We were going to have a guest speaker in Chapel today. Reverend Ed Masters, minister of First Church, was going to talk to us about Communion. We’re hoping to reschedule. Many of us won’t be familiar with this aspect of church life and I’m going to leave it to Rev. Masters to explain more about Communion. But, given our current context, it made me think.

As we heard in the reading (Luke 22:14-19), at a profoundly significant time in his life, Jesus made it a priority to spend time with people. He invited his friends to come and share a meal together. Community mattered to Jesus. When he broke the bread and offered the wine, grape juice in our context, Jesus gave his followers a tangible, physical way to remember him. Our physicality, and our bodies, matter to God. And when God wanted to demonstrate the extent of his love to humanity, God didn’t send an email or set up a video conference. God came to be present with us in the person of Jesus. Now, that’s pretty hard to get your head around. Thoughts about God are sometimes too big to fit into our brains. But it gives us a picture of how much relationship with us matters to God.

As we are in a lockdown, let us remember again the value of community, the value of being physically present, the importance of relationship. These things matter to Jesus and they show us something of God’s love for us.