What Communion Involves--Part 1

            1 Corinthians 11 contains teachings about communion and one part of it is familiar to us.  It's the part that tells us what it means to receive communion faithfully.  We refer to them in church short-hand as “Words of institution.  It's the verses 11:23-26.  “Lord Jesus . . . night betrayed . . . bread for you . . . remember me.  Cup of new covenant . . . remember me.”  It summarizes the conditions of what it takes for people to receive communion in a faithful way—it takes a gathered worshiping body. For reasons I won't go into, I believe strongly that communion is not a part of private devotion.  We read scripture in private, pray in private, fast in private, even sing hymns privately.  But I don't believe we should take communion in private.  To faithfully receive communion, this text suggests to us that the narrative needs to be shared.  This story of Jesus initiating the Lord's  Supper is found in four places in scripture.  And the language suggests that it the narrative itself was something people repeated whenever they received communion.  So, we gather the worshipers, we tell the story, and we remember—Remembrance is a central component of receiving communion.  We remember and give thanks for the whole life of Jesus—his incarnational birth, his authoritative teaching, his compassionate ministry, his boundary-crossing meals, his triumphal entry, his disciple-making community, his arrest, trial and sacrificial crucifixion and his glorious resurrection.  But, says Paul, though we celebrate his whole life in Lord's Supper, we pay particular attention to the fact that whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord's Death until he comes.”  So to receive communion faithfully means to have gathered worshipers, retold story, and Christ-centered memory.