Communion

Friday, July 21, 2006 -- Week of 10 Pentecost

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this link -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 975)
Psalm 31 (morning) // 35 (evening)
Joshua 4:19 - 5:1, 10-15
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 26:17-25

To eat a meal with another is a holy thing. In all societies it has always carried great meaning. In Jesus' culture, to eat with another was a public expression of relationship. To eat with another announced one's public acceptance of the other in a relationship not unlike family. To betray one with whom you have eaten was inconceivable. Part of the scandal that Jesus provoked among his contemporaries was that he ate openly with sinners and with the unclean. That is not what good people do, according to conventional thought.

Today we have Matthew's version of Jesus' last supper with his disciples. Jesus identifies his life -- his body and blood -- with the bread and the cup of wine. There is a hint of scandal in this act also. Jewish piety forbids consuming the blood of an animal. Kosher meat is food that has been carefully butchered so that the blood is returned to the earth, for the blood is life. To drink the blood is to drink the life. To eat the body of another human is also taboo.

The scandal of it all adds to the unexpectedness and the power of Jesus' act that evening. "This is my body. This is my blood." This is also a sacred meal which creates relationship. To participate in this meal is to create relationships centered in the presence and person of Jesus and to be fed by his life. Jesus' life constitutes our life and our relationships. We become one body and one blood, his body and his blood.

From Easter day Christians have known Jesus to be present in the breaking of the bread and in the sharing of the cup. It is within this meal that we interpret his death and resurrection. He is alive and with us. We know him in the sacred meal. For 2000 years we have created a relationship so close that it is named communion. We are in common-union. This is our fundamental identity. We are the community of Jesus' life. His Spirit dwells among and within us. He is risen. So are we.

Lowell