Weddings and Communion

A friend of mine from college got married over the weekend. I always love those kind of weddings because they also serve as small reunions! I got a chance to catch up with some girls that I don't get to see often, and probably won't see again (except a couple) until the next one of us gets married.

I love weddings. Not just because of my romantic side, which loves the girly-ness, and princess-like aspects of finding one's Prince Charming, who promises to love and honor and cherish you for the rest of your life. Though that is definitely one part of weddings I do, admittedly, enjoy.
But because weddings are bigger than that. Whether the couple knows it or not, whether they base their ceremony around it or not...weddings point us to a day that Christians wait in anticipation of in the hopefully not-far-off future. The Great Wedding Day! When the Bride of Christ finally meets her Groom! When the fairy tale ending of "happily ever after" that makes chick-flicks enticing, is finally our reality! I hope that someday God will grant me marriage, and I also hope that my wedding ceremony will point loud and clear to the bigger picture.

I intensely love symbolism. I can't really explain it. I just do. I love the things that God puts on this earth to serve as a symbol of a bigger reality - a small representation of His immaculate glory. One of my favorites is communion. I think going to ACU, being surrounded for four years by a different perspective on communion, really enhanced that.

Julie did something in her wedding that I really love - not only did she and her groom take communion - she opened it to the congregation. We all took communion! And even though Church of Christ tradition is similar to Baptist's, in that we used Welch's instead of the fruit of the vine, it was still an awesome experience. I think I love communion so much because of all the senses that are awakened through it, and all the symbolism in it!

The method she had us use, was to take the broken-off piece of bread (real bread, not that cracker nonsense!) and then dip it into the cup of juice. A couple of my friends made the comment that they can't stand soggy bread, so it was really hard for them to do that. (I actually like the taste, probably for one, because I dip my bread in stuff all the time - leftover salad dressing on the plate, those dipping sauces at fancy Italian restaurants, etc.; but also, because when I take communion that way, I remember when the guard offered Jesus the vinegar drenched sponge to quench his thirst as he hung on the cross.

I'm also more of a wine fan over the grape juice (odd as that may be, having grown up mostly in a Baptist church) because of it's assalt on one's tastebuds. I'll never forget my cousin's funeral (at a Catholic church), when communion was served. Forgetting that I wasn't allowed to take communion there, I was so surprised by the taste of wine (having been so accustomed to grape juice) it took a minute to remember that non-Catholics are not supposed to paricipate in communion. I was kind of proud of myself later - thinking, "HAHA! You can't hinder my fellowship in the body and blood of Christ!" And when I reflected more on the experience later on, I realized that there is something uniqely different in having wine hit your tastebuds rather than grape juice. Red wine is dry, and bitter - unlike the sweetness of grape juice. And I like that. Because the act that communion as a whole symbolizes was a bitter thing. It wasn't fair that Jesus had to die for sins he didn't commit, to save a people who rejected him while he did it.

I love watching the person serving the bread break off my piece from the rest of the loaf. It reminds me that I am only a small part of something much bigger. That there is a body, and a Body; a church, and a Church. That I am part of a local congregation, but even that congregation is part of the Congregation of all believers in Jesus, the Messiah!

I love that communion, just the word, speaks of its overall purpose - the unifying act, the drawing of community, of those of us who have Christ in common. I like that it is an invitation from Jesus to participate in something that reminds us of Him. And selfishly, I like that only Christians are invited to take it, because it is a reminder of Jesus being who He said He was, and that it is our statement of belief that His sacrifice on the cross did what He promised it would do, that it would break the chains of sin and death - the foundation of Christianity.

I love hearing the words, "This is the body of Christ broken for you" and "this is the blood of Christ shed for you". I love that as we partake communion because He said "do this in remembrance of Me", I also get to feel the intimacy that I was on His heart - that He went through with it, He stayed on that cross, because He loves me in a way that is incomparable, and un-repeatable. No one who will ever walk this earth will ever have the strength or selflessness to love me that deeply. He can because He made me, He was the one who made my eyes brown, my laugh loud, my personality outgoing, my need for hugs, and my heart quick to love.

There is something slightly sweet in the midst of the bitterness of wine. Something that makes one sip become one more, and another, and then another...
I remember my 21st birthday. I decided that since I was now legally able to drink alcohol, I needed to begin with the right attitude towards it. That if I was going to drink, then I needed to be reminded to do it in such a way that would never dishonor God, or hinder my relationship with Him and my brothers and sisters in the faith. So my closest friends and I had dinner at Macaroni Grill (because I like their bread!), and took communion together. (And I think that God saw that as legit - even though there wasn't an ordained minister serving it, and it wasn't blessed by a priest, and we used real wine, and we weren't in a church.) What I remember most was one of my friends' cringing at the bitterness. Then we ordered a sweeter, fruity-er wine to replace it for the meal. And I'll always remember her going back to the original glass every once in a while throughout the meal, and cringing each time, saying, "I keep thinking I will get used to it, and start liking it, but nope!"

My we never get used to it! But may we keep tasting it, like a wine-taster - who knows that the bitterness of red wine is what makes it perfect, and knowing the hidden sweetness that only a knowing tongue can taste. Let those of us who are in Christ know the hidden sweetness in the bitter cross, that we are free indeed because of it!

I pray that my evangelical Christian brothers and sisters take the opportunity to take communion just once in their life with real wine. That they would let the symbolism overtake them for those brief moments - that they would experience it in the way I've described. That it would stir in them the anticipation that it has stirred in me, the longing and excitement for the Wedding Supper of the Lamb - when Jesus will put wine to his tastebuds again for the first time since He introduced communion to us in that upper room before His arrest, with the 12 men that He'd invested in for 3 years - when He invited us to "do this in remembrance of Me".