Of Bread and Books

I followed Agnes to Bandar Sunway Gospel Center for Sunday service today. Brethren churches conduct the Holy Communion every Sunday, and I decided to participate, even though I’m not a Brethren. The elder said nothing about Christians from other churches not being able to participate either. I broke a piece of the bread that was being passed around and held it in my hands. During communion, I would usually meditate (or at least try to) on Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. This time though, as I stared at the piece of bread held in my hand, my thoughts wandered off.

I thought about the other Christians who would be participating in the same sacrament today; the Catholics, Brethren and other Christians from other denominations that would be eating from the same loaf and the same cup. I thought about all the churches in Malaysia and in the World. When I eat of the bread and drink of the cup, I will not only be participating in the Holy Communion here. I participate in a communion that encompasses all Christian brothers and sisters of mine who choose to remember Jesus in this way, regardless of whether we believe in transubstantiation or not. Suddenly, I felt the magnitude and enormity of this little sacrament.

My mind continued its wanderings, and it drifted back into time. I thought about all the saints in history who have also participated in this Holy sacrament. I can imagine them eating the bread and drinking the wine even now together with us here in Bandar Sunway Gospel center. I thought of John Wesley; Emperor Constantine; the friars, monks and nuns in their monasteries on mountain slopes. I thought of the Crusaders in their robes and armor; St. Augustine; the early Christians who were about to be thrown to the lions. I thought about St. Paul, St. John, St. Peter; James the brother of Jesus. These are the saints in whose blessed company we eat the bread and drink the wine of communion! What company! I couldn’t hold back feelings of awe and blessedness! Then my mind came to rest in a dark room. In it, Jesus was passing around unleavened bread to his disciples. And then I thought about the countless poor who also partake of the communion of Christ; the suffering ones; the hungry, the diseased, the homeless, fatherless, motherless and childless; the dying and the crying all over the world now and in ages past. They are part of God’s family as well. They eat from the same loaf. They drink from the same cup. God includes them.

By now, I had already taken the bread. I was holding the cup of grape juice in my hand. They were going to collect it so I quickly gulped it down and put the cup in the container that was being passed around. Now I think I understand why the early church fathers called it ‘Holy Communion’.

After service, I followed the church to Shah Alam for a family day tour of the Hi-5 bread factory. I found the trip quite educational. We listened to a little bit of history of bread-making, and we each got a loaf of bread as well! I loved the fragrance of bread that filled the walkways and exhibits. I couldn’t resist making cheeky remarks to some of the church members about Hi-5 sponsoring their church communion bread. Ha ha…

I have to admit it. I am a bookworm! I love reading. I am obsessed with books! Every month, I budget RM200 to be used for book purchasing. So as my salary arrives each month, one of the first things that I do will be to get to a bookstore and spend that money! I will have eyed a few books by then, checked out reviews on www.amazon.com and have a few books in mind already. Somehow, I always manage to finish reading those books just in time for the next payroll. This time though, I have still to finish ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’; two more chapters to go. Nevertheless, I went to Borders to get some books that I have been eyeing for the past month.

I got ‘History of Christian Thought’ by Jonathan Hill. I hope that it will give me a picture of how Christian ideas and theology developed through the ages. I secretly hope that it will also help me to see how the concepts of original sin, salvation and the gospel came to be and changed throughout history. I also bought N. T. Wright’s ‘For all the Saints? : Remembering the Christian Departed’, to see what he has to say about the afterlife, since McLaren and co. always reference him. I wanted to learn more about St. Francis and this patron saint of nature, so I decided to get a biography. Of all the biographies that I could find about him, I picked the one by G. K. Chesterton, one of the most respected and well known Christian thinkers of the century. The final book that I chose was ‘Mother Theresa: In my Own Words’. In Mother Theresa, we have one of the greatest examples of what it means to be a ‘Missional’ Christian not only in words and thoughts but in deeds as well. I hope that her words and stories will spur me to at least do more for the people around me, even though I may not be even a fraction of what she was to those around her. In total, the four books cost me RM194. Am I crazy?