Our on-campus wedding had a big oops. I was hustling around taking care of all the details, and since it was graduation weekend too, things were particularly hectic. We had wanted to celebrate communion in our wedding service, so my roommate volunteered to bake a mini loaf of bread to be placed on a silver tray next to our special silver wine goblet. She forgot.
I was ready to walk down the aisle and noticed the empty tray on the altar. We quickly sent an usher to our school’s dining hall to get bread. He returned with a slice of Wonder Bread which we placed on the fancy silver tray. I don’t think I was in a very focused frame of mind to celebrate communion. We went through the motions, saying words without meaning.
Our pastor reminded us on Sunday, when we celebrated communion, that it is a very sacred time of worship and should not be taken lightly. Have you ever thought about what the word “communion” actually means? Communing is conversing in an intimate way. We enter the presence of God to have an intimate two-way conversation, not a soliloquy. As we confess our sins, which opens our hearts to God, and express gratefulness to Jesus for what He has done to bring about our salvation, we also should listen as God speaks love, truth, forgiveness, acceptance—or whatever else He wants to say to us—into our spirits. This is a powerful time of coming into God’s presence to commune with Him.
Taking communion together as a church is also significant. Our commonality in Jesus creates unity and intimacy with each other in Him. We are becoming one with Jesus and each other as we join in the one purpose of remembering Him. When we celebrate communion in our churches, let’s make it meaningful—recognizing the privilege of this sacrament and making it a special time of intimacy with God and each other.
Jesus prayed for us that we would be one with Him, the Father, and each other. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20-21).