. Then after a while the Rabbi lifted his head and said;
“You and your brothers are serving God with heavy heart. You have come to ask a teaching of me. I will give you a teaching, but you can only repeat it once. After that no one must ever say it aloud again.” The Rabbi looked straight at the Abbot and said; “ The Messiah is among you.”
The Abbot left without a word. On his return he gathered his monks and told them what had happened and said; “One of us is the Messiah.” The monks wondered what it meant, but never spoke of it again.
As time went by the monks began to treat each other with a very special reverence. There was a new wholehearted human quality about their lives, which was hard to describe. They lived as people who had finally discovered something. They prayed the Scriptures together as people looking for something. Occasionally visitors found themselves deeply moved by the life of these monks.
In time people started returning, the community grew in significance, and young people offered for the ministry.
By then the Rabbi no longer walked in the woods.
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 04/08/2019
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org