Happy Meals

The small church I have been serving at this summer is part of an ecumenical association with three other Protestant churches. The last Sunday of July they always gather as one worshipping community at a local park for a joint service. So yesterday was Worship in the Park. It was a glorious day; sunny, bright blue sky, billowy clouds and just the perfect breeze to keep you from getting too warm if you were sitting along side the pavilion rather than in it. One church always provides the musicians and another church provides the children's message. The sermon has been a joint effort from all the pastors the last couple of years.

So we gathered in the sunshine, we sang an opening hymn, and then it was time for the children to come up front for a message created just for them. And we all got to hear about Happy Meals; you know, that wonderful invention from McDonald's that is a McBalanced meal of burger/fries/soda and is topped off with a toy....or prize as yesterday's crowd declared. They talked about the fact that the toy usually ends up broken before the day is out, and the meal doesn't keep your tummy satisfied much longer. But it is still a meal that makes most kids happy.

I'm sure you can see where this clever Director of Christian Education was going! We Christians have our own Happy Meal! Our own meal, created and balanced just for us. But one that satisfies all forever. The hymn Gift of Finest Wheat started playing in my brain . . . do you know that one?

You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat, come give to us oh saving Lord the bread of Life to eat.
As when the shepherd calls his sheep, they know and head his voice; so when you call your family Lord, we follow and rejoice.
With joyful lips we sing to you our praise and gratitude, that you should count us worthy Lord to share this heavenly food.
The mystery of your presence Lord, no mortal tongue can tell; whom all the world cannot contain comes in our hearts to dwell.
You give yourself to us oh Lord, then selfless let us be; to serve each other in your Name in truth and charity.

Yes indeed, our own Christian Happy Meal. It was a wonderful morning to reflect upon this amazing gift to us. After we had heard The Word, the feeding of the 5000 according to John, each pastor took a few minutes to reflect upon one person's perspective from this story. And then the feasting began!

We were cleverly divided into four groups, so that you would dine at the table of the Lord with others from this ecumenical gathering, not just your own friends and congregants. Four tables, four sets of communion ware, four pastors distributing the meal. And I kept thinking about the fact that this is one of those miracle stories that is told in all four gospels. I love 'complete' images and ideas like that; so hard to miss God in that perfection!

Communion, Eucharist, Lord's Supper....whatever we call it, this miracle can be so hard to understand. What does it mean? What actually happens when we eat this meal? Why did Jesus leave us this gift? What is this sacrament, really?? I have lived in almost polar opposite traditions when it comes to trying to answer any of these questions. Catholics with their mysticism and transubstantiation (try to define that one!) and Presbyterians with their symbolism and yet also a real presence (what does that mean??). Add in all the arguing that has gone on for centuries over this issue and one can begin to get suspicious that any true unity lies within. We seem, once again, to have taken a gift from God, chewed on it, analyzed it, scrutinized it, and of course anthropormorphized it to death, almost literally in this case.

I really had to make peace with this one when I made the move from Catholicism to Presbyterianism. I can still recall the horror that crossed my being when I first witnessed a wonderful Presbyterian minister 'disposing' of the uneaten bread by scattering it for the birds in the back garden. My Catholic heart skipped at least three beats while the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. Let's not even talk about the time I saw someone drop a rather large piece of communion bread on the floor of the sanctuary. I sat in my pew in suspended time, praying each communicant would careful avoid stepping on it. Ah, the challenges of leaving one tradition behind for a new one! But I loved these people that I observed caring for communion in such a different manner. More importantly, I knew God loved them. And I knew that whatever Holy Communion was really about, at the bottom of it all lay God's love for us and desire to gift us with something very special.

And so I decided none of this mattered at all; transubstantiation, consubstantiation, real presence, symbolism, memory. Whatever the 'truth' is about Communion, that is for God to know and me not to puzzle over. The mystery of your presence Lord, no human tongue can tell. My role is to come to the table and accept the gift. My job is to eat the meal and know that something special and unifiying happens at this table. Has happened for centuries. Will continue to happen. I am healed at this table. I am made whole in a new way. I am filled with grace to continue the journey.

Happy Meals, complete with a prize!