1 Corinthians 11 23 I received a tradition from the Lord, which I also handed on to you: on the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. 24 After giving thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this to remember me.” 25 He did the same thing with the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Every time you drink it, do this to remember me.” 26 Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you broadcast the death of the Lord until he comes.
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Today I stood around the Communion Table with the group gathered for our regular Thursday chapel service on campus. On our journey to the Eucharist table, we stopped by the Baptismal font to wash each other’s hands. It was beautiful, but scary. This week, one of the five-year-olds in our community, Caroline expressed the fear that I think many of us felt. She didn’t want to walk up to the front to the Baptismal font on her own and she didn’t seem to be a big fan of the idea of anyone washing her hands. She had hesitations and she voiced them. I respect her for that. I also respect the fact that once the hand washing was over, she had no problem rejoining the activities of the gathered body. She took her place in the circle around the communion table. She sang with us, she shared the Eucharist with us, and she prayed with us.
As we recited the Lord’s Prayer (the Presbyterian version, not the Ecumenical one that I have heard this same brilliant child express her issues with…mainly the fact that is not the one she knows by heart), I could hear Caroline’s voice over everyone else’s. She said the words that she had learned with all the confidence in the world. She knew the words, she knew where the pauses went and the cadence of this often heard and recited poetry. It was a tradition that her parents and all of the rest of us adults who love her have handed down to her. In church, in Sunday School, before meals, at bedtime, she has learned and practiced this tradition. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day she is overheard teaching this prayer to her stuffed animals or other children in her life.
Passing on traditions happens in many ways. It happens when we play, study, work together, and when we gather together to worship and to share fellowship around our traditions and the Lord’s table. On this Holy Day, we remember how our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gathered around the table with his disciples. They were gathered to celebrate a tradition that they had been taught. They gathered to celebrate the Passover and as they gathered, they shared a meal and a time of fellowship that would become an important moment in the Christian tradition.
In our lectionary passage from Corinthians, the story of this meal is shared one more time. We are told about Jesus’ words and actions as he teaches his disciples basic truths God by breaking bread and pouring wine. Just as Caroline will have her whole life to learn what the words of the songs, prayers, and actions of our church mean to her faith and how she lives her life, we are all reminded in this text to keep the tradition of the Eucharist and by remembering and teaching, to broadcast what we believe and about who and whose we are as children of God.
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Beth Olker is 2nd year MDiv student at Union. She is a graduate of Presbyterian College and spent a year before beginning seminary as a Young Adult Volunteer in Nashville, Tennessee.
Who Is My Neighbor? 