{"id":407,"date":"2017-04-12T17:55:13","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T17:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=407"},"modified":"2018-09-20T17:57:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T17:57:30","slug":"sweet-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/from-the-publisher\/sweet-communion\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homemade grape juice is better than bottled<\/strong>, Darlene Riley figures, so she makes enough for every congregation in her district to take home for love feast. Her family has a small vineyard, and she\u2019s been bringing the communion juice to Missouri\/Arkansas District Conference for at least four years.<\/p>\n

At the end of the last growing season, it happened that Eldon Coffman preached at her congregation, New Hope Church of the Brethren in Wynne, Ark. Riley asked him to say a blessing over the grapes that would be made into communion juice. After the service and a fellowship meal, he and everyone else pitched in to stem the fruit. And then, shortly before district conference, Brother Eldon, a longtime saint of the district, passed away\u2014bringing particular poignancy to that year\u2019s sharing of the juice.<\/p>\n

At district conference there\u2019s other fruit too. Riley brings Opal Andrews\u2019 canned peaches along with preserves made by two friends from the local farmers\u2019 market. The proceeds from those jars are donated to the global mission work of the Church of the Brethren\u2014meaning that those Arkansas peaches travel very far indeed.<\/p>\n

At love feast, can you taste the sun and wind of the vineyard? The labors of the generous gardener? The sweet blessing of the hands of the helpers? Can you feel the connection between Arkansas and Venezuela, between Haiti and Nigeria? Can you see the vine that connects us all? Can you drink in this mystic sweet communion?<\/p>\n

During holy week, as you prepare for the mystery of resurrection, immerse your senses in these words from Brethren poet Ken Morse (Hymnal Supplement,<\/em>\u00a0no. 1068):<\/p>\n

In seeking, in silence we wait and we listen,
\nwhile joining our hands as our thoughts move in prayer.
\nWe watch for the mystery that fills us with wonder;
\nwe know God has promised to be with us here.<\/p>\n

Together we follow the movement of music;
\ntogether our hearts are alerted to joy.
\nThe warmth of our sharing, the touch of our caring
\nwill strengthen the faith that no fear can destroy.<\/p>\n

While taking the bread and the cup overflowing,
\nwe sit at a table that circles the earth.
\nWe drink from the springs that sustain and renew us
\nwhere God offers wholeness and quenches our thirst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At love feast, can you see the vine that connects us all?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[49,38],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-publisher","tag-from-the-publisher","tag-wendy-mcfadden"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}