Communion
“Too soon we rise, the symbols disappear”
We sang those words to end that ritual dear.
Symbols of life and love for us poured out
Relief as teens, though meaning still in doubt.Through passing years those symbols carried on
The mystery and the meaning caught in song.
Many a time we found our way made clear
By unexpected grace both now and here.There’s something fine about our symboled ways
As life rolls through its ever-changing days.
We bring these lives with questing puzzled doubt
There find the grace to live what we’re about.The bread for me speaks of a broken life;
The highest cost paid to relieve my strife.
Not as if done in some ethereal way
But broken bread, as body on that day.The wine poured out, speaks of the blood for me,
As in the way such contracts were then sealed.
Your covenant, Father, no more just with Jews,
But also now with other cultures too.To me your plan, Our Father, up in heaven,
Was to raise up us all, with wondrous leaven;
With salt to flavor all our cultures dear;
And with your light to make our pathways clear.So, first you called to front child Abraham,
Like the good teacher demonstrates his plan.
Then after two millennia your son
Trained up some men to other cultures run.Stripped down, those learnings – ‘Judaism lite’
They brought to us – salt, leaven and some light.
Flavoured our cultures, insights brought to mind,
Lifted our lives above our daily grind.So slow we’ve been to learn more of your ways
Applying truth to all our cultural stays.
Some things we’ve learned, our lives improved thereby
Though much remains so muddy ’neath your sky.It’s from that dusty road we come each week
And from your word, life-giving treasures seek.
Give us this day, our daily living bread
Life broken then, that now our lives be fed.Freshen our memory – covenant with you –
The wine a symbol of your life eschewed;
Impact of death, importance it proclaims;
Cleansing reminders of eternal claims.‘Too soon we rise – the symbols disappear’
Both from our sight and memory, that’s clear
Thank you, O Lord, we can once more return
Finding refreshment, as your word we learn.navigation