Synod School gathering pauses to celebrate communion

Small round crackers and a grape remind worshipers of one of the most profound acts of Jesus’ love

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Instrumentalists rehearse before Thursday evening’s worship at Synod School. (Photo by Mike Ferguson)

STORM LAKE, Iowa — Communion was served to those attending Synod School worship on Thursday. The elements — a small round cracker and a green grape — were distributed in compostable plant starch sandwich bags.

Singers and the band backing them stepped it up a notch, leading the 500 or so people gathered for the 69^th Synod School to sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and The Many’s “All Belong Here.”

Synod School preacher the Rev. DeEtte Decker, communications director for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, chose Mark 14:17-24 and 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 as her preaching texts.

Every step Jesus took on this Earth “was guided by love,” Decker said, “not a feeling or emotion, but a powerful force to transform lives and bring healing and restoration.”

Throughout his relatively brief public ministry, Jesus reached out to the marginalized and outcast. He “touched the untouchables and comforted the brokenhearted,” Decker said. He was crucified “because he was a threat to the status quo … Jesus was a revolutionary force who threatened to upend the systems of oppression.”

“The story does not end on the cross, thanks be to God,” she said, adding his resurrection “gives us hope and the assurance that love is stronger than any other force in the universe. Jesus offers us the opportunity to experience new life and share in eternal love with God and all Creation.”

“One of the most profound acts of his love,” she said, moving down a few steps to the communion table, “happens here at the table.” At the Last Supper, Jesus offered his disciples neither theory nor Scripture. Instead, he gave them a meal, and during the meal he announced one of his disciples would betray him. In the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, the disciples tell him, “Surely, not I.” Decker prefers the translation, “It isn’t me, is it?”

“The mere asking implies at least a shadow of a doubt,” she said. “Jesus knew. He knew the betrayal had already begun.”

Decker asked those gathered to “reflect on the possibility we can fail in the struggle against darkness and the powers of empire. Maybe we push away from those different from us. Maybe we get angry when we don’t get what we think we deserve … To a varying degree, we have all betrayed our calling as disciples. [Jesus] knows and he welcomes us anyway.”

More than a ritual, the meal is “a means of grace. In the midst of our brokenness, Jesus welcomes us — all of us … Just as Christ sat with the disciples who would abandon, deny and betray him, Jesus welcomes us to this meal.”

She invited worshipers to reflect on two questions:

• How might we have given in to the pressure to conform, the pursuit of greed or the elevation of me?
• In what ways might we have begun to turn away from, deny and perhaps participate in the slightest betrayal of who Jesus called us to be?

Decker’s benediction included these words: “Let us imitate God’s love by extending compassion to those in need, forgiving those who have wronged us and spreading God’s love to all corners of the Earth.”

Synod School concludes Friday. Watch Presbyterian News Service next week for further reporting.