Anticipation

Remember the old Heinz ketchup commercials that featured Carly Simon singing, “Anticipation”? Crazy church lady that I am, that is what has been running through my head today as I anticipate not the Super Bowl, but Holy Communion. It’s not a weekly occurrence here, so I’ve been waiting a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_5QZDpY1Y

I have sometimes wondered why everyone doesn’t seem to get as excited about Communion. Maybe it’s because we’re Lutheran that we can’t show it. Imagine if we expressed ourselves the way new contestants do on “The Price is Right” when they are invited to “come on down!” What if Johnny Olson called people by name to the altar to receive “the body of Christ, given for YOU!” and “the blood of Christ, shed for YOU!” Would that generate as much excitement as the prospect of winning a prize on a game show? Why not?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0MQewbx52U&feature=related

The fabulous prizes displayed on the set of “The Price is Right” certainly are more tangible rewards for most of us. Shouldn’t Christ’s real presence and His promise of forgiveness be just as compelling?

Granted, the idea of Communion did not always have the attraction for me that it does now. When you live under the impression that receiving it while you’re carrying around unconfessed sin only serves to compound the sin, as I did in my pre-Lutheran days, you don’t experience that desire. In fact, you are more inclined to want to avoid it, but can’t without looking obviously guilty, so you just pray that you aren’t struck dead suddenly and try not to think about how deep the hole is that you’re digging yourself into.

Thanks be to God that is all in the past and I’m tickled to death to be down in that front pew now. It means not having to wait as long as the folks who hang out in the back. I’ll contain myself out of respect for the traditional solemnity of the occasion, but in my heart, I’ll be skipping up the aisle.