Constant Communion

[Carl Thomas Gladstone]

::The Conversation::                              September 17, 2006 As a kid I remember being pulled out of Sunday School about once a month to go into the sanctuary at the end of the service.  My mom and dad would take me down front and I would grab some bread and juice. I doubt very much if I had any great realization about what I was doing back then during those celebrations of Holy Communion.  Mostly it was what everyone else was doing - getting in line, going down front.  There was always music playing, some that we sung along with, some that we just listened to.  And there was a certain excitement about doing something other than being quiet and listening in worship.  I remember feeling like these were the real Sundays - the Sunday's where something happened. If Baptism is that initiatory sacrament in our churches, then Communion is the sacrament of sustainance.  Wesley suggested that there is a "duty of constant communion," a necessity to celebrate this great thankful celebration as much as possible because God's grace is just that amazing!  Even a person, we believe, coming down the aisle with an unrepentant heart could in the act of celebrating Communion be transformed by this means of grace toward a holy life. As kids, maybe we are more apt to see the community of communion (those people around us in church) more than the act's connection to the person of Jesus Christ.  But aren't both transformative means of grace?  Don't we pray that in communion we will be "one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world?" I'm glad I was given an early start on such a sustaining grace. Carl Subscribe to the PODCAST! FEATURED LINK UMC Communion Study GATHER the EMERGE community Royal Oak Friends in Faith YAFF: Rochester Newburg YA Fellowship Wesley Foundation UofM GROW The Wesley Project 3rd Testament Project Soulstretch GO The NOAH Proj. Cass Community Baldwin Center Sierra Service Project City Year: Detroit Project Transformation PT: Oklahoma PT: Virginia Peace Corps Jesuit Volunteer Corps READ  1st CORINTHIANS 10:17  Remembering Jesus and re-membering the body of Christ in Communion are two simultaneously occuring components in Holy Communion.  How do you feel knowing that around the world billions of other human beings are celebrating this same central ritual to our faith?  What seems possible in light of this that doesn't otherwise?

Upcoming Events Information Thursday, September 21 Emerge Community Worship/Coffeehouse, 8 PM Worship * Concerts * BibleStudies/Trips *

*For those new to this email list - each Thursday I send an e-message to students and young adults connected with BHAM First UMC, and with the developing EMERGE worship community for young adults.  These emails are meant to stay in touch with you, encourage you in your Christian journey, and pose some faith-filled questions that might spark some email correspondence.  If you have any questions about this list, just drop me an email at the address above. Peace.

carl thomas gladstone | deacon, first umc, birmingham, mi | 248.646.1200 | cglad...@fumcbirmingham.org