Celebrating the Future Hope Now in Every Communion

In his very dense book Looking East in Winter, Archbishop Rowan Williams points out that the Orthodox Church experiences communion with a different perspective than those of us in the Western Church—both Catholic and Protestant. We in the West tend to celebrate the past: what Christ did that night around the table with his disciples as he said, “Remember me when you break this bread and drink this wine.” As Rowan says, communion is “turned into a backward-looking action, understood not as an anticipation of the consummated future (emphasis mine) but as a repetition of the saving past.”

Better understood, when we share communion, we are teleported side by side into that great future reality where Christ is all and in all, as Christ brings all of creation back into oneness with God. There is no more suffering; there are no more tears or pain. This reality was inaugurated by Christ’s death and resurrection, where all powers—including death—were brought under Christ’s control. That is the future reality we can experience and rejoice in every time we share together the bread and the cup. This is our confident hope—something I know is running in short supply for many.

Amplifying our communion and our communal hope Sunday will be our Minister of Youth, Sarah Henson, and the “fresh voices” of our youth as they witness, in a variety of ways, the hope they saw and manifested in their travels this summer. I am excited to be at table with them and with you as, together, we anticipate our consummated future with Christ, our eternal hope—NOW.

Yours in Christ,

Lead Pastor
Matt Gaston