What Does this Mean?

I am reminded of the story of the little seven-year-old girl who, instead of going to Children’s Church, stayed with her parents in the regular adult service on week. It just happened to be Communion Sunday that day, and when the communion was served, the little girl was quite surprised. As the elements were distributed, she quickly turned to her mother and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, “The snack in children’s church is much better. And we get a lot more juice!”

The church that I grew up in only on rare occasions had communion – usually only once or twice a year. There are other churches that observe communion every single Sunday. Our tradition at WFA is having communion once a month, and this Sunday is when we have communion for this month.

When you have communion very infrequently, it can lead to a lack of any real knowledge about what communion is. But when you have it quite often, communion can become so commonplace that it can lose all meaning whatsoever, becoming nothing but a ritual.

In Exodus 12:26-27, we read “And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?‘ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD.’” The ceremony was not to become a meaningless ritual – its meaning was to be communicated, from one generation to the next. Knowing what the communion means is important. Proverbs 4:13 tells us to “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”

This Sunday, as we observe communion together, we will look to at the memorial of the Lord’s Supper, and answer the question “What Does This Mean.”