Koinonia
Each week at the end of the Holy Communion service, we send
forth Eucharistic Visitors to take the Sacrament to those in the Parish who are
physically unable to join with us in worship at Trinity. The Deacon (who organizes this visiting
ministry as part of the work of taking the Gospel to the larger community) gives
the charge to take the Bread and the Wine; the congregation responds, “We who
are many are one body, for we all share in one bread, one cup.”
This response is based on a passage from St. Paul:
“The
cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion (koinonia) in the blood of Christ? The
bread that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who
are many are one body, for we all partake of that one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)
Different
English translations render the Greek word koinonia variously as participation,
sharing, fellowship, communion, or community.
The word means all of these.
Paul’s idea is that as we eat and drink the bread and the wine, we
participate in Christ’s body and blood, we are formed as a community in him, we
share with Christ and with each other. And this koinonia, or shared common life in one
bread, one cup, makes us—despite all our differences, varieties, diverse
backgrounds and status—one body in Christ, just as various members of a body are
still parts of the same body.
The
idea of koinonia goes against all our
modern American ideas of rugged individualism, autonomy, radical freedom and
independence. But it is essential
to a life that is truly Christian.
It lies behind our Episcopalian/Anglican focus on worship as Common
Prayer and our baptismal covenant’s commitment to “continue in the teaching and
fellowship of the apostles, and in the prayers.”
People
of our age and community like at times to deride “Organized Religion” and think
that perhaps we all individually should just “plug directly into God.” But our tradition of shared life
and worship suggests that perhaps doing that might just get us electrocuted—we
need community and sacraments to form our mysticism, to mediate the experience
of the Divine Beauty and Glory to us at the various places where we might be in
our faith journey. The loving
guidance we give and receive from others, the transformation wrought in us as we
love and serve and let ourselves be loved and served, and the gentle, quiet
amendment of life and perception fostered by participating in and sharing the
Sacraments and ongoing Common Prayer—all this is what makes us One Body in
Christ. And that, I think, is what Trinity Church
is all about.
Grace
and Peace,
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