Connection and Communion

I have 1,193 friends.

At least, that's what Facebook says. It keeps a log of my friends and, by last count, I have 1,193.

I was resistant to Facebook at first. The obvious pluses to Facebook are that it is an easy way to network, to catch up with old friends, and to connect people to events.

The major minus to Facebook is that it seeks to address the deep, human need for connection with a shallow solution. Forget about face to face connections. You can have Facebook.

I often look at that number, 1,193, and wonder how many of these people I have actually met, how many I actually know. I'm a guy who says "yes" to any Facebook friend request, so I have a lot of Facebook friends. But I often wish I could gather them all together at Zilker park and begin to form some real connection.

We humans long for connection. Facebook understands this and it gives us a way to feel connected. But we still often feel disconnected, isolated, and alone. Facebook doesn't cut it.

And, oftentimes, face to face isn't any better. Our connections irl are just as shallow as those we make online. We're too afraid of what it would take to make real and lasting connections.

This is why the act of Communion as always been so powerful to me. If I had my way, we'd share Communion every time two Christians met in the same place. Communion is loaded with connections.

First, it connects us to God. For those of us who often feel disconnected from God, Communion is a place in which Christ connects us to our Father. In the incarnation, Jesus puts a human face on God and makes a face to face connection that we cannot experience otherwise. In His body and His blood, we share a connection and communion unlike any other.

This same Communion connects us to one another. Many of us seek to connect to other people and still wind up feeling disconnected. Relationships that ought to have depth, never seem to go past the shallow end. Billy Joel once described the characters in his classic song "Piano Man" as "sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone." Too many of us are sharing that drink, sharing that Facebook outlook that promises "friendship", but offers no meaningful connection. When we share Communion in the blood of Christ, it is a drink that draws us together and fills up the places where loneliness once thrived.

Of course, neither of these connections can happen without the connection of death to resurrection. A lot of us treat Christ like a Facebook friend, requesting friendship, but refusing any meaningful connection. That's because meaningful connection means having to face some things. Face ourselves, face our sin, face our God. Meaningful resurrection means having to die and while everyone wants to go to heaven, no one wants to die to get there. We hope to find the reconciliation of resurrection without having to die to ourselves, our desires, our fear, our pride. And so we miss out on any real connection.

But if we are willing to take the risk that relationship requires, we can be transformed, made new, resurrected, reconciled, connected.

When we are willing to share in Communion with Christ, share in His sufferings, conform to His death, we can begin to experience the power of His resurrection, we can begin to face what must be faced. We can begin to form real connection to God and to one another.