I just read Mark 8:1-9, where Jesus feeds a crowd of four thousand people with seven small loaves of bread and a few fish. The Message Bible reads:
Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. After giving thanks, he took the seven bread loaves, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples so they could hand them out to the crowd.
One of my favorite times in church while I was growing up was when we would have a Love Feast! It was usually done on Sunday nights and it didn't happen real often.
Some of the women would cut up table bread into one-inch-long strips and cover them with a cloth. After the pastor's message, he would invite people to come forward and get a piece of bread. Then we were to go to one another and "break bread". I would take a small piece of your bread and you would take a small piece of mine. Then, we would exchange some form of brief Christian greeting. If you ran out of bread, you would simply go up front for more. We would be given about fifteen minutes to mingle and try to get to as many people as possible.
Children and youth were involved right along with adults. It had its awkward moments since we didn't always know what to say, but we loved being allowed to eat in church! When the love feast ended, we always made sure we had several pieces of that bread to get us through the rest of the service. ;-)
It was intended, of course, to help us to mend any broken relationships we might have with those in our worshiping community. Occasionally, there would be a very obvious healing of relationship between two people who had been arguing or avoiding one another. These interventions were sometimes dramatic and brought a great sense of joy to the congregation!
Eventually, concerns about passing germs increased and the practice fell into history. However, I continued it in the churches I served by copying a shape of a loaf of bread on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper and having people sign one another's sheet instead of actually breaking bread.
I saw the value of connection that was increased by this practice! Too often people enter and leave worship with little or no interaction with others. How is this the "body of Christ?" I also used it frequently in youth meetings and camps. But, I haven't done so in many years now.
I'm not suggesting we re-introduce this practice; COVID has created a whole new package of fears that now regulate our activity. Even back in the day, I noticed that some people didn't eat the bread that they broke from a person's piece of bread. Instead, they were very subtle about tucking it in the palm of their hand. That's okay. I can understand that kind of caution. At least they participated and didn't scoot out the back door!
All of us have noticed that as a result of COVID, some still don't want to shake hands. Many will stick out a fist to bump instead. Live and adapt, right?
But we must find 21st century ways to maintain and celebrate the community of faith!
I loved Holy Communion Sundays and always tried to make them special for the congregations that I served. We always had people come forward to receive the bread and the cup. They were given an opportunity to kneel at the alter - if they so desired. [Later, we introduced a third point of service at the back of the sanctuary for those who desired to be more discreet.] People were encouraged to greet one another as they stood in line to receive Communion! I used couples or pairs of singles to hold the bread and the cup to heighten the involvement of our parishoners. We tried to always have a few people designated to pray with anyone who had a special need. It was kind of an organized free-for-all, but packed with meaning!
Again, if a church was not too large and if it had an appropriate space, we had fairly frequent 'cover-dish' or 'carry-in' meals! Everyone contributed a food gift proportionate to the size of their family and we would all simply eat together. These were wonderful! Such good food! I always loved them! While in New Middletown, we had a man who made delicious chicken. He would come before daylight to start the fires and then roast enough chicken for the whole church family. We brought all the other stuff. We ate in the picnic shelter. Sometimes we had our whole service outdoors smelling the chicken as we worshipped! Thanks, David Fitch, for your wonderful gift to us! But, again, issues were raised about appropriate preparation, cleanliness and the passing of germs - so this practice too fell by the wayside.
Please understand! These ruminations are not a plea to resurrect these practices; but we do need to find events and forms that bring us together and increase our contact with one another. There's a chorus we often sang to express this:
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