Haiti and Communion

On our Haiti trips, men are routinely assigned to teach during an evening devotion time. After my last trip, I decided that I will use my devotion time on this trip to serve communion. The explanation for why I decided to serve communion on this next trip is a little later in this blog.

To prepare to serve communion, I am studying one of the key teaching passages on communion, 1 Corinthians 10.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

In particular, I want to focus on one teaching in this text. Gordon D. Fee in his commentary notes the following:

Similarly, he speaks of the "the bread that we break." This also picks up the language of the Jewish meal, and was used by the earliest Christians to designate their fellowship meal (cf. Acts 2:46; 20:7, 11). What is unique here is that Paul will go on to interpret the bread in terms of of the church as his "body." Nowhere else in the NT is the bread interpreted at all. Paul does so here probably because in this context the emphasis lies here. Thus he does not mean that by eating the bread believers have some kind of mystical "participation in" the "broken body" of Christ, but, as he clearly interprets in v. 17, they are herewith affirming that through Christ's death they are "partners" in the redeemed community, the new eschatological people of God (pp. 468-469)

The broken bread not only symbolizes Christ's broken body that he gave up for us, but also points to our unity as believers being part of one body. Christians are one holy people (1 Peter 2:9) and one body of believers (Romans 12:5).

In the next chapter of Corinthians, Paul continued to address the problems the Corinthians were having in their worship services. Some of the richer Corinthians were bringing food and wine to enjoy a feast. The poorer Corinthians, who did not have food or drink, sat around and were hungry. The richer believers were not concerned with the poorer believers, so Paul commanded the following.

1 Corinthians 11:27-29
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Grudem comments on what the phrase "discerning the body" means.

Wayne A. Grudem
“So the phrase “not discerning the body” means “not understanding the unity and interdependence of people in the church, which is the body of Christ.” It means not taking thought for our brothers and sisters when we come to the Lord’s Supper,” (p.997, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine )

Taking these passages together, this unity expressed through communion not only refers to the local church, but the universal church as well. We experience this unity our the Haiti trips. On Sunday of the Haiti trips, the Haiti team usually visits a local church in Haiti. This church has Haitians and it is also popular with visiting missionaries. The sermons are in Creole, but they give instructions in English and sing some of the refrains of the worship songs in English. The worship leaders then invite everyone to celebrate communion together. During this time we celebrate communion not only with Haitians, but also with missionaries from around the world. This is a time a profound worship for the team. We feel the truth of the 1 Corinthians passage in a unique way.

This is unity goes even further. When we were returning from Haiti last spring, I was reading The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God on the plane. The book was about how the early Christians thought about God and the Church. I was in the chapter where the the author was talking about communion or "the Eucharist."

Early in the church's history Christians gathered at the tombs of martyrs to pray and celebrate the Eucharist. The faithful of one generation were united to the faithful of former times, not by a set of ideas or teachings (though this was assumed), but by the community that remembered their names. This bridge to earlier generations and through them to the apostles gave Christian thinkers the confidence to speak boldy and act courageously. They trailed their thought after the lives of others. ... The communion of saints was a living presence in every celebration of the Eucharist. (Robert Louis Wilker, p. 46)

After I read this paragraph, I sat in the dark on the plane and meditated on how in essence I broke bread with historical figures such as Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody, Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Athanasias, the apostles Paul and Peter, and Christ Himself. For almost two thousand years, millions of Christians had celebrated communion in their churches. This passage taught me that we who celebrated communion in the 21st century by drinking grape juice from little plastic cups in air conditioned buildings and those in the first century who drank wine from a wooden cup while hiding from their persecutors in the Catacombs are spiritually in the same body of Christ. In the future, all Christians from all places and all ages will be in the New Jerusalem and will be celebrating the beauty and glory of Christ's salvation of the church by dining with the Author and Perfecter our faith.

At that point, I decided that celebrating communion as a team in Haiti could encourage us in our unity with each other, with our Haitian friends, and our churches at home. I am hoping through providing some context during this devotional time, I can provide this same sense of reverence and unity to the team during this week when we are ministering together that I had when reading that paragraph on the plane.

So next time when you celebrate communion, spend a moment "discerning the body." Consider other believers' needs and pray for them. Pursue unity through love with all believers.

Furthermore, we should live in unity with Christian martyrs in the past by being bold for the gospel in the love of Christ.