REGULAR FOOD

One liturgical problem is that we have built such a structure around the Eucharist that we have lost track of the meal.

We need to move the non-meal elements out of the Liturgy of the Eucharist and reduce the total number of words -- that liturgy is already over.

We need to be able to clearly see the simple structure of taking, giving thanks, sharing, and consuming the bread and wine which Jesus has made His body and blood. This should be the culmination of the service. After all have eaten, no more words except the sending/mission to go and live the good news that God is among us and all are our neighbors.

Let us bake the bread as people are arriving and can smell it, then wrap it in plastic or foil or cloth and bring it through the congregation that way before putting it on its ceremonial plate, certainly not hidden in a covered dish or bowl.

Let the communion take the time it takes as someone holds the plate and a  communion ministers tear off one piece for each person. This is not the time for efficiency but for a communal experience.

Let us bring up the bottle of wine from the shop and pour that into the communal cup without taking it out of the ordinary first by placing it in some special church vessel. 

 

Let us all sing together as we all gather around the table together to eat from one loaf and drink from one cup.  If the congregation is so large that this seems awkward to some, then maybe the congregation for each service needs to be smaller.

Is there any message we have missed in Jesus telling us to share a cup, not a jug? Can we form a real, interpersonal, supportive community if we are too many for all to get a sip from the contents of one cup?

I used to go to a lot of meals with more than 200 people on the well-described political "rubber chicken circuit."  I do not remember experiencing community there, nor at any other fund raising meal which I ever attended.  

Certainly there are annual occasions where a different sort, a more theatrical sort, of liturgy is appropriate, something more of a witness to the larger community to which we belong.  Yet, for me, for a Sunday liturgy to fulfill its call to nurture the faithful for living the way of Jesus in the money-grubbing paganism which surrounds so many of us, the community of Christians small enough to share one cup, and know and care for each other, seems the more appropriate size.