Decisions, Decisions
I’m in a mood again … comes from watching too many people! Sooner or later you just have to thump your hand against your (or someone else’s) head and cry out “Oh come on!!! Did you really have to do that????” I heard from a house church member that Einstein said there are only two things that are infinite; the Universe and mans ability for stupidity! And he wasn’t sure about the first! Well, I thumped my head a lot this week (figuratively at least), and mused that one of the reasons we become paralyzed in action, and that the initiatives of God and man become mired in morass, is our ongoing prevarication(1) in decision making.
This last Sunday is dedication Sunday, not another prevarication Sunday (sounds like a good song title … like just another Manic Monday). Every day is a dedication day! God holds out a cup of life to drink and we say “Hmmm, not sure about that, do you have a Coke for me instead?” Will you drink from Gods life cup, pour it out, swallow it down? Today? This moment? Even if you can’t see the bottom of the cup? Yirat Adonai, Fear the Lord
Questions:. (send them to [email protected]). One of the first questions to be posed to me this week was about a very different cup … about the health of drinking from a common cup at communion. I figured this required more than my opinion, so here’s our leaders guidance.
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‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink…and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’ ‘We can,’ they answered.’ At this crucial moment in his ministry, Jesus teaches his followers about the sign that will mark his disciples. In choosing his path they will share a common destiny of a sacrificial servant-ministry for others.
The Common Cup is a continuing sign in worshiping communities (not only Anglican) of people who have been baptized with his baptism pass from death to life, and who drink together of one cup on the servant-journey of Christ. Together with the breaking of bread, the community glimpses “the heavenly banquet,” the reign of God, the meaning and purpose and goal of all creation. In this one act, the unity in Christ is re-enacted as an illustration of our common destiny. Whenever there has been an outbreak of disease of one form or another, there have been concerns about sharing the Common Cup.
In some churches this fear has resulted in sharing Communion by serving each individual with a small glass of wine or juice. In reality, medically speaking, the risk of picking up any infectious disease via the common cup is so miniscule as to be a ‘no risk’ factor. Aside from the presence of Jesus amongst his people as they share his supper, alcohol is a disinfectant, and the amounts of bacteria needed to transmit a disease like Hepatitis B, for example, are way in excess of anything that could possibly be picked up from the sharing of a cup(2). My advice to those who really feel uneasy about sharing the cup is to dip the wafer into the wine rather than to drink directly from the cup.
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1. Prevaricate – our big word of the week. Do you prevaricate on writing to me? How much of your walk with God is stymied by prevarication?
2. It is possible to be completely reassuring. There is no evidence of any transmission by the oral administration of hepatitis-positive saliva. The same is equally true of bacterial Meningitis. (The Anglican Church of Canada)