In the Fear of God

I am not sure how it came to me, but it did.  It came when I was still a boy about to become a teenager.  Seeing it again on a table beside a reading chair brought back the memory.  It was a nicely bound volume of "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A Kempis.  I really did not know anything about the writer back in those early years, but what he wrote kept me returning to its pages.  One word within the writing I read years and years into my ministry as a part of my preparation to serve Holy Communion.  On Saturday night before a Communion Sunday, I would go to its pages and read, "If you had the purity of an angel and the holiness of St. John the Baptist, you would not be worthy to receive or to touch this holy Sacrament.  No human being has merited to be able to consecrate and touch the Sacrament of Christ."    

It was a word which always put things in perspective.  It said something important about being the one who served the holy meal and it also reminded me that doing so was something to be done reverently and in the fear of God.  In other words, it was not something to approach casually.  It grieves me deeply when it seems that the Holy Meal is offered in a way that feels like an after thought, or an obligation.  I have had moments of wanting to leave when the ritual was read so fast that no one had time to really ponder the words.  When a congregation does not want to take the time to enter into unhurried moments of sharing the meal, it surely is more the fault of the priest or the preacher or the spiritual leader who takes too lightly a holy responsibility.   

Sometimes worship which includes the sharing of the Sacrament cannot be boxed in a one hour time frame.  Sometimes it is going to spill over and when it does no one should shake their watch in the air.  Communion is about the Son of God dying for our sake.  It is about Jesus giving up blood and air to deliver us from our sins.  It is a moment which is entitled to all the reverence we can give to it.  It should never be about seeing how fast we can get through with it so folks can get home.