holy communion, part 1: origins and history
Communion goes back to the very beginning of the Church and even before!
We've begun a series on the Sacraments of the church. Read the introduction here, and a little detour about what the Sacraments have to do with the heresy of Gnosticism here.
The spaceship gently touched down on the rocky surface. The pilot smiled at his commander, who relayed the news back to mission control. The two space travelers would spend the next two hours shutting down the vehicle after it's historic flight, checking computer systems, and confirming that everything was working properly. Once all of that was settled, the pilot had something important to tend to, himself. "I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way."1
For Buzz Aldrin, an appropriate way to give thanks in this moment had been a subject of much thought and conversation over the previous weeks. Aldrin and his pastor had come up with a simple but powerful solution. Buzz pulled out two little plastic packages: one containing a small white wafer, familiar to most modern churchgoers, and the other containing a mouthful or so of wine. He poured the wine into a small silver chalice that his church had given to him for the solemn occasion. "In the one-sixth gravity of the moon," Aldrin later wrote, "the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup." Just before he took the elements, he read aloud a verse, specially chosen to signify what the Apollo 11 adventure meant to him and the many other believers who had worked on the project:
"I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.”
John 15:5 (TEV)
Aldrin chose the verse, he said, because it signified that even in the exploration of outer space he and his fellow believers were acting in Christ. "It was interesting to think," the astronaut later recounted, "that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were the communion elements."2
Communion is, in my opinion, the most powerful tradition we have in the church. It represents one of the great, miraculous events in the life of Christ, his death as the sacrificial lamb for our salvation. And Jesus himself gave us holy communion as a way to remember his sacrifice and participate in his life. Just as for Buzz when he took communion on the moon, every time we take it, we are reminded that whatever we are doing, big or small, we are doing it as a part of the body of Christ, as a branch of the vine.
But communion is one of those traditions that varies within the church both in how it is done and in how different churches view it. Let's start by exploring where the ancient ritual came from.
origins of communion
passover
Most of us familiar with the basic teachings of the church have heard the story of how communion was first instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper. And, of course, the Last Supper took place as a celebration of the Jewish feast of Passover, specifically a dinner known in modern times as the Passover Seder. Perhaps in the future, we can do a deep dive into the Passover Seder and all of the ways that the Jewish tradition points to Christ, but for now, let's just make sure that we know the basics.
Central to Jewish identity, in both ancient and modern times, is the Exodus: the miraculous escape of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. In the last of a series of plagues, every firstborn in Egypt, from the Pharaoh's son to the lowliest calf in the pastures, died in a single night. The only children spared were those in Israelite homes, where the people had been commanded to sacrifice a lamb in the child's place. By the blood of that lamb, sprinkled on the doorpost of the home, the child was saved from death, and the family spared from the most horrific grief a parent can imagine. God commanded them thereafter to remember this deliverance by celebrating the Passover.3
the Lord's supper
While celebrating this meal with his disciples, hours before he would become the sacrificial lamb, he instituted holy communion by giving them the bread and wine as his body and blood, and imploring them to "do this in remembrance of me."4 Ever since then, Christians have broke bread together, both in the sense of eating meals together and participating in the more ritualized holy communion. The two events were ultimately separated completely, because participants sometimes got a bit too rowdy during the feasting portion.5
communion as a rite
Although communion began as a full meal, it was always a solemn, liturgical ceremony, or rite. Even during the Passover dinner, the meal itself sits between two more solemn, ceremonial portions of the event that also include eating and drinking. When Jesus instituted holy communion, it was during one of these ceremonial moments.
As the rite developed, Apostles, bishops, and priests carried on the practice of blessing the elements of bread and wine just as Jesus had, before giving them to the people. As early as A.D. 150, a church leader known as Justin Martyr described the communion service.6 After readings from "the memoirs of the apostles" and the Old Testament prophets, the church leader would preach a sermon, followed by prayer and "the kiss of peace."
Bread and wine (mixed with water) were brought to him, and he prayed a blessing over them. The elements were then distributed to the people by deacons. The people didn't take the elements as ordinary food meant to satisfy hunger. They received it as the flesh and blood of Christ. Afterwards, pieces of the bread would be taken to the sick and imprisoned.7
This ceremony was held every Sunday, and Christians made sure to be there every week they possibly could, despite the potential risk of imprisonment or death!8
Communion held a special place in the life of the early church, and it has continued to be an important part of church to this day. But the way communion is practiced and the beliefs that surround it vary from tradition to tradition.
Next time, we'll take a look at the different beliefs and practices of holy communion, as well as the significance of it as a unifying force in the church.
Buzz Aldrin, “Guideposts Classics: When Buzz Aldrin Took Communion on the Moon.” Guideposts. July 10, 2014 (Originally published October 1970). https://guideposts.org/positive-living/health-and-wellness/life-advice/finding-life-purpose/guideposts-classics-when-buzz-aldrin-took-communion-on-the-moon/.
Derek DeMars, "Shouldn't Communion Be a Full Meal?"
in an attempt to convince pagans that Christians weren't practicing black magic. Pagans thought they were really weird.
Henry Chadwick, The Early Church, (Penguin Books, 1993), 261-62.
If only we took it as seriously today!