When the early church met in first century Christianity, three things signified their gatherings. The Book of Acts says that the earliest followers of Christ prayed together, sang spiritual hymns together and celebrated Holy Communion just as Jesus had commanded them to do (“Do this in remembrance of me.”).

When churches decided last March to prohibit members from worshiping together in church buildings, the problem of safely and theologically “doing” communion arose. Over these months, some of you have asked for communion to be done in your homes via Zoom. You have remarked that you know other Christians who are celebrating communion in this fashion. Recently, given the fact that we still do not know how much longer it will be before we are back in our church buildings, latitude has been given to us in the Lutheran Church to do communion via Zoom.

Though I am not particularly comfortable with this, I understand the compromise. Personally, I think Christians in various denominations and interpretations of Scripture (and consequent practices) concern themselves more with polity than God does. I believe that God does not care so much about how we do communion as much as it is done with reverence in remembering God’s great love for us and our needed great love for God and others.

Consequently, as we do Zoom worship services, be ready with bread and either wine or juice as we will be doing communion frequently over this new medium. Thank you for understanding both the dilemma and the desire that this weird time of pandemic poses for the Holy Supper. Thank you for your always understanding and support.

Pastor Mike Lemke