Holy Bread, from Seed to Sacrament

For decades now Ruth, my partner in life, has been making communion bread, first of all for congregations I served and now for the faith family where our son, Isaac, is pastor. It began out of her disdain for the tiny, less than wonderful,  Wonder Bread cubes served up in so many mainline Protestant churches. How could this reflect Jesus' words "this is my body broken for you" or the profound mystery of one of our two Protestant sacraments? Ruth wanted to chew on the bread and taste it, so has always cut much larger pieces. 

In addition, she has spent time with Sunday School groups where they stirred and kneaded the bread dough and punched it down after the yeast began its mysterious work toward a first rising. This was always met with great enthusiasm and, yes, wonder. The pans of dough would be brought home for baking and then frozen for use in the communion service of the following week. 

As I wrote this blog entry yesterday our home is redolent with the aroma of baking bread and while it's not intended for a worship service this is always holy. And its a perfect sensory backdrop for sharing a story about a congregation taking all of this a step further. According to a Sojourners magazine article this month: 

A little over a year ago, members of Ann Arbor’s Zion Lutheran Church in Michigan stood on an L-shaped plot bordering their church garden. Those 800 square feet of ordinary lawn were on the cusp of transformation, about to become the source of Zion’s own Communion bread.

While Christians traditionally think of Communion as transforming partakers during the church service, project leader Betsy King-McDonald wanted to explore the life-giving properties of the Eucharist at an earlier stage — starting in the soil.

“How can we foster life in all the choices we make to the table?” she asked. This question led King-McDonald, a doctoral student at Western Theological Seminary, to partner with Zion Lutheran in growing heirloom wheat for their Communion bread.

I don't know that there are many congregations with the property or the wherewithal to engage in this sort of process which is both practical and contemplative. Bread is made from grains and the little miracle of planted seeds becoming a nourishing meal is something we may take for granted. Even though it may prove to be a challenge for the Zion congregation to sustain over the long term there is an earthy mindfulness here that is commendable. 

                                                    

                                                                 Flatbread Library Sameer Farouk 

Yesterday morning I also listened to a fascinating conversation about an exhibition at the Toronto Biennial of Art called Flatbread Library. While Sameer Farouk ( or Farooq, I've seen his name both spelled ways) is from Cape Breton he was inspired by a visit to Pakistan where flatbreads are often hung outside bakeries as advertising. He noted that these breads don't know national boundaries and that there is so much creativity they deserve to be in a museum. 

Jesus is the Bread of Life for Christians but different religions have bread rituals because it is the staff of life.

I am so looking forward to this bread...