We have been experiencing a difficult season here at Westside these past few weeks, and in times like these, I think, we are drawn almost instinctively back to the communion table. As Bob lead us last week, he commented that the Eucharist is the ritual that fits when we are completely lost- when we don’t know what else to do. When we are confused and hurt and lost- we are drawn back to the shared experience of the Lord’s Supper.

And that’s the thing about communion- it’s shared. We share the experience with God and with each other. There are lots of trendy new ways to experience the Eucharist but unless we do it together we are missing a big part of what it means.

There’s a parallel in our experience of community right now.
We are sharing a new experience together in this season.
We are discovering what it means to be hurt and grieve together.
We are discovering what it means to be disappointed and yet hopeful together.
We are discovering what it means to forgive and be gracious together.

We are sharing in this together.
And this is so much of what is at the heart of communion.
This idea of together.
To share.
To wait.
To listen.
To laugh.
Together.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and gave them direction concerning the Lord’s Supper

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.
1 Cor 11:33

Paul writes to them and says, wait for each other. He says wait.
He reminds them that unless they take the time to experience this moment together they have missed the meaning of communion.
The meaning of community.

This past weekend as I led our community through communion, I asked people to come forward to receive the elements. It meant we all had to wait. Some of us received our bread and our wine and went back to our seats to wait for the others. Some of us waited in line to receive our bread and wine as those in front of us received theirs.

I asked that we use that time spent waiting to reflect on what it means for us to wait for each other in this season we are experiencing.
What it means for us to wait for each other emotionally,
to wait for each other spiritually,
to wait for each other in listening
and to wait for each other in prayer.

As Paul asked the Corinthian church, “is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
1 Cor 10:16-17

This is a difficult time for us- but we are in it together
and as we wait for each other through this time,
As we listen for and hear the voice of the spirit in these days,
As we care for and love each other in this moment,
We are invited into the beauty of God’s community,
And we begin to understand the power and healing of God’s church.