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

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Thank you. Wouldn't it be great if this could be included in the UMC  
Discipline? In all denominational symbolic liturgy?

On Dec 17, 2009, at 5:11 PM, William Salmon wrote:

>     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  
> thebrokenness 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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