Feb
20
Written by:
SNT
2/20/2009 3:30 PM
It was one of the best sermons that I've ever heard. We've been exploring the communion liturgy and this Sunday we got to the words of Christ. I think that I've focused in the past on "This is my Body, broken for you... and this is my blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sins." I have thought that the experience of communion rest squarely on these words - it has been about suffering, sacrifice, forgiveness, and the physical elements of bread and wine. But now...
Nate explained the nuances of the word that is used for "in memory of." Apparently the greek word is "anamnesis" and instead of the mostly passive mental experience that might come to mind when we hear the word remember, anamnesis an affectionate and active recollection. I thought the most helpful picture of this that Nate painted was the difference between remembering your mother who has passed away by putting a plaque on a park bench and practicing anamnesis by going to where she grew up, visiting her school, walking the streets that she walked when she was a little kid, reading her journals, getting to know what was important to her, volunteering at the library where she used to volunteer. It's as if you would step into her life. You would become part of her story. This hit me somewhere deep. To see communion not as a mental exercise of remembering Christ's sacrifice and trying our darnedest to have that impact us but instead as a step into Christ's story - a step towards a life that is no longer our own.
Another powerful image was that of three simple words that I have glossed over every week - "Take and eat." These words would have once signified death as Eve and Adam "took and ate" the forbidden fruit and were thus sentenced to death. Of course, this was an integral art of Israel's story. But what Christ does in this meal is he takes what once was a sign of darkness and he redeems it. He breaks bread, hands it to his friends and he says, "Take and Eat." I love this. The story that we are stepping into as we take and eat is a story that bring life where there was once only death. God help us.