Family Communion

Let's start with a funny story.

So at my church, we usually do Communion in the deacons-hold-the-elements-at-the-front-congregation-comes-to-the-front-to-receive-elements way.  My family traditionally receives the elements individually, but doesn't eat/drink them immediately.  Instead, we make a little family circle in a corner, pray together, and eat together.  Usually my dad prays.  One Sunday, my dad and Abbie were gone (I think in the nursery), so it was just my mom, Reid, Robert, and me taking Communion.  I don't think my mom was quite prepared to pray (come to think of it, I rarely hear my mom pray out loud--usually my dad does it), but she did a great job!  I mean, she would've done a great job, except she was praying in front of her three smart-aleck kids(-in-law).  She started: "God, we thank you for family, for friends, for faith..."  Now, Robert, Reid and I know what alliteration is, and we had noticed that all the words began with F.  So I jumped in: "for food..."  Reid: "for fish..."  Robert: "for French fries..."  The three of us added lots of alliterative words, like fungi and fun and Finland.  By the end, all four of us were giggling at the front of the church, and my wonderful mother said, "Jesus likes f-words!"  And then we weren't giggling, we were stifling laughter.  "Amen."

Jesus likes laughter.

Yesterday, at the church we've been attending in Georgia (Vineville UMC), they served Communion.  Apparently, yesterday was World Communion Sunday, a time when churches all over the world take Communion together.  I don't know if my family took Communion yesterday, but the thought that Communion was about community with each other, not just Christ, struck me anew.  In taking Communion, I was participating in a significant act that connected me to Christ's sacrifice, and to all the times my family has taken Communion in the past 24 years.  My family might as well have been there; since it was Communion, I was necessarily taking it in spirit with all Christians everywhere.  And that includes my family!  The tradition was a bit different, the church was different, the state was different, but the elements and the act are the same.  When I take Communion, I commune.  Amen!

I cried a little.