Suggestions for Celebrating The Lord’s
Supper
At
Home
Sunday
May, 3, 2020 (after worship)
Suggested
Order of Celebration and Reflection:
As you begin your Communion
celebration, take a moment to remember that none of us is alone today. We
celebrate the Lord’s Supper in communion with the body of Christ, the communion
of the saints and our Lord.
A reflection on the Lord’s Supper by The Rev. Frederick Buechner follows:
The Lord's Supper is make-believe. You make
believe that the one who breaks the bread and blesses the wine is not the plump
parson who smells of Williams' Aqua Velva but Jesus of Nazareth. You make
believe that the tasteless wafer and cheap port are his flesh and blood. You
make believe that by swallowing them you are swallowing his life into your life
and that there is nothing in earth or heaven more important for you to do than
this.
It is a game you play because he said to
play it. "Do this in remembrance of me." Do this.
Play that it makes a difference. Play that
it makes sense. If it seems a childish thing to do, do it in remembrance that
you are a child.
Remember Max Beerbohm's Happy Hypocrite, in which a wicked man
wore the mask of a saint to woo and win the saintly girl he loved. Years later,
when a castoff girlfriend discovered the ruse, she challenged him to take off
the mask in front of his beloved and show his face for the sorry thing it was.
He did what he was told, only to discover that underneath the saint's mask, his
face had become the face of a saint.
This same reenactment of the Last Supper is
sometimes called the Eucharist, from a Greek word meaning
"thanksgiving," that is, at the Last Supper itself Christ gave
thanks, and on their part Christians have nothing for which to be more
thankful.
It is also called the Mass, from missa, the word of dismissal used at the
end of the Latin service. It is the end. It is over. All those long prayers and
aching knees. Now back into the fresh air. Back home. Sunday dinner. Now life
can begin again. Exactly.
It is also called Holy Communion because,
when feeding at this implausible table, Christians believe that they are
communing with the Holy One himself, his spirit enlivening their spirits,
heating the blood, and gladdening the heart just the way wine, as spirits, can.
They are also, of course, communing with
each other. To eat any meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic
need. It is hard to preserve your dignity with butter on your chin, or to keep
your distance when asking for the tomato ketchup.
To eat this particular meal together is to
meet at the level of our most basic humanness, which involves our need not just
for food but for each other. I need you to help fill my emptiness just as you
need me to help fill yours. As for the emptiness that's still left over, well,
we're in it together, or it in us. Maybe it's most of what makes us human and
makes us brothers and sisters.
The next time you walk down the street,
take a good look at every face you pass and in your mind say, "Christ died
for thee." That girl. That slob. That phony. That crook. That saint. That
damned fool. Christ died for thee.
Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee.
~originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words
As you read, jot down consider your
own make believe and how you know God. Consider what you have learned in the
last month about mercy and about justice.
Please read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Make note of and share 2-3 things,
events, or blessings for which you are thankful. Please share these with the people at your
table, the people in your home, the people at the end of your telephone line,
the people on your Facebook page, the people with whom you send and share text
messages, and letters or on social media pages. As you share, you may notice
that your blessings expand, even exponentially. God is so good to bless us so.
Read Psalm 46—joyfully—with praise in
your heart!
Share the communion elements of the
bread and the wine with one another. If
you are having communion remotely by phone or FaceTime, share remotely
nonetheless. Jesus caused His body to be
broken for you. Jesus shed His blood for
you.
Please pray with one another the following
prayer or any prayer you wish to say:
Loving God, you have given us as one
body a share in the one bread and the one cup and made us one in Christ. Help
us to bring your salvation and joy to all the world. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen
This day and all days, celebrate that you
are one with, and in the body of, Christ.
Hallelujah! Amen.
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