2017/09/27

Honeycomb Communion

There has been hardly anything more contentious in the Christian history than the simplest meal which Jesus bequeathed to his disciples. Every aspect of it and even aspects imagined and fabricated beyond it have been a source of bitter and often bloody controversies. Arguments flared up, heretics were burned and wars were waged over the precise interpretation of that simple meal. Disunity starts right with the name - is it to be called Eucharist or Holy Communion or Lord’s Supper? Is it a sacrament or sacrifice or memorial? Is the Lord present "in it" or "at it"? There are centuries of bitter struggles about arcane terminology of transubstantiation, remanence, transignification, consubstantiation, utraquism, memorialism, centuries of splitting hair and cutting heads. It is difficult to imagine that thousands upon thousands of people died in conflicts over these arcane questions, and there are still some for whom it is the ultimate supranatural question of salvation.
     As we celebrate World Communion Sunday we will try to put all this bitter history behind us and discern this special meal in the context of a Hebrew legend from the book of Judges and its sweet mytho-poetic riddle. Come to celebrate with us a honeycomb communion. 

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