The Neighborhood Podcast
This is a podcast of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring guests from both inside the church and the surrounding community. Hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing, Head of Staff.
The Neighborhood Podcast
A Crash Course On Eucharist Theology Through Hymns
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Communion can feel familiar until you stop and ask what it actually means and what it demands. We run a tight, 28-minute crash course on the theology of the Eucharist using the 1982 Lima Document, a landmark ecumenical statement from Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican leaders who asked a bold question: what can we agree on about baptism, Eucharist, and ministry?
We walk through five shared ways of understanding the Lord’s Supper, pairing each with a hymn that makes the theology sing. Eucharist becomes thanksgiving to God for creation and grace, then anamnesis, a living remembrance where the past becomes present and Christ is truly present in ways we cannot fully explain. That mystery leads us into the Spirit’s role through epiclesis, the prayer that the Holy Spirit gathers, sanctifies, and strengthens the church for mission.
From there, the table gets uncomfortably practical. Communion is communion with Christ and with each other, which means reconciliation is not optional and injustice, racism, exclusion, and division contradict what we celebrate. We even name the Eucharist as nonviolent resistance, a public act of allegiance to the kingdom of God over every temporary label. Finally, we end with the meal of the kingdom, a foretaste that feeds us and then sends us out to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review with your take: what does communion mean to you?
Follow us on Instagram @guilfordparkpresbyterianchurch
Follow us on Facebook @guilfordparkpc
Follow us on TikTok @guilfordparkpreschurch
Website: www.guilfordpark.org
Why Eucharist Means Thanksgiving
SPEAKER_03Um thanks my newsletter. All right. So we are gonna do a crash course on the theology. Hey George, you're into that? Okay, thank you. We are going to do a crash course on the theology of of the Eucharist. Anybody know what Eucharist means? It means communion. Yep. It's just another word for communion. And does anybody know where the word Eucharist comes from? Or what it what it means?
SPEAKER_08Eucharist? And I'm assuming some play on the word Christ.
SPEAKER_03Those are both good guesses, but no. So Eucharist comes from the Greek word for Thanksgiving or Grace. And if you want to know what it looks like in Greek, I happen to have it tattooed conveniently to my ankle right there. That's grace? Yeah, chorus. So it's where we get the word um euchorus, chorus, or charisma, actually is the same root word. So grace. So what I thought we would do is there is a document that you have, or a summary of a document, called the Lima document. And it was a document that was written by the World Council of Churches back in 1982. Bunch of representatives from all the World Council of Churches got together: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, and they got together. Anyone want to oh, knock somebody out. Sorry, Phil, did we lock you out? Oh, sorry. And does anybody want to guess where the Lima document was written in 1982?
SPEAKER_02Lima! Yes!
The Lima Document And Five Agreements
SPEAKER_03Who can tell me what country Lima is the capital of? Peru. Very good. So all these different uh representatives from different branches of Christianity got together in Lima, Peru in 1982 and said, what can we agree on as it pertains to the sacraments and to ministry? Specifically baptism, Eucharist, or communion, and ministry in general. So this document is sometimes called the Lima document, sometimes it's called B E M, which is baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry. And all these Christians got together and they said that when it comes to communion, we can all agree on five things. And the five things that you uh are right there in the document that you have. And Jordan is going to help us sing five different hymns that I flipped through this uh flipped through this afternoon that I think kind of embodies one of those metaphors, if you will, for what um for what communion uh represents or Eucharist represents. So the first one is Eucharist as Thanksgiving to the Father. And I'm wondering if one of y'all with your nice preacher voices will read that paragraph for us so that the microphone can pick it up.
SPEAKER_04All right. I know I know you've got a you've got a you've got a great stage voice, so go go for it, Megan.
SPEAKER_08The Eucharist as Thanksgiving to the Father. The Eucharist is, first of all, the church's great act of thanksgiving to God. In it, the church gives thanks for creation, redemption, sanctification, and for all that God has done, is doing, and will do to bring the kingdom to fulfillment. The bread and wine as fruits of the earth and human labor are offered back to God in gratitude. In this way, the Eucharist becomes a sacrifice of praise, in which the church speaks on behalf of the whole creation and points toward the world's ultimate destiny, communion with God in justice, love, and peace.
Thanksgiving To The Creator
SPEAKER_03Alright. So when we begin what is called the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, that's when I get up or somebody gets up and says, The Lord be with you. Lift up your hearts in the name of the Lord. Um, it is right, what is it? We let's give uh God our thanks in praise. It is right that we give God our thanks and praise. Um, so that's what we call the prayer of Great Thanksgiving, and it usually begins with what I like to call a wow section. Wow, God, look what you have done. Look, we give you thanks for all of creation. We give you thanks for the waters of our baptism, we give you thanks for the waters that you divided in the Red Sea that uh brought the Israel, uh the Israelites to safety. Um, so that's the first metaphor. It's just thanking God for the for the goodness of creation and that we are a part of it. Um so turn in your hymnals to hymn 520. And it's called Taste and See. Taste and See is one of my favorite hymns that is based off of Psalm 34, which famously says, uh Taste and see that the Lord is good, pairs very nicely with communion. And if you want to know what Psalm 34 looks like in a 400-year-old Psalter, I will pass this around, as long as y'all are very careful with it. This is my book, my cherished copy of the Psalter that was printed in London, England in 1626. Mary, I know Mary knows it because I've shown it to her. So this is its 400th birthday. Um and I'll pass it around, and Psalm 34 is on the very right. Um, and verse 8 is what we're gonna be singing. Taste and see that the Lord is good. So if you just want to pass that around. Yeah, just don't sneeze on it. That's all I want to say. Um so with this, um, we're going to um can you play through the ver the refrain um first? How fast is it? Uh Jordan is sight reading, by the way. I I gave him exactly two and a half hours' notice. I assume you were at work on you, so thank you, Jordan, for that. Alright, so um I just love that because it's it's uh it's very kinesthetic, right? The the sacraments are kinesthetic acts. What does kinesthetic mean? You can tell me what that word means. I'm guessing there's some educators in this in this room that might know what kinesthetic means.
SPEAKER_00Body means.
Anamnesis And The Mystery Of Presence
SPEAKER_03Yep. Body. So kinesthetic is something that you can see or hear or touch. Um and both of the sacraments are kinesthetic things, right? We we literally taste um the sacraments. Um well, not baptism, although I suppose you could taste the water as you're as you're splattering back up. Um so I just love, even though the word thanksgiving is not in that hymn, I think it just exudes a taste and see the Lord is good. I will bless the Lord at all times. Praise will always be on my lips. It just exudes this thank you, thank you, um, thank you. Alright, so that is the first metaphor, is Eucharist as thanksgiving to the Father or the Creator, if we want to use non-gendered um language, inclusive language. All right, number two, the Eucharist as, and this is a fun word, anumnesis. Everybody say that. Animnesis or memorial of Christ. Animnesis is also a really fancy Greek word that means to recall or to remember, but in the Greek, that word is not simply recalling something that happened in the past. Animnesis is some sort of liturgical practice where the past becomes the present, if that makes sense. It's it's it's it's this idea that through communion, when we break the bread and we pour the cup and we say the words of institution, that in a very real way Christ is present with us. Um we are we are not Catholic, so we don't believe in um transubstantiation, which is that the bread and the juice are literally the body of Christ. But nevertheless, we still believe that Christ is very much present in the present, so to speak. So that's what anemesis means. Megan, you want to read that uh next paragraph? You've got such a great voice.
SPEAKER_08Okay. One word, anamesis?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, anamesis, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_08The Eucharist as animesis or memorial of Christ. The Eucharist is the memorial of the crucified and risen Christ, but this memorial is more than mentally recalling a past event. In the biblical sense, anamesis means a living, effective remembrance in which God's saving acts become present and active among God's people. In the Eucharist, sorry, Christ is present with all that he has accomplished through his incarnation, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Spirit. The church does not repeat Christ's sacrifice since it was offered once for all, but it is drawn to the living power and continuing efficacy of that one sacrifice. Thus the Eucharist is both a representation and anticipation. It proclaims what God has done in Christ and points forward to the final coming of the kingdom.
Invoking The Spirit In Communion
SPEAKER_03Alright, now turn to hymn number 517. And I think we're going to do verse one and two only. It's here, O Lord, we see you. Yeah, so here we would touch things unseen. So you kind of get that sense that something's happening, right? Something that we can't quite put our finger on, but that this is a different space, right? This is a holy space. Remember, holy is just another word for different, for several. Um so it means not ordinary. So very good, Mega. Um also the very opening line. Here, O our Lord, we see you what? Face to face, right? There's this idea that in this moment Christ is real in a very, uh in a very present way. Um and I don't exactly know exactly what that means. And I think that's okay. I think that's the beautiful part of the mystery. I always hated the argument whenever people have when I've heard the argument made that children shouldn't have communion because they don't understand what is happening. Um I've heard that argument sometimes. That's my father's. And I with no with no respect with no disrespect to your father, I I think that that's a really poor argument because do you understand what's happening in the moment? Do I? I have three graduate degrees in theology, and I can't tell you exactly what happens in that moment. But that's what mysteries are, and that's what keeps things um beautiful, right? So uh we can talk about this. Um these are these are great but imperfect understandings of how to talk about what goes on in that holy moment. All right, number three, the Eucharist as invocation of the spirit, okay? Um we'll give Megan a break. Does somebody else want to read that paragraph? Hunter, all right, you have a really fun Greek word in there. Um give it give it your best shot, okay?
SPEAKER_07The Eucharist as invocation of the Spirit. The Eucharist is also an invocation of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes the crucified and risen Christ truly present and the Eucharistic meal and makes the celebration effective for the life of the church. The church prays for the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and wine may become the sacramental signs of Christ's body and blood, and so that the gathered people may be sanctified, renewed, and strengthened for mission. The whole Eucharistic action has the eclectic character. It depends on the Spirit's power to make Christ present, to unite the church, and to give a foretaste of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_03Alright. Good job, Hunter.
SPEAKER_07Um I probably messed up that. No, that's okay.
SPEAKER_03I I messed it up I messed it up too when I read it to myself in my office today because it had been a while. Epiclectic, epic epicletic. See, I can use that. Um but it's the Greek, it's one of the Greek words for spirits, which is derived from paraclete, which in seminary we would all call the spirit a parakeet because it sounds very similar to that. So yeah, this is the idea that um we invoke the Holy Spirit's presence that brings us together in that moment, um, and that we believe that the spirit is present also in a very real way in the uh in the sacraments. So embodying that, I'm trying to keep us on time here. I told you all this was a crash course. Um, turn to hymn five hundred and twenty-nine draw us in the spirit's tether. Sometimes you'll hear me say creator, uh, Christ and Holy Spirit, or creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Um, but this is just a reminder that uh it is only through the presence of the Holy Spirit that the word proclaimed uh and the bread that is broken and the juice that is poured becomes a very real I don't want to say I don't know if experience is the right word or not. Um my worship uh professor seminer had an issue with that word. I don't quite remember what it was. Um but I immediately thought about this hymn. This I just love that line draws in the spirit of Heather, this idea that when we are um taking, when we are practicing communion together, that it is something that we cannot do in isolation, which will bring us to our next metaphor. I also want to lift up that uh the tune for this. Um how would you describe Jordan the tune?
SPEAKER_01Meandering. Yeah, it is.
Communion As Unity And Justice
SPEAKER_03It's not um it's not a a lot of hymns that have to do with the first person of the Holy Spirit of the of the Trinity, the Creator, um, are kind of like Marchy tunes. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. A lot of the tunes in our hymnal that have to do with the Holy Spirit aren't really that bouncy or that strict. They're they're more they cop down on even giving it a time signature. Oh, that's right, yeah. Yeah. Free format. Um so just even the very kind of uh meandering, uh that's a really great word, Jordan, the meandering feel just fits with the spirit, especially as we think of the Holy Spirit as a wind, right? Or a breath. So just note that in every great hymn, it's not just the words that tell the story and articulate the theology, it's also the melody that does as well. Okay, so a little bit of a nerdy musical moment there, but um yeah. Because yeah, if you say those exact same words to like Hyperdoll or something, it just wouldn't quite work. Alright, number four, the Eucharist as communion of the faithful. I don't think there's any tough read words in this one. Um, so it does another person want to volunteer to read this paragraph. Do um uh Mikey and then John can do the Eucharist has a communion of the faithful.
SPEAKER_00The Eucharist is communion not only with Christ, but also with the body of Christ of the church. Sharing one bread and one cup manifests and deepens the unity of believers across time and place. In the Eucharist, the church is most fully shown to be the people of God gathered into one. At the same time, this communion has ethical consequences. The Eucharist demands reconciliation, mutual forgiveness, and sharing, and it challenges all forms of injustice, racism, exclusive, exclusion, and division. To partake of Christ's body and blood while tolerating broken relationships is a contradiction. The Eucharist therefore calls the church to embody in its common life the reconciliation it celebrates at the table.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, Mikey. All right, I guarantee you most of y'all will know this, if not all of you. Five hundred and twenty-five. If you want if you want to join in, go for it. But we're gonna make do a little bit of a jazzy one. Uh I'll sing verse two, and then if you want to join me on verse three, you can. Oh, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02Let us drink all together on our two.
A Foretaste Of The Kingdom
SPEAKER_03Just a little, a little fun thing there. So one of the things I really love about this, about this hymn, other than it just being a really great one that's very simple, that's pretty easy to sing if you're moving around a sanctuary during communion, is that it has, it speaks, it begins with the with us language, right? Let us break bread, let us drink wine, let us praise God. But then the chorus is when what? When I fall on my knees. I really like that because it holds the truth that in the sacraments they are deeply personal, and everybody has hopefully that very intimate personal understanding of or wonder about what's happening. So I think that's really important, but it also emphasizes that the sacraments are not something that we can do by ourselves, right? Literally, in the Presbyterian polity, every sacrament is a worship service. That means there have to be at least how many people? Two or three, right? Somewhere in the Bible says something about that, right? Um, so I can't go home and practice comedian, right? I need you. You need me. We need each other. I think that's a really important thing. And I also loved what Mikey read about how the Eucharist, since we do it together, it reminds us that together we are called to the work of healing the world, of getting back to the place of the perfect, the perfection of creation that we talk about with the thanksgiving of God the Father. So that's why it says that uh it challenges all forms of injustice, racism, exclusion, division. I like to think of communion as an act of nonviolent resistance to the powers of evil in the world. It's us coming together and saying we do not belong to any political particular particular political party or ideology or even country. Those might be temporary um uh temporary labels that we have, but that ultimately all of us um belong to the kingdom of God. Which brings us to our final uh metaphor. The Eucharist as meal of the kingdom. And John, why don't you finish this up and read that?
SPEAKER_01All right, the Eucharist as meal of the kingdom. Finally, the Eucharist is the meal of the kingdom. It offers a foretaste of God's promised future and opens before the church the vision of the renewal of all creation. In the Eucharist, the church joyfully anticipates the heavenly banquet and banquet and celebrates the signs of God's reign already, breaking into the world wherever grace, justice, love, and peace appear. Nourished at Christ's table, believers are sent into the world as witnesses to the resurrection and as servants of the reconciliation. The Eucharist, therefore, looks both backward and forward. It remembers Christ's saving work and anticipates the feast of the kingdom still to come.
SPEAKER_03Alright, thank you, John. Alright, our final hymn is gonna be 516 for the bread which you have broken. I'll give you a second to turn to that. 516. And we're just gonna sing the last verse. Last verse. This idea that we come to the table, but we do not stay at the table, right? Yes, John.
SPEAKER_01What does hearts keep watch and ward? What does that mean? And ward. What do y'all think?
SPEAKER_07Projection. Ward is like a guard, guarding your heart.
SPEAKER_03Yep. That would be my guess. Um but this is a great, uh, this this is the hymn that I chose because it reminds us that there's this constant movement in the sacraments. We come to the sacraments and then we go away. We get the sacraments are like the little taste, the nibble that we get of the kingdom, and then we go out into the world to make it so. Um I sounded just like uh Catherine Picard right there. Um so yeah, so every act of communion is like we're just getting a taste, both literally and theologically, for the kind of kingdom that Jesus promises is already here, even if much of creation has not gone to memo, right? Um so we go out in the world to be transformed, to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly, and to bring that kingdom to fruition. And that's the end. I know that was that was 28 minutes. So everybody remember that. There'll be a test on it on Sunday. Um so alright, let's go back into the um fellowship hall, and everybody say thank you, Jordan. Thank you, Jordan.