The Lord's Supper Rant

I am on campus at Asbury Theological Seminary this week for a class on the sacraments called "Sacramental Theology". The sacraments recognized in the Methodist Church are those of the Lord's Supper and Baptism. A sacrament is defined as an outward sign of an inward grace. An interesting tidbit for your information the Catholic Church actually recognizes 7 sacraments. For the purposes of this post, however, I will focus specifically on the Lord's Supper.

I have the privilege of teaching a new member class once a month at my home church and ensconced in our discussion are the understanding and participation in the sacraments. I love these discussions, but they are only the tip of the iceberg for understanding just what these are and what they mean. The unfortunate thing is this understanding is so lacking in the Church at large in something so rich with meaning and grace! This sign and means of grace must be taught and understood in new ways in the church today, rather than being seen as a mere ritual or tradition lacking truly significant meaning.

In the last two weeks, ironically or not, I have had some unfortunate experiences with the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and they left me feeling hurt for Jesus frankly.
I attended a church I don't normally attend because people are "flocking" there. I had to see what all of the fuss was about. The worship set was good, the messsage was ok, and the Lord's Supper was served BUT there was no explanation of what we were doing, except to say Christ said to do this in remembrance of me. That was it and there is sooooo much more! Also disturbing was the lack of direction as to when to take the bread and wine/juice. Literally everyone was looking around at each other thinking, when do we do this? I honestly was so disturbed I wanted to cry. This is not the way it is supposed to be!

When we take the bread and juice we are taking into ourselves the body and blood of Christ, the body that was broken for us, the blood that was shed for us, the one loaf that we all share as a symbol of the body of Christ and the body of Christ his people gathered together. When we take these things into ourselves we do so in Thanksgiving for who Christ is and what God has done through him, then we do so in Repentance knowing that we are all sinners in need of a savior, confessing our insufficiency, and as we do so we join in Christ's suffering because without the suffering, without the cross, without his death and without our own, we cannot experience the resurrection. Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg here.

The other unfortunate thing was a discussion on how it was difficult to "work" communion into a service because it needed to flow well and it might not fit with the message. Wow! and Ouch! From where I am sitting, taking part in the Lord's Supper is an act of worship, of thanksgiving, of the body of Christ together taking part in the body of Christ. It is God's action and our response. It is the centerpiece of the Christian faith. Why is it difficult to "work" it in?

I would love to hear your comments!