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Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?\xa0 And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)

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This Sunday we\u2019ll be participating in the Lord\u2019s Supper, and so today is an opportunity to prepare for it.

Sacraments are deeply communal practices\u2014not just the Lord\u2019s Supper, but baptism too.\xa0 We are baptized into a community where vows are made about us and by us.\xa0 In the Lord\u2019s Supper we express our unity as a community as we participate in Christ and partake of one loaf.\xa0

Why this communal nature of the sacraments?\xa0 In short, God has created, called, and redeemed us to live in community.\xa0 We are not isolated individuals.\xa0 As God looked out at the good Creation, he noted that \u201cit is not good for the man [or woman] to be alone.\u201d\xa0 So community is part of the fabric of the grace that we have received from the beginning of creation and still today in Christ.\xa0 These means of grace tell us the same thing tangibly so that all our five senses can meet this grace of being reconciled to the community of Christ, not just our heads.\xa0

Together as this community\u2014this body of Christ\u2014we can walk along rejoicing, comforting, and binding up one another\u2019s wounds.\xa0 Together we can continue to learn and grow and be built up in our faith and in maturity.\xa0 Together we live out our baptismal vows to nourish the faith, support, encourage, and pray for those baptized into the Christian community, and in turn, where those things are done for us.\xa0 In this way, the community serves as a concrete expression and experience of God\u2019s own care and love for us, His people.\xa0

And yet, it\u2019s really hard to see and live that communal, body-of-Christ reality right now when a quarter of the congregation participates in the Lord\u2019s Supper at church all spread out and masked and the other three quarters participate on their own scattered about in homes across the area.\xa0

Yet, the Supper reminds us that despite the very practical, physical barriers that divide us from one another, we remain united in Christ.\xa0 The Supper reminds us that Christ can and still does meet us where we are as we participate not just in some bread and juice, but quite tangibly in the body and life of Christ.\xa0 Not only that, but the Supper nourishes our body and soul for the challenges of living faithfully according to who we are in Christ: a community.

We continue to be the hands and feet of Christ who minister to one another, even while scattered, even while separated.\xa0 We do it through phone calls and cards, through meals and porch visits, through video chats and prayers.\xa0 Maybe you\u2019ve done it in other ways too or can imagine some new ones.

In any case, as we approach the table this Sunday, may our tangible participation in the one body of Christ nourish us for the challenges of being that body in Christ tangibly together in these times.\xa0

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