The October Letter

Holy Communion – Continued

In last month’s magazine I wrote about Holy Communion and the importance of participating in the experience. To state the obvious we can only become partakers by partaking. I indicated that I would write a little about the symbols that we use in church to support the enactment of Holy Communion and I now do so:

In the Methodist Church today we have the same view as the Byzantine period in that the Bible, vessels and content for the meal and a cross are seen as necessary things for church to be church. Our intuition is therefore influenced by tradition in the form of our symbols and in the food we eat together which combine to become part of our practice. These factors influence the participatory experience. This leads to an analysis of the basic symbolic meal ingredients. It is helpful at this point to have a look at a couple of definitions of symbol:

Symbol … thing regarded by general consent as naturally typifying or representing or recalling something … by possession of analogous qualities. “Concise Oxford Dictionary”

Symbols sum up, in one little action or word, a whole way of life that makes some people feel happy and at home and other people as though there’s a knife in their ribs. And when a symbol … is not fully explained … - then sometimes people can get the wrong end of the stick. “The meal Jesus Gave us” Tom Wright

The proper explanation of the symbols is important. The presence of a Bible or Bibles in worship symbolically represents all that is written about Holy Communion in it and also in some sense the presence of God through the implied divine authority it represents (“do this in remembrance of me”). The importance of the symbols goes beyond the biblical and the traditional and is inevitably influenced by culture.

Bread: For all its ordinariness, a loaf of bread draws our attention. … bread unites the fruitful goodness of the earth … represents the earth and the rain, growing grains, sowing and reaping, milling and baking, … the mystery of yeast. The loaf invites the participation of more than one person. … It implies a community gathered around … to share in the breaking open of this compressed goodness. … No wonder that Christians … have proposed the local staple, … thickened manioc paste, for example – as their “holy bread”. “Holy Things” Lathrop
Bread is a powerful symbol as demonstrated by the research data referred to in my September letter. Responses such as “sharing with each other, belonging, togetherness, meal, inclusive, around the table, … and sharing the loaf better”, are all influenced by the symbolism. This is reinforced by what bread stands for and represents in our western culture. A cultural influence is therefore exerted on our theological understanding of bread as a symbol.

Wine: The translucent liquid also holds together the fruitful earth, the sun and the rain, the ancient history of human cultivation, and the mystery of yeast and fermentation. It is also a food that has been made in endless local varieties, bearing the mark of local cultures. … Here poured out for a human circle, there flows the goodness of the earth pressed out, the sun made liquid. “Holy Things” Lathrop

Wine is also a powerful symbol but less obvious from the research data than bread. The Scriptural link (“this cup is the new covenant in my blood”) of wine with the blood of Christ is apparent from the research data. “Sacrifice, To share the body and blood of Christ, Public sharing of the body and blood of Christ.” The fact that red wine is predominantly used strengthens its symbolic link to blood. A cultural influence is exerted on our theological understanding of wine as a symbol. In the Methodist Church the use of non-alcoholic wine makes its own statement about the temperate tradition of the denomination but may take away from symbolism such as the mystery of yeast and fermentation. When we focus on “the new covenant in my blood” there is a very strong link between the symbolism of red wine and the cross.

Bread and wine are already sacred things before their use by Christians. Feeding a human community, they also give to that community a means of symbolizing a life greater than their actual food value. When bread and wine, or some other local staple food and festive drink, are set out in the midst of a Christian assembly, they bring with themselves ages of human use and human hope. “Holy Things” Lathrop

Bread, wine, the Bible and the cross are interlinked powerful symbols of what the Christian community is celebrating at Holy Communion. It is a gathering together of all that we are and all that we believe. As we experience this gathering together the power of the symbols is in what they represent and what they represent is an act of grace. This is where who we are and what we believe meet in a powerful intertwining. This is where Scripture, reason, tradition and experience meet.
In his interpretation the contemporary Weslyan scholar, Rob Staples, terms the sacrament an “operative” symbol. “To call sacraments operative symbols is to affirm not only that they proclaim a truth but that through them God performs an act of grace corresponding to that truth. … the Spirit’s power (virtue) communicates this presence, although the way in which this happens is not within the control of human beings, nor can it be fully explained by human logic.” “The New Creation”, Runyon

The enactment of Holy Communion is made all the more powerful in that it cannot be fully explained by human logic. This should hardly be surprising when the Passion we are symbolically remembering also cannot be entirely explained by human logic. The power of symbolism helps us to live through a re-enactment of who we are in the context of what we believe. What we believe is heavily influenced by the symbols around us and the liturgical framework within which they are set.

We come; we receive. Like all truly joyful things, this one is also solemn, too deep for shallow or casual happiness. … from the earliest days of the Church this has been one of the central means whereby Christians have been nourished in faith, hope and love. “The meal Jesus Gave us” Tom Wright

In summary then there is a sense of corporate nourishment in the enactment of Holy Communion. With the small quantities of bread and wine consumed the sense of nourishment must be spiritual as opposed to physical. I suggest that the spiritual feeding comes out of tradition and Scripture enhanced by reason and all part of the experience. The physical eating and drinking is symbolic of the instructions of Jesus to eat and drink in his remembrance and, as already stated, influenced by culture and context. To stop there without looking at the wider teaching of Jesus relating to relationships with God, each other, the world and the whole community of believers is to only recognise part of the experience. In this context nourishment cannot be in relation to the individual pilgrim only. We always participate as part of the community of believers and I commend this corporate participation to you.

May God bless you with the faith certainty of the love of Jesus Christ manifested for each one of us.

Richard