Communion as Re-Membering

Communion continues the experience of baptism. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Life abundant is life in community as opposed to life that moves towards isolation and desolation. We experience that regularly as we celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

When we come to the table to partake of The Lord’s Supper, we are reminded of that past event when Jesus was willing to act to overcome the dividing walls that separate us one from the other. When we call the experience Communion, it reminds us of the present quality of our relationship with God and neighbor and the thrust of God’s efforts to form community and communion now where there is alienation and separation. When we speak of the experience as the Eucharist, we are offering thanksgiving for the gift of life and the future hope implied in the fact that even death could not defeat God’s intentions. We are invited to participate, in anticipation, in the heavenly banquet of God’s victory over all that seeks to defeat God’s intention for creation.

Christ was a willing sacrifice to overcome sin and to bond us together in his Body with God, each other and the future. By this act, he gave visibility to the character of God, which is to overcome death which leaves us isolated and to overcome our distance from each other and God. A saved life can not wait until death to experience salvation but must begin now in the community and communion of Christ’s Body.