Celebrating communion builds the body of Christ and emphasizes our equality before God.
Does our celebration reflect this? Do we invite those who take part into fellowship with believers around the world of all races, all social classes, all ages, genders?
Does the liturgy not only remember Christ's death but also point forward to the eternal feast in heaven where there will be no more injustice? Does it challenge us to remember those who desperately await that future feast?
Consider this litany, which remembers the forgotten in the world and expands the communion service into a service of healing for all nations:
Lord God, as we come to share the richness of your table, we cannot forget the rawness of the earth. We cannot take bread and forget those who are hungry. Your world is one world and we are stewards of its nourishment.
Lord, put our fullness at the service of the poor.
We cannot take wine and forget those who are thirsty. The ground and the rootless, the earth and its weary people cry out for justice.
Lord, put our fullness at the service of the empty.
We cannot hear your words of peace and forget the world at war or, if not at war, then preparing for it.
Show us quickly, Lord, how to turn weapons into welcome signs and the lust for power into a desire for peace.
We cannot celebrate the feast of your family and forget our divisions. We are one in spirit, but not in fact. History and hurt still dismember us.
Lord, heal your church in every brokenness.
–A Wee Worship Book, pp. 98-99
©1999, by WGRG The Iona Community (Scotland). Used by permission of GIA Publications, Inc.
The song "God Bless to Us Our Bread" (Love and Anger) simply asks for bread for the hungry and a hunger for justice for those who are fed. It subtly shifts the scope of communion to include people we might otherwise forget.
