Our church celebrated communion on Sunday. Communion is a time to remember Christ’s work on the cross. It was during the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus’ last supper, when He said, “‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:19-21). We know Communion as The Lord’s Supper or “the Lord’s table” (1 Corinthians 10:21), a “cup of blessing” (1 Corinthians 10:16), and the “breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42). In the early Church it was called also “eucharist,” or giving of thanks (Matthew 26:27). The Greek word that Paul used to describe it, koinonia, means fellowship, community, or communion. Communion is a vertical community between a believer and God, a child and Father. It is a time of remembering what Christ did on the cross: to bear our iniquities, to redeem us from hell, to make payment for our sins. It is uniting with Christ, and sharing in the blood of Christ (1 Cor 10:16). It is abiding in Christ (John 6:56). The Lord’s Supper is a solemn and joyful time to think about what Christ did for us and a celebration of what we receive as a result of His sacrifice. The Pastor Thomas Boston said, “Let your souls delight in communion with God while you are on earth since you look for your happiness in communion with him in heaven.”
Communion is also a horizontal community. We celebrate at church, with brothers and sisters, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:17, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” At our church, we wait until everyone has the bread and the cup and we eat and drink together. The church is a body, the church is a building, the church is a family, the church is a royal priesthood and holy nation. We celebrate communion together, despite our differences. We’re from different places, eat different foods, watch different TV shows, but all eat and drink of the same bread and cup. Communion is about relationship with God and relationship with others. It is a community of people who make mistakes, speak wrongly, and annoy each other. At the table, we forgive one another, bear with one another, and celebrate that what Christ did for me, He did for that brother or sister who drives me crazy. We partake of communion together with that hard-to-love husband or wife or child or parent or church member. The Pastor John Huss said, “For as the members compose one body to which the soul is joined, and again as each member is necessary to every other, the one helping the other in the performance of its functions, so it is true of the members of the church by virtue of the power of communion and the bond of love.”