Interdependent community
September 24th, 2023 – Communion Meditation
One of my favorite things to do wherever I find myself in the world is to take long walks in nature. On my recent visit to my sister in Colorado, we saw a lot of quaking aspen trees on our daily walks. Quaking aspens are beautiful, tall trees clothed in smooth pale bark, scarred with black. We saw large clusters of them as we walked along the nearby river, canals, and mountains.
Since my return home, I discovered that the largest organism in the world by mass, is an aspen tree colony in Utah called Pando (Latin for “I spread”). This species propagates through its roots to form large clonal groves. While we may think of them as individual trees, they actually have a massive, interconnected, underground root system. Pando has over 40,000 trunks and covers almost 110 acres. Because the organism is continually growing and various parts are progressively replaced, the overall age of an aspen clone cannot be determined from tree rings. While individual stems each live as many as 200 years, Pando is estimated to be 80,000 years old.
My sister and I also noticed two quaking aspens that one of her neighbors had planted on either side of their driveway. These lonely specimens seemed to be in very poor health in comparison to the vibrant-looking trunks clustered together in the park.
I couldn’t help but notice a beautiful lesson from God in this wonder of creation. Just as God designed and created quaking aspens to be interconnected, God designed created each one of us to live and thrive in interdependent community. We thrive in Christ when we meet together, worship together, pray together, study God’s word together, eat together, serve our community together, do life together.
Communion, the Lord’s supper, is much more than a symbolic act or an act of remembrance. Every time we partake of the body and blood of Christ, which is both movingly beautiful and mind-boggling, at least two significant things happen. Our connection with Jesus is strengthened, and our connection with one another is strengthened. Romans 12:5 (NRSV) tells us that “we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”
I invite you to join me in meeting with Christ Jesus together today. At this place of meeting together with Christ, we receive the bread and the cup in obedience to Christ’s command to his disciples to “do this in remembrance of me.” And in receiving these elements, we receive grace and strength and life from the Lord.
On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and said, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Eat together) Again, Jesus took the cup and said, “This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Drink together)
