Fresh baked herb loaf and California red wine.

Communion

I have been writing and think so much about bread this week I thought I would take a stab at baking some. So at 6 a.m. I came downstairs and loaded up my bread machine with whole wheat flour, soy flour, virgin olive oil, brown sugar, sea salt, Italian herbs sunflower seeds and some yeast in warm water. The machine does all the hard work, then I remove the dough hoping that it will become alive enough to rise up for baking.

This one (pictured) did…some. Not dense enough to shingle the roof with, but hardly a light loaf. Still, tasty cut thin with some melted brie, roasted garlic cloves (which become quite mild if you do not cut them) and some fruit preserves.

That’s dinner later on.

The most notable thing about wine and bread as symbols of Christ come in Communion or the Eucharist. Long disputed in it’s various meanings and traditions it is really quite simple if you do a normal exegesis (interpretation) of the texts.

Jesus, at the crucial moment of his being betrayed by Judas, was assembled with His followers for the infamous Last Supper. In it He explained that the bread was His body, and the blood the “new covenant in His blood”. His request to them, and to us, was simple: “whenever you eat bread and drink wine, do so remembering Me.”

Therefore all we have said, or are likely to say about either bread or wine in some way is reflective of Him and also ourselves.

Thus the problem Paul addresses in Corinth some 20-plus years after the Last Supper (chapter 11 of the first letter).

When problems of interpretation occur it is usually for one of three reasons: ignorance of the context, ignoring a simple reading of the text, or not going deep enough when there is a seeming contradiction.

The Church at large has tripped over the first two and ignored the last.

Put simply, by 55 A.D. the Corinthians had denuded the true meaning and spirit of the “love feast” to a dead rite where the wealthier members would bring much food and wine for themselves alone, share none of it with the poorer members of the fellowship and had all but forgotten the true meaning and remembrance of their Lord’s giving us Himself with body and blood.

Thus Paul says they have not discerned the true meaning of a rite meant to silently preach the whole of the Gospel by eating simple bread and drinking simple wine.

It was a daily occurrence as one thing they did seem to have right in their community was that. But perhaps the very ordinariness of such a ritual made it easier for them to forget. Still, there is little doubt that Jesus wished to be their daily bread and wine and for them to remain close to Him in that daily meditation.

Currently most churches have communion once a month, some weekly. The arguments for such limitations are thin at best, usually citing it becoming less meaningful by overuse. No doubt prayer gets similar treatment by many, myself included. In all events it is a bad call.

The evening meal was to be initiated with others in the breaking of bread and remembering Christ’s Body broken for us. The fact that it was broken and dispersed alone shows it was meant to be common and shared and not a private or selfish endeavor. THis was followed by the common meal, also meant to be shared in potluck fashion with no regard to social rank or financial wealth. After supper the cup was shared in remembrance of Christ’s blood shed in creating a new covenant.

The bread and the wine look back to the Last Supper and Christ’s sacrifice, but also ahead to the great wedding feast where the Church, as Christ’s bride, is met by the Bridegroom Himself.

Once a day it is good, with others if possible, to break bread and remember what God has given us: Himself. And to drink from the cup (or something like minded for those of us who do not drink alcohol) remembering His blood shed today for our sins, and how the blood of the slain lamb is over the lintel (door frame) of my house and how judgment “passes over” my house daily because of it.

It’s a new covenant with new life and should be celebrated with some consideration daily. Think of how it might change our perceptions of the world, ourselves and others.