Larry and I grew up in a faith tradition that usually does not allow children who are not baptized or "members" of the church to take part in communion/the Lord's Supper.
That perspective changed for me Christmas Eve of 2007 when we participated in the Christmas Eve service at Court Street United Methodist Church. Emori was turning 4 yrs old and wanted to walk up with me when it was my turn to take Communion. I told her she wouldn't be able to take it, but she could walk with me. When it was our turn, Bruce Case (Court Street's pastor and one of our favorite friends:) knelt down and told Emori that this bread and drink represented Jesus and said some other really beautiful things as he invited her to participate in Communion. I thought, why don't we let kids participate?...that's crazy that we don't. It really was a beautiful moment for me as a mother.
Our children participated in Communion last Easter during our Family Experience time for our preschoolers at our church, but I decided that they should come into the service with the adults when we take Communion one week. They had not been present during the service, but Larry and I slipped out when Communion began and brought Emori and Aubri in. Now I realize I should have prepped Aubri better. This is how it went:
Aubri took a piece of the bread and I helped her dip it in the cup. As she opened her lips to put the grape juice soaked bread into her mouth, the person holding the cup said, "This is the blood of Christ shed for you". She jerked the bread away from her mouth, made an awful face and said, "Ew, I don't wike it" as she shoved it my way:)HA! I don't blame her:) At least I know now she wouldn't put "blood" in her mouth:) ha.
Oh well, we'll explain it better next time...or just stick to Communion during the children's Bible story time.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing about Emori and Aubri's communion experiences. One of the things that I loved about pastoring a Methodist church was its openness and inclusion of children. When I gave the bread to children, I always said, "Jesus loves you," rather than "The body of Christ."
We used in tincture as does your Methodist friends in Hattiesburg. Once when my Catholic stepdaughter Katie visited and took communion she did not notice that no one was drinking from the cup. She took the bread and put it in her mouth and then moved to the cup. The communion minister stood before her with the cup confused because Katie was “breadless.” Katie reached for the cup thinking that she would drink the wine, which was of course was grape juice; the minister held on to the cup. After a brief tug-of-war over the communion cup Katie returned to her seat confused. From that day on, I explained how we take communion each. I also explained who was invited -- everyone. Communion is a visible, tangible, external, internal means of grace that impacted the taker at whatever level of faith that he/she has that day, and opens the door for much more.
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