"Understanding" Communion

We offer a Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  A couple of Sundays ago, during the service, we shared in Holy Communion.  There’s a story related to that which I’d like to tell you about.

After the service, a little girl came up to me, probably about four or five years old.  She had gone to the restroom while we were sharing communion, and so she had missed it.  She asked me if I would give her communion then, even though the service was over.  And I did.

Now, some would say that you shouldn’t give little kids communion, because they don’t really understand it.  If that’s how you feel, I’m not going to argue with you.  And yes, I’m sure that this little girl did not really understand communion.  But let me ask you this:  how many of us, as adults, really understand communion?

Yes, we say that the elements are the body and blood of Christ, and we say that communion is one of God’s means of grace.  But how does that work, really?  How is it that we can take ordinary bread and ordinary grape juice, recite a liturgy, and somehow that bread and juice become the embodiment--either physically or spiritually or symbolically or some combination thereof--of Jesus Christ?  How is it that we can take ordinary bread and ordinary grape juice, recite a liturgy, and then somehow eating the bread and drinking the juice instills God’s grace into us?

How does that work?  Do you understand it?  If so, then please explain it to me, because I don’t.  Not really.  I believe it.  I trust it.  I believe that sharing in Holy Communion is one of the most important things we do in the church.  But exactly what happens, and how it happens, is something I don’t know.

That little girl might not have understood everything about Holy Communion, but she understood a few things.  She understood that it was something we do in church.  She understood that it was something important.  And I think, even though she might not have been able to put it this way, that she understood that this is something we do to feel closer to God.  And she did not want to miss out on that. 

And maybe that’s all we need to understand.  Communion is important, and it’s something we do to feel closer to God.  If we all take Holy Communion with that attitude, I think God will be able to fill in the rest.