Communion and Equality (part 1)

 Tenth Thursday after Pentecost

Today is prayer and spirituality day. I want us to think about Holy Communion in this time of Coronavirus. I have not received the sacrament since the first Sunday in March. I miss it. I want it. What do you think about it? Do you miss communion? I don't mean this to be a rhetorical question. I would love to get your responses.

It is clear at this point that we will not be able to receive communion in church at University UMC any time in the near future. I suspect it's the same for those of you who are in other churches. Even after in-person church starts back, I suspect there will be considerable hesitance about communion--you can't socially distance, you receive bread that has been touched by someone else, you have to take your mask off to partake.

I just reread John Wesley's "Discourse on the Duty of Constant Communion." Wesley argued forcefully for the need of all Christian's to have frequent communion. He had communion every day. This was difficult in the 18th and 19th century on the American frontier, because there were so few ordained clergy to administer the sacrament. Laypeople could not. They still can't.

In the 20th century in most Methodist churches communion was reduced to four times a year, the minimum require in the Discipline. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries there has been a revival of interest in the sacrament and the need for far greater frequency. Most United Methodist churches now have communion once a month and a growing number have it every Sunday.

Coronavirus has changed everything. In the early weeks of it most of us assumed it would be under control by mid-summer and things would be back to normal. That has not happened. Fortunately we do have U-Tube and Zoom, as well as radio and TV, so we can see and hear worship services. We do not as yet have a means for Holy Communion.

My spiritual director and pastor, Justin, and I talked about this in our Zoom direction meeting a couple of weeks ago. He wanted me to write a blog about it. It's a discussion we all need to have. I have some ideas but I'm not stuck on any of them. Here is some of my thinking:

• We need communion. It is a spiritual feast for us and a spiritual duty we owe to God. 
• The clergy person who consecrates the elements lifts and breaks a loaf and lifts a chalice. He or she does not touch all the bread that is distributed or all the cups in which we intinct. Consecration is by the clergyperson's words, not by touch.
• The clergy's words in most of our churches are heard not exactly in the way they are spoken. They are amplified by sound systems. We do hear the words. We do hear the voice, but without the sound systems those who sit farther away--the back of the church or the balcony, would likely not hear them distinctly.
• When we watch the service on U-Tube or hear it on radio, we are hearing the words, not exactly in the way they are spoken. They are sent to us through waves that reproduce the sound. We do hear the words. We do hear the voice. We also see the clergyperson, though not live. We see him or her on our screens exactly as they look, but in two dimensions rather than three.
• The words of consecration are the same, said by the same person, heard as they are said.
• Why should those words of consecration not consecrate the bread and wine/juice that we put before our screens at the time of the communion? Why should that bread and wine be any less consecrated, any less holy than that which is in the sanctuary of the church? Do we not think that God, who made these radio and TV waves, cannot make the consecration go from our church to our home?
• If we live alone, we can serve the elements to ourselves. If with live with other(s), we can serve each other. 

Do you think that's too radical a proposal? Wait till you read what I have to say tomorrow. Let me hear from you.

Faithfully,

Christian