Faith
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Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
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Sharing Christ
On Monday I heard a fascinating interview with Professor Fenggang Yang of Purdue University about the surprising wave of conversions to Christianity that took place in China after the Tiananmen Square massacre. In part of the interview, he was talking about a specific kind of Bible study that has sprung up at McDonald's restaurants in China. People move from table to table learning about the gospel, and finally how to share it with others.
The reason they meet at McDonald's has to do with government restrictions on religious activity—it can only take place on the grounds of church property, and presumably these groups don't have a building. But they've discovered that if you buy a meal at McDonald's you "own" the table for as long as you're sitting there. The government has since discovered this and cracked down, and the people have signed documents saying, okay, we promise not to go to that McDonald's (now we'll go to a different one).
And this has me wondering ... is there a sense in which these gatherings are "eucharistic" meals?
One of the old principles of sacramental validity is that the presider and participants must intend to "do what the church does" in the sacrament. (This means that baptisms that take place in the context of child's play or a theatrical production don't count, because you're not intending to do what the church does.) The more I think about this story—people gathering in a "sanctuary" (or safe place) to share the word, to share "common food," and then being sent to share Christ with others—it sounds an awful lot like "doing what the church does" when we gather in the presence of Christ around Word and Table.
Now, do I think we should all start using cheeseburgers and soft drinks at communion? Of course not. There are important biblical, theological, liturgical, and historical reasons to use bread and wine. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35); "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5). And we're already enthralled enough with the cult of consumerism as it is.
But do I think Chinese Christians eating a meal over Bible study at McDonalds are "doing what the church does" in the Eucharist—sharing Christ? Actually, yes.
- Posted at 11:30 a.m.
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