Remembering

During Easter week, I attended a Christian conference where we celebrated Communion together.

We formed a line down the centre aisle, and two elderly men stood at the front to serve us.

Receiving the elements of Communion in this way was different for me; at my home church, we pass the plates of bread and grape juice to each other as we remain seated.

As I waited, I noticed that the men at the front spoke to each person they served, though I couldn’t hear what they said.

When it was my turn, the man holding the bread looked at me with kind eyes and said, ‘Nancy, the body of Christ, broken for you.’ I took a piece of bread and dipped it in the cup of grape juice. The man holding the cup said, ‘Nancy, the blood of Christ, shed for you.’

My eyes blurred with tears as I made my way back to my seat, overwhelmed with emotion.

Though I knew that both men had read my conference name tag, hearing my name spoken out loud had made this Communion personal, as if Jesus himself had served me.

This experience—and my response to it—reminded me that sometimes I get so busy, so distracted, that I forget Jesus’ great suffering on the cross for my sins.

No wonder Paul encourages us to take time to remember. He said, ‘As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes’ (1 Corinthians 11:26, NRSV).

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting us to your table of love. Amen