Dinner With Eternity -or- Fun With the Link Button

For most of my walk with God, communion was an informal thing; for that matter, so was most of our relationship, including prayer.


God was someone I joked about, chatted with and made up songs about. The benefit of this attitude was that He was real to me - real, the way other people in my life are real. The down side was that my faith was an immature faith, a self-serving faith. I knew God was real and that I was His friend (Jn 15:15); so I expected Him to do all the things a pal would do. He was the one who made me feel better when I was sad, fixed my problems when I couldn't and  made everything I wanted and needed magically appear. He was my magic genie in the sky.


Sadly, when my life took an ugly turn, a faith that I thought was child-like in its informality turned out to be more childish in its self-service and impermanence. By the end of it all, I'd actually had the gall to get mad at Him.


I was silly the way a seven-year-old is silly:


Kung fu is the coolest thing in the world...

... until someone takes a kick to the face.

 Then, the only reasonable reaction is to whine about how unfair it is.

After I got my head on straight again, time spent in Scripture and reading a bunch of CS Lewis caused me to adopt a more reverent take on Christianity. God stopped being my Big Buddy and started being my Holy Father. (Jn. 15:14) Our relationship stopped being about "us" and started being about Him.


For some reason, communion stayed informal. I knew that, historically, communion was part of a potluck-type thing the early Christians did. They'd get together, have a big ol' dinner and take communion. So, I associated this sacrament more with fellowship than worship. Because I think of friendships as informal, it seemed like communion would follow suit. I didn't really think about it as much of a big deal- or any deal at all.


Then I threw a party.


Toward the end of my Birthday/Goodbye party on January 2nd of 2011, I got all my closest friends together and proposed we share communion. I was about to pass the cup when the best man I know interrupted. He warned us about taking this communion too lightly. He quoted 1Co. 11:17-34, mentioning that some who made a habit of coming to the table with the wrong heart died of it.


I did some studying of my own and found out that I was guilty of disrespecting God at His own dinner table.


1) I didn't devote myself to the attitude and practice of communion.
Communion, as it's recorded in Lk. 22:19 and 1 Co 11:24, is performed in remembrance of Christ. We remember HIM - not only His sacrifice, but everything He did and said when He walked with us. Our attitude should be one of gratitude, humility and teachability. Gratitude, because He is the source of all the good things we have, do and are; humility, because we don't deserve an ounce of it; teachability, because three of the five things He came to earth for had to do with what He was going to say.


When I took communion, it wasn't because I was remembering all that God had done for me. Until I became a believer in September of 2000, communion was snack-time for grown-ups. After that, it became just another monthly happening at my church.

Acts 2:42 tells us that communion was the sort of thing people devoted themselves to; it was not a hiccup in their Sunday morning routine - it was a lifestyle and habit.


2) I took communion with unconfessed sin and ungodly demeanors.
Jesus was never one to shy from high standards. After all His talk about forgiveness, and the ills of an unforgiving heart, He put the shoe on the other foot. In Mt. 5:23-24, He told his disciples, "Hey, if you're ever having a barbecue for Me and you remember that someone's got a grudge against you, go sort that out before you burn the burgers." Not, "If you've got a grudge against someone", it's of he's got something against you. Never mind that he's supposed to forgive you; never mind that you're probably at the altar to seek forgiveness in the first place; never mind that you've already put the first patty over the coals - stop what you're doing, and set things right anyway!


The passage in 1 Co. 11 tells us that we need to come to the table with a clean heart. We need to come to the table as we would the Holy of Holies - honouring the privilege of His presence in our minds and hearts.


3) I took communion selfishly.
Paul, in 1 Co 11, reacts harshly to selfish diners at the potluck. He asks if the more impatient guests don't have homes to eat in. Communion is a meal; but it's not about the food. Communion is like a family dinner, where the Father of all fathers takes His seat. Just as dinner around a family's table is as much about the people there as anything else, the Lord's Table is three parts worship to one part fellowship to 1/100th part food.


The first communion supper had God on all fours, washing people's feet!


How dare I take part in that, thinking only of how blessed I'll be by it, or how holy I look in my fancy jacket?

Communion is about me the way Star Wars is about water farming on Tatooine. I am a participant in something bigger than myself. I am an adopted child at a family dinner with the King of the Universe.


When He takes His seat at the head of the table, I want to bless Him with impeccable manners.


-isaac