When I was growing up in eastern North Carolina, most of the churches I knew anything about had Communion about four times a year. In fact, I remember a Sunday School teacher telling me we had Communion only once a quarter because we thought so highly of the service. She said, “Those places that have it all the time (she meant the Roman Catholics and Episcopalians) have made it lose its meaning because they do it so much. It is just ordinary for them.” 

Do you remember the first time you took Communion? My father was pastor of a church in Siler City. He told me that I should not come down the aisle to receive the sacrament until I was old enough to understand what was going on. I still recall—about eighty years ago—the Sunday he told me that if I wanted to, I could join the others who came to kneel to receive the bread and juice. And down the aisle I went! 

I think I have told you before about James. He is about four years old. On the Sundays we have Communion, his father gets up from the pew and slips out the back door to the nursery to get his son. He brings him back to the sanctuary and smiles as James runs down the aisle to take his place in line at the Communion table. 

In this week’s focal text, these same kinds of issues were collecting around the Lord’s Supper. What about divisions in the Church (1 Corinthians 11:18 )? What about those who sneer at the less fortunate (1 Corinthians 11:22 )? How much of the experience of Communion “broadcasts” (New English Bible) the story of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:25 )? What about those who come to the Table without examining the “self” they bring (1 Corinthians 11:28 )? Who might be getting left out of the Holy Feast (1 Corinthians 11:33 )? 

If the apostle Paul was at your church the next time you have Communion, what might his observations and instructions be? Is Christ’s Table open to all? In what way is the focus of the Lord’s Supper the gifts given by Jesus Christ? What spiritual gifts happen on Communion Sunday that do not happen on other gathering occasions? In what ways is the service about individual relationships with our Lord, and in what ways is it about the community formed by our Lord? Come: “Eat this bread; drink this cup.”