[Oe List ...] Salmon's Response on Holy Communion

[William Salmon]

    Mark Dove's description of Holy Communion brought to mind the definition we frequently used on Sunday evening Common Meal. It is summarized as follows: 
    Our Mothers and Fathers of Faith (surrender) were wise people.They knew that our bodies new two things to 
survive. We need food and we need water.  
    First, our bodies need bread. Experts tell us that we can live without food for approximately 40 days. Jesus is said to have fasted a symbolic forty days in the wilderness--another nifty metaphor for living. It is remembered that the Mahatma Ghandi fasted that long to end the Muslim/Hindu war that resulted in the partition of India and Pakistan.
    Second, our bodies need moisture. Our brains are 96% water. Experts tells us that we can survive about 7 days without water. This is one reason we all need to have our Medical decisions made known for how we wish to be sustained or allowed to die. 
    Consequently, our wise Moms and Pops took bread, the Staff of Life and broke it. This was their way of reminding us that all life comes to us broken. However, it is when we remember that our brokenness is not our enemy, it is the relationship we take to our brokenness that can be our enemy. In fact, if we take part of our brokenness and we put it into our mouth and swallow it; that is if we decide to wrap our bodies around it then the brokenness is no longer our enemy, but it becomes the way to NOURISH our bodies and to make them stronger.
    Now, if this is my experience, then it can also be the experience of my neighbor. I can ask them to eat of their brokenness and they also will be nourished. 
    In like manner, we need moisture. It is said that our brains are 96% water. Unless we have our daily eight glasses then we live dehydrated; I know what I'm talking about as this is a personal confession. Is this lack water an enemy to be destroyed? No, our need for water is just The Way Life Is (TWLI). 
    What our Mom's and Pops of Faith (surrender) knew that our lives are expended. At birth we are given all of the life we'll ever have to use. >From this moment on our life is on a downward esculator until one day our cup runs dry; can be considered, "Good to the last drop?" (This can be illustrated very dramatically.)
    Consequently, we use the empty cup to ask if it is our enemy? Their answer is that the empty cup is the fate of all things, but it is our relationship to the emptiness that can defeat us or refresh us. 
    It is when we decide to take into our mouths the poured-out-ness of life, and that we wrap our bodies around it, then a miracle occurs; the poured-out-ness REFRESHES us. 
    The secret is that if this is my experience it also can be the experience of my neighbor. I can ask that my neighbor take into their bodies the poured-out-ness of their lives, and when they do they likewise will be REFRESHED. 
    Does any of this sound familiar? Do you remember that on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and did what?  He broke it and gave it to his disciples and asked them to eat of the brokenness of their lives, just as he would soon eat of the brokenness of his. 
    Then, after supper he took the cup and did what? He spilled it and gave it to his disciples and asked them to drink of the expenditure of their lives, just as he would soon intentionally give up the expenditure of his. 
    Why did the disciples respond so readily? Is it recorded anywhere in the New Testament that one of the disciples said, "Yech! What is this cannibalism?" Why didn't this happen?
    The reason is that the disciples knew exactly what was taking place. For nearly 2,000 years they had been participating in this covenant-ritual that reminded them:
    All Life Is Broken, and it is this brokenness that can nourish us; that
    All Life is poured out, and it is this poured-out-ness that can refresh us. 
    As I chose to participate in this symbolic event so that my life can be nourished and refreshed, you are invited to participate so that your life, likewise, is nourished and refreshed. 
    Let us eat and drink! Salud, Shoal, Drink Up, etc. 
    Inner Peace, 
        Pastor Bill Salmon
PS: Interestingly, I have a similar statement that pulls this covenantal symble through the Blood Covenant of David and Jonathan. I'll leave that for another time. 
    BS
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