It’s always fun in my clergy circles to share stories about creative ways we’ve officiated and served communion. Especially during service trip experiences when the normal supplies are are rare to find, I’ve known colleagues who have served communion with elements like sweet tea, Cheetos or cinnamon rolls. I’ve even known colleagues who have even used chocolate wine when a red wine can’t be found.
The theology of switching up the elements from the traditional bread and wine (or grape juice) can be frowned upon or celebrated depending on who you talk to. It has been said that communion in the Protestant tradition is really about a shared meal, a common cup, and a collective community so what does it matter what you actually eat or drink? However, personally, I tend to be more traditional in my approach– bread and wine work just fine for me. Yet I understand why changing the approach isn’t so bad every now and then. It is easy for us to get caught going through the motions of hearing: “This is my body broken for you” and “This is my blood shed for you” that we forget the spiritual significance of what we are doing in the first place.
Two weeks ago now, when Kevin and I first arrived in Kenya and began spending time with the staff (all 220+ of them) gathered at the children’s center for a day of installation and celebration of Kevin as the new President of Feed The Children International, of course we ate together. It was like Christmas in August, we learned as we shared a meal of chicken, greens, rice,salads, arrow root, bread, potatoes and soda. It was the finest traditional feast they could offer.
But no festive gathering like this one we learned would be complete without a cake. A special cake for the occasion was prepared for us. And a cake cutting ceremony was in order. Kevin and I were invited to the cake cutting table in front of everyone as the community choir sang. Though Kevin and it felt a lot like our wedding (as they later made us feed each other while everyone took pictures . . a quite funny site! And, no I didn’t smear it on Kevin’s face), learning about the meaning behind the whole event made it all worth it.
Esther, the director of school feeding programs and the MC for the day, passionately explained to all of us, why we were cutting the cake. She said something like this:
If you think about the parts that go into making a cake . . . The eggs, the flour, the sugar, the water, etc you realize that none of these elements are very good if at all on their own. But when you mix them together, adding just the right amounts (and no more than is needed), you get a sweet dessert. You get something that tastes good that all people can enjoy.
In the same way, all of us today are a part of a larger family. We who are many believe that our fellowship is better and sweeter when it is shared. Let this cake today be a participation for you in knowing that each of us is part of a larger family. And when we come together in just the right way, our community and love shared among us is what we call the best life has to offer.
Then, Kevin and I (along with the two other US based FTC staff) were asked to take the plates of little chunks of cake on a plate and pass them out individually to the staff and children as they gathered in a semicircle around us. Simultaneously, everyone continued to enjoy their Sprite, Fanta and Pespi.
If this was not a communion like act, I don’t know what is!
As I served the cake from my hand to their napkin, chills ran down my spine and I caught myself saying “the peace of the Lord be with you” on several occasions though no one asked me to do so. It felt to me so much like what I do with my own congregation each Sunday when I give them the elements through hand to hand contact, looking them in the eyes and wishing blessing each participant. In the giving and receiving of the elements as a gathered community, we remember in gratitude the one who gave of his very life for us all.
While the traditions of the church and the communion liturgies that we’ve passed down from generation to generation are dear treasures in our spiritual lives, I believe, we can’t help but keep looking for God’s ongoing teachable moments for us. For sometimes the bread of Christ just might come to us in white coconut iced cakes and His cup to us in glass soda bottles. And as we partake, we’ll remember the expansive beauty in the Body of our Lord. And taste for ourselves that life in Christian community is very good.
