Communion--It finally has meaning for me

My experience with Communion has been less than satisfactory.  Of course, this is probably my problem, and not the church's.  I know that many people are really blessed by Communion, such as my wife.  I am hopeful that my new thoughts about Communion will allow me to be blessed by it as well.

In Baptist churches, which I attended for approximately 35years, we were told to remember Christ's death on the cross and then to "depart (the service) in solemnity."  There was no recognition of the joy or thankfulness that should flow from Communion.  Then, I went to a PCA church where they actually did a good job with Communion.  We had time to contemplate our sins, then we had Communion, then we were told to depart in joyful appreciation for God's mercy towards us.  This Communion actually evoked an emotional response which was Christian--thankfulness.  My third example is from another PCA church where there is constant emphasis on the presence of the Holy Spirit during Communion.  My understanding is that, because I have Christ, the Holy Spirit is always present in me--not just during Communion.  One might think that this emphasis on the presence of the Holy Spirit during Communion is a way of saying that the church is a "holy place" where we get to commune with God.  At the Baptist church where we belonged for so long, there was expressed an idea that the church space was holy.  Of course, according to Christ, this simply isn't true.  When He died, the Temple curtain was torn in two, clearly expressing the idea that there is no longer any special "holy place."  In Second Temple Judaism, the "holy of holies" was reserved for the priest.  This tearing of the curtain was a radical statement that: a)there is no place that is any more holy than any other (if I were designating a holy place it would be the slums of India where Mother Theresa loved the poorest of the poor);  and b)access to God is now direct for everyone, not just the priests.

So, as you can see, out of my many years of church attendance, I've only had a positive (what I deem Christian) experience with Communion for approximately two years at one church.  Accordingly, I've been very skeptical about Communion.  I had reached the conclusion that true Communion is having dinner and drink with my friends (both Christian and non-Christian).  For me, this has been a time to discuss my failings as a human, and the remarkable mercy of Christ.  These actual meals have evoked Christian responses in me of joy and thankfulness.  Again, insofar as churches, this only really happened at one church.  So, am I crazy?  Is Communion for the birds?  What gives?

Yesterday, it struck me that Communion is a profound theological statement on several fronts.  First, Christ is the meal.  In the OT, perfect animals were sacrificed--blood was spilt acknowledging their sin, then the non-edible portions of the animal were burned evincing man's atonement with God, and finally the people ate the rest of the food as a communal meal with God.  But, instead of an animal, Christ is the meal.  Remember that the early Christians were accused of cannibalism, because of this unique teaching.  So, this idea is truly radical--God is the meal.  God is our sufficiency.  God sustains us as food sustains us.  Without food, we die.  Without God, we are already dead.  God so cares for us that He denigrated himself to become our meal.  God made Himself lowly, rather than elevating Himself, which appears antithetical to the First Commandment.

Second, a human, Jesus, was sacrificed, not a mere animal.  This was contrary to God's admonition that we should not kill.  In OT times, many religions practiced human sacrifice in order to appease the gods.  If spilling animal blood was good, then the spilling of human blood must be better.  Of course, God made it absolutely clear to Abraham that He was different from other gods in this respect.  As Abraham was preparing to sacrifice Isaac, God provided the ram for the sacrifice, demonstrating to Abraham that the shedding of human blood was undesirable, not efficacious.  Then, Jesus came and allowed Himself to be sacrificed.  So, this God who abhorred human sacrifice sent His own son to be sacrificed--God caused a human to be sacrificed!  Again, this is antithetical to the Ten Commandments.  What an expression of love!

Third, the sacrificial system did not make man right with God, but reminded man that God was gracious towards man in his sinfulness.  But this reminder never seemed to stick with mankind.  God's chosen people would worship God in thankfulness for what He had done.  Then, they would quickly forget His grace and seek other gods.  This straying from God is repeated time and time again in the OT.  (Of course, I'm not much different, in terms of how I forget God's grace.)  In sending Jesus to the Cross, God gave us an emphatic statement about the sinfulness of man (that we would crucify a perfect man) and the boundless mercy of God towards sinful man.  So, we can never again wonder about whether God's disposition towards mankind is gracious...mankind can never forget.  Jesus went the whole way, not just the extra mile, but the extra infinite miles, in making man right with God.  

I hope this is helpful for any of you who might be having issues with Communion as well as for any of you who are already blessed by Communion.