Day's Diary

April 20, 2007 ~ Communion

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My good friend Silas presents me with opportunities of all sorts that cause me to grow. That was certainly the case this week. On the way to Blantyre on Monday, Silas quietly asked if he could ask a favor of me. His soft tone told me I was in for an adventure. He said he had gotten a phone call just before we left informing him that he had to be at a meeting in Lilongwe on Tuesday and Wednesday, as part of a committee to do a review of the constitution of Malawi. I thought he was going to ask to use my truck, but no, he had something else in mind.

At the beginning of each term we receive a schedule for morning chapel. Each lecturer is responsible to lead for a week, working with the students who are assigned for the week. Communion is celebrated three times during the term as well, at the beginning, half way through and at the end. The lecturer responsible for chapel that week is responsible for communion as well. The list for this term had just been distributed and Silas was responsible for this week. His favor was for me to switch weeks with him. Since I had been assigned the middle communion, he figured it was all even. Then he smiled that broad “Silas smile” that indicates that he knows he is stretching things. It is hard to say “no” to that smile. Any of you who know him, know that. I said yes, but immediately remembered that the other part of leading chapel is that you must preach on the assigned text for the day. I hadn’t seen the list, so I had no idea what the text was. This meant recruiting communion servers, putting together the worship service and writing the sermon after we got back from Blantyre in the afternoon, and having everything ready for 7 a.m. worship. I had just said yes to another adventure, for certain.

Now I do worship services and communion services easily in Pittsburgh, but there I know the service well, I’m comfortable with the details and I get to select my own scripture for preaching. None of those are true here. I have participated in communion services here, but I have not led one and I have not been responsible for setting it up. I am just learning the students, so recruiting ones to serve presented a challenge in itself. I hadn’t seen the listing, so I didn’t know who the students were and I didn’t know what the scripture was. I put all of this out of my mind as I went to deal with Western Union, meet with Synod officials and shop in Blantyre. There was nothing I could do about it until I got back to campus.

On the way back, I asked Silas if he would at least help me think of communion servers. He said he would contact one of the students to help me, since he had to pack and leave for Lilongwe soon after we returned. That was at least something and he was good to his word. He called Daniel Mndende, one of the students who was to lead this week and one who works with Silas at the Chiphoola Church. He had traveled with me to Presbytery the week before, so I knew him. That was a blessing. Daniel gathered folks to participate in communion and they to came to my home to make arrangements for the service. Communion is a great production here. Everyone who serves is involved in setting up. There are eight servers and two worship assistants. As in the Presbyterian church in the US, all the servers must be ordained, but here that means elders only. Daniel is a third year student and so knows the student body well. He quickly gathered willing volunteers from those students who had returned to campus and we met in my living room for them to walk me through the details of the service as they do it here. (Praise God for well trained elders!)

After we had the details set, we headed to the chapel to set up the elements. Daniel had done a good job of getting men and women to serve. The women, all mvano, (women’s guild) knew just what to do to set up. They went to the office and got the communion service set and the elements and met us in the chapel, where the fellows were rearranging the furniture. Now, setting up for communion in the US is relatively easy, but here, it is a production. The bread must be blessed before it can be cut and the wine (yes wine) must be diluted to just the right taste before it can be poured. We decided we would cut the bread and store it until the morning and dilute the wine, so it was ready for pouring in the morning. As we were preparing, I said that we were going to do one thing in serving as we do in the States, not in Malawi. Here, the pastor is served first and then the elders and finally the congregation. I explained that in my tradition, the elders and pastor were served last because they were servants and servants always eat after everyone else. This led us into a fascinating discussion about the theology of communion. These are students who have not yet had their course in sacramental theology, so they had great questions. They knew the logistics of setting up communion but not the theology behind it. We also compared practices here and in the US. One of their questions was how we deal with people excluded from the table. I told them that did not happen in America. We do not practice church discipline the same way they do here. Here the session determines if a believer is living a lifestyle that is consistent with the Christian profession of faith, to make them ready for communion. They take seriously Paul’s instructions to not take communion in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27). It was good time of questions and learning on both sides. There was a spiritual dimension to communion preparations that is not always present in the US.

After everything was prepared for the morning, I went home to work on the sermon. I still hadn’t seen the text. It was I Samuel 7, the account of Samuel calling the people to repentance before the Ark of the Covenant, as God leads them against the Philistines. God was faithful and it came together well. It was a good passage for a communion service. I had precious time in the word as I prepared.

We gathered at 6 a.m. to set out the elements and pray in preparation for a 7 a.m. service. This is Malawi so we worked on a Malawian time frame. One of the students had agreed to select the hymns, since I don’t know the hymns here. That was driven home when he invited us to practice before everyone arrived. The words to the first hymn he suggested were, “Take my life and let me be consecrated Lord to thee.” I got excited, because that is one of my favorites. Then they began to sing and I realized that while the words were the same, the melody was totally different. That is why I don’t select the hymns here for worship. It is a stretching experience to have the things I know well and do well at home, like leading in communion and leading in singing, be so different here that I have to depend on others to lead. This is causing me to grow.

At the beginning of the service, I explained that there would be a slight difference in the order of the service because an American was leading and I thanked them in advance for allowing that freedom. The service went well and the students who assisted did a wonderful job. Unlike a Malawian service, at the end we greeted the congregation at the door. In a Malawian service, the elders and pastor go directly to the vestry and pray. They don’t see the congregation after worship. They students liked the greeting and kept it for each service during the rest of the week. As the vice principal exited, he asked if he could see me in his office when I was finished greeting. I said certainly, but swallowed hard, because I wasn’t certain what I had done to “get called to the vice principal’s office.” It brought back feelings of panic from elementary school!  After cleaning up the chapel, I dutifully when to the vice principal’s office. He welcomed me and closed the door. Then he extended his hand and thanked me for the “model of servanthood” in the way I served communion. He said he watched that I took communion last, served by elders. He had heard of that but not seen it before and it touched him. His words of appreciation touched me. I was humbled that something that I took for granted was a blessing to him. God uses our differences in his own way. Praise God for his timing and ways of leading.

When Silas returned on Thursday, he called and the first question he asked was if he had lost a friend because he “took off” on communion. I laughed and then thanked him for allowing me one more opportunity for an adventure that stretched me and caused me to grow. We are still friends, for certain.