Allie Papke-Larson: A time of sacrifice

We know the story of the two broken-hearted followers of Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus. They cannot recognize their Risen Lord after miles of being together, but are opened to him in the breaking of bread after inviting him into their home. This shows us that the ordinary can be made holy when we invite Jesus into the common and everyday acts of sacrifice and love. 

Communion is a sacrament with its roots in a very ordinary human activity, sharing a meal. It is something we all love to do; sitting down to eat delicious food with people we care for. Jesus, being a master at understanding human beings, knew that sharing food in a community was more than just feeding the body, but also feeding the spirit. This Sacrament is undeniably linked to community. It is a something that must be shared between people, and is also intrinsically linked to sacrifice. Communion is a gift that was given to us, through the sacrifice of Christ. I believe, also, that there is another sacrifice that takes place in communion to make it holy, and this sacrifice takes place in human community.

The word Sacrifice comes from the two Latin words: sacer, which means holy, or sacred + facere, which means to do, to make. So the word Sacrifice comes to mean “to make holy.”  In something being made holy there is some kind of giving up, or letting go, some kind of sacrifice. It’s in the sacrifice of something meaningful for something greater, that the holy can break out. 

Communion must be done in community, but community is not easy, it is not something that just falls together and stays together. In fact, so much must be given up and given into to have a healthy community. One must sacrifice thinking of only themselves, a community cannot function or be sustained by people who are entirely self-serving. This means sometimes we must hold our tongues, or extend a hand, or work through a conflict when it would be easier, and maybe more satisfying in the moment, not to do so. Living in community, as we all do here in the Grand Canyon Synod, requires that we give something up, and maybe only you know what that is, but it is for the sake of something greater than yourself. 

However, right now we are in a time of fasting. We are living in social isolation and many of us are giving up the sacrament of communion. We are in a time when we cannot look where we normally do, such as being surrounded by our church families and communion, to find Jesus and to find the Holy. It may feel like we cannot see him at all, an experience the two men on the road to Emmaus were familiar with. 

They did not recognize the Risen Christ, even after walking and talking with him for miles. But they did recognize the value of human life, and human community, and thus they invited this apparent stranger into their safe home and off of the dangerous road. It was there, in their home and sharing in a common meal, where the Risen Christ was revealed to them. 

Jesus meets us on the road and walks with us, and while we may be having a hard time recognizing or seeing him where we are right now, we can still invite him into our lives.

I see the sacrifices you are all making: giving up birthday parties, giving up attending funerals, sacrificing your freedoms by staying inside, giving up certainties and plans you once had about your futures, regular schedules that help keep you sane, getting together with those you love. We are not giving these things up because it is easy to do so, or because it makes us look holy or feel good, or even because we are so busy, we may as well slow down. We are sacrificing these things for our community, to keep each other and ourselves healthy. In a very real way, we are protecting our neighbors.

And maybe it is in ordinary things, the ordinary sacrifices, like wearing a mask in public, that is done for the life and health of others and by extension ourselves, that the holy breaks out. We cannot break bread together in our churches and partake in this holy and common sacrament, but this is not the only holy place where Jesus meets us and walks with us.  

Allie Papke-Larson is Program Coordinator for Lutheran Campus Ministries/Canterbury Episcopal Campus Ministries at Northern Arizona University and Youth Director at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Flagstaff.