This week marked our first Wednesday night service of the summer, a practice we adopted coming out of the pandemic when, like many other houses of worship, we faced attendance declines.
We wondered whether because so many congregation members were away on summer weekends if we might see better attendance during a Wednesday night service. That was in 2021; we haven’t looked back any summer since.
Being the first Wednesday worship of this summer, attendance was predictably low this week as people get into the habit, but those present were joyful about the opportunity to break bread with their neighbors before attending worship afterward, which included our first communion of the month.
And as we neared the portion of service when we partake in the Eucharist, I looked out from behind the altar rail to see only about a dozen worshippers. So rather than proceed through the blessing up there all by myself, I invited the small group forward to participate in the blessing of the bread and the wine with me.
I’ve extended this same invitation a couple of times before because of a small crowd, and the experience always gives me goosebumps. I can’t explain it by any other means than the Holy Spirit being present in the moment.
It might seem hyperbole, but performing this very familiar blessing that each of these folks have heard hundreds of times in such close quarters makes the experience infinitely more intimate. And thus charges the atmosphere for all of us, including for me, the pastor!
On these special occasions, before I begin to recite the blessing, I take a deep breath and look around the small group of faithful as they reverently look back at me, anticipating taking part in a sacred rite that links us back to the earliest of our faith ancestors.
Next, I launch first into the blessing of the bread, and secondly into the wine, as I make eye contact with each of them, wanting them to feel the gift of God’s endless forgiveness, grace and mercy in their very souls.
Once completed with the blessing, our faith family then kneels around the altar and accepts the gift of the eucharist with open hands, some with bowed heads and others with expectant eyes returning my smile.
One by one I circle the inside of the altar rail and offer them the body of Christ: “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, given for you.”
I wish I could adequately describe the privilege of presiding over this centuries-old sacred rite, but like most of the best things in life, a description is impossible.
This week, having the entire group in attendance participate with me for the process, made this communion unforgettable.
Lord, please let me never grow jaded with performing this sacred tradition! Amen!
Devlyn Brooks is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and serves Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn.