Chocolate and Bread and Wine

The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 CEB)

Holy Communion.  This is our topic tonight. 

When I talk about Holy Communion, what comes to mind for you?  Perhaps you think of the words of Jesus that are spoken each time we receive communion, the words that promise that Christ is present in the bread and wine…”This IS my body given for you” or “This IS my blood shed for you.”  

Or, perhaps, it’s the “for you.”  The understanding that Christ’s sacrifice was made for each of us and for people everywhere.  

Or perhaps, it's the words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This meal was, after all, instituted during Passover, the festival that Israel celebrated as a remembrance of how God had fulfilled his promise to lead them from slavery into freedom, and which the earliest Christians celebrated as a remembrance of Christ’s own passover from death to life.

Or, maybe the words “Shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins” are most meaningful--the knowledge that, in this meal as in our baptism, we receive forgiveness of sins and, as Luther writes, that with this forgiveness comes “life and salvation.”

So, when I mention Holy Communion, what comes to mind?  

The movie, Chocolat, is set in a quiet village in France.  It is fifteen years after the end of the second World War.  Led by its mayor, the village closely adheres to tradition.  If you lived in this village, you knew what was expected of you, you knew your place.  And, if you happened to forget, someone would be there to remind you.  

As the movie begins, they are just beginning their somber observance of the forty days of Lent.  At the same time, a newcomer, Vianne Rocher, and her daughter, Anouk, arrive in the village and begin preparations to open a shop.

Vianne is different. She wears much more colorful clothing than the village women.  She is warm and welcoming.  She is friendly and alluring.  She is very different from the townspeople and does not seem to fit in well.  Yet, one-by-one, she begins to win people over.  One-by-one, the villagers seem to fall under the mysterious spell of Vianne and her confections. One of these is her eccentric landlady, Armande.  

One by one, the villagers come, each with their own brokenness.  Armande, who is estranged from her daughter and separated from her grandson.  One a widow.  Another, a woman abused by her husband.  A couple who have grown apart from each other.  An old man seeking love and companionship.  One by one, they come.  And, soon the chocolaterie becomes a place of gathering, a place of laughter and hope, of warmth and friendship.

Yet, all of this is much to the dismay of the mayor, who begins to speak out publicly against Vianne for tempting the people during Lent, which he believes is to be a time of abstinence and denial. 

As the struggle between Vianne and the mayor intensifies, a band of river gypsies arrives and makes camp on the outskirts of the village.  While most of the town object to their presence, Vianne embraces and welcomes them and their leader, Roux, into the fold.

It is through the power of chocolate that this group of people who would not otherwise associate with each other, come to know and to love one another.  And, as we see in these clips, they celebrate.  Boy, do they celebrate!

What happens in this wonderful movie is a perfect metaphor for what happens for us in holy communion.  

Just as the chocolate was the means by which people were drawn in together, so in this bread and in this wine we are drawn into the presence of Christ and formed into community by the Holy Spirit.  

In this meal, yes, there is forgiveness, there is remembrance, there is promise, there is thanksgiving, there is joy, there is life and there is freedom.  

But, it is especially in this meal that we are transformed.  In our brokenness, we are transformed into the body of Christ and, then, sent into the world to welcome others to the feast, especially those who live on the fringes of our world.   

In our Acts reading tonight, we heard how the early believers lived after Christ rose and ascended to heaven.  They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, they prayed together, they shared meals, they sold their possessions, distributing the proceeds to those in need.  

In this text, I’ve always been struck by verse 43...that as they ate together and lived fully into their lives as the body of Christ, “A sense of awe came over everyone.”

THIS is what I hope you think of and feel each time you participate in communion: awe. Awe. Awe in the wonder and mystery of this meal and it’s power to transform us. 

Eat and drink, then, with awe.  And may God perform many signs and wonders through you! 

Amen.