"Ground of our communion this"

Three years ago, I started this blog as a way of communicating with my congregation while I was on sabbatical, and since I was heading to England to "wallow in Wesley," I gave it the unimaginative name "Travels With Wesley." The picture here is of the tree-lined walkway to St. Andrew's parish church in Epworth where Samuel Wesley was the rector for nearly four decades and where most of the Wesley children, including John and Charles were baptized and received their first communion. Here in Epworth, Susanna prayerfully educated her children in the things of God, and here the seeds that grew into Wesleyan Methodism were sown. How grateful I am for that!

Sometimes I find great comfort in the words of a letter or sermon or hymn from the pen of one of the Wesleys, and sometimes I am challenged, provoked, awakened.  I recently ran across a VERY long hymn in six parts written by Charles Wesley in 1740, a hymn that made me think and ponder the changes taking place in the Church as a result of Covid-19. I won't reproduce the entire thing here, but let me share a few key stanzas.

During the pandemic, every aspect of life has changed, including the ways the Church operates. Ministers have scrambled to provide leadership using technology for preaching, carrying out administrative tasks, and providing pastoral care. Many of us grieve the necessity of fasting from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, feeling that online communion is not theologically sound, while others feel it a necessity in these corona-times. Without engaging in an argument, I want to point out some words that spoke to my heart today as I meditated on this hymn and especially as it relates to the sacrament.

Father, Son, and Spirit hear

Faith's effectual, fervent prayer,

Hear, and our petitions seal,

Let us now the answer feel.

Mystically one with thee,

Transcript of the Trinity,

Thee let all our nature own,

One in three and three in one.

If we now begin to be

Partners with thy saints and thee,

If we have our sins forgiven,

Fellow-citizens of heaven,

Still the fellowship increase,

Knit us in the bond of peace,

Join, our newborn spirits join

Each to each, and all to thine.

Build us in one body up,

Called in one high calling's hope;

One the Spirit whom we claim,

One the pure baptismal flame,

One the faith, and common Lord,

One the Father lives, adored,

Over, through, and in us all,

God incomprehensible!

One with God, the Source of bliss,

Ground of our communion this;

Life of all that live below,

Let thine emanations flow.

These are words of communion, of relationship, of togetherness. Just as God is mysteriously three in one and one in three, bound together as Father, Son, and Spirit, so are we, the baptized, bound together in one body, one Spirit, one faith, and one Lord.  Charles boldly declares that we are "One with God, the Source of bliss, Ground of our communion this"-- words that resonate with me in their insistence that it is the communal oneness of God with us that is the ground and source and root of our communion. It is precisely that fellowship, that union, that is the proper setting and locus for the sacrament. What will that look like when we are able to gather but must observe stricter hygiene and health regulations? I don't know, but I deeply long for us to be physically present with each other to share the bread and cup in community, looking at our neighbors, bending our hearts and knees towards the table of our Lord. Then we will feel that "life of all that live below" flowing in and through us, binding us into oneness with God and with each other in a way that simply isn't possible online. 

John Wesley spoke of communion as the "grand channel" of God's grace and urged Methodists to participate frequently, receiving it himself on average every 2-3 days as an adult. This sacrament was so important to him that it led him to the audacious step of ordaining in order to provide persons authorized to celebrate communion in America. But he insisted that though God usually chose to act through these means, God was not restricted to them and could choose to bestow grace in other ways. Perhaps that will prove to be one of the lessons of the pandemic, the discovery that grace flows as God wills and that the Spirit is still in the business of making Christ known to us, even without the breaking of bread, continuing to join each to each and each to God. 

Let it be so! Amen!