Thursday, May 20, 2021
Katie Snipes Lancaster
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:17
Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
Spiritual Practice: Holy Communion
Have you participated in eucharist virtually during the pandemic? In those first early spring 2020 weeks, when words like coronavirus were still strikingly new, foreign, and alarming, we celebrated Maundy Thursday and I remember bringing wine and bread down to my basement, and hearing those poignant words, “He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them” broadcast across my television. It was itself foreign, the taste of bread and cup with a community scattered across the screens. And yet, together, we were making our way, finding new rhythms to say yes to the God who feeds us, sacrifices for us, lives within us, is made known in all that is physical and intangible about this life.
Holy Communion is a spiritual practice that some of us have been participating in since before we can remember. In some protestant traditions (ours included) children are welcome at the table, trusting that God is made known to us in bread and cup long before we can understand its meaning (and, somehow, that helps us realize, too, that even adults cannot fully understand and comprehend the meaning of the eucharist). Other traditions ask young people to learn deeply about the scripture and tradition around communion so that they can deeply live into the full narrative of God’s love when partaking for the first time.
Eucharist connects us to that wordless, tangible, embodied spirit of God that unifies us across all our many articulated differences, so that we might be still and know the presence of God that calls us to love.
Daily Prayer
Holy God, bind us together
Bind us together through the sacrament
And embody your love
As we go about our daily lives.
Amen.