From 3/28/2022…..
Do not be anxious about anything, for I care for you……. I felt the love of Christ wrap around and embrace me as I took communion last night among my brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the Presence, power, and security of abiding in Him. I felt, too, the love of my husband, Bill, with whom I had shared in communion and the abiding of Christ with us for 48 years. I had written about the experience of meeting Christ in the moment of receiving the elements last night while still sitting in the parking lot after this Holy Week Communion Service.#HolyWeek
“Tonight we gathered at Lynn Haven UMC for a Service of Holy Communion. I always come expecting that I might hear from the Lord in such worship. Tonight was no exception. In fact, it was more precious than I had expected. Our congregation received the bread and juice by intinction for the first time since our post- hurricane season of weekly communion during nearly 18 months of meeting in a school gym, having lost our Transmitter Rd. campus entirely and the Minnesota Av. campus closed for extended repairs. Intinction is the practice of receiving a small piece of bread and dipping it into the cup of juice as we hear from those serving us these words spoken,”the body of Christ broken for you… the blood of Christ poured out for you.” As I prepared to join the line I suddenly remembered that the last time I had communion in this manner was with Bill in our home during the early days of COVID when churches had fallen empty and worship was online….. Bill and I served one another in our home during broadcast services. Many times he and I had served the elements together in worship services through the years as communion stewards. This realization of my last communion in this manner brought a sweet flood of tears and thanks that I am able to return tonight to this special means of grace instead of the more cautious, sterile and solitary small plastic cups that have marked our communion liturgy from the time of renewed in-person services which was just a few weeks before Bill’s death. Every time I enter the restored Minnesota Av. campus I can see Bill in my mind’s eye where he stood towering above those around him, swaying slightly to the music and singing along….. I was undone as I took the bread and juice, and after taking them, I knelt in prayer, tears flowing…. tears of love, grief and yet gratitude for Christ meeting me in that moment to remind me how precious those times of communion were in the years past …as is this renewal of our holy practice done in remembrance of Christ. Below neighbors of ours from the lake, Larry and Jane Bolinger serve communion, just as we all did together many times.”
