Jesus-Slushie

    “Can grape juice sit out when opened?” - a phrase that I never thought I would be typing into a search engine on a Saturday evening. A new group of communion stewards had been working hard in the kitchen, getting elements prepared for to be served the next day. I had even went down to the kitchen to help find lost linens and to check that everything was going smoothly.

    But when I entered the sanctuary a few hours later for final preparations for the day ahead, there sat the elements - including all of the individual cups of grape juice that had just been filled. Enter my google search. 

    The answer was resoundingly - no, that could be really bad - to my grape juice question. So I scooped up the trays filled with juice cups and headed downstairs to the refrigerators. Only I had just been told that one of the refrigerators was broken and had failed to ask which one. So I took a guess and stuck the juice trays in the farthest refrigerator to the right. 
    You know where this is going, right?

    That “refrigerator” actually ended up being the standing freezer and when I pulled the trays out the next day, they had a nice white frost on the top of them. I still didn’t think about it, until uncovering that lid post-consecration to find that each little cup was frozen. Solid. 

    The woman who was helping to serve and I exchanged a smile as I explained that it didn’t matter how much bread we ate or juice we drank, that this was still the meal that helped us to remember the love of Jesus. I then held up the frozen cup and said that Jesus understands when we make mistakes. 

    What I couldn’t have anticipated was the wide variety of reactions. I was used to not even being able to serve the cup in one of the nursing homes where I led worship post-COVID. I’ve also had juice spill all over folks from time to time. I really meant what I had said about the fact that it didn’t matter how much or how little juice you had - the amount wasn’t the point. 

    Yet, it only took until the next service for rumors to start to work their way back to me about “people” (unnamed of course) being upset about such a colossal mistake. But it also only took that long for people to tell me that we should make mistakes like that all the time, because they appreciated the “Jesus-slushie”, with a wink and a nod.

    The woman who coined the phrase, however, had a much deeper theological reflection that followed. She said that she had to actually hold the cup in her hand, not politely setting it aside and ignoring it until it was time to partake. And in holding it in her hand, she was reminded of the depth of Christ’s love for her and for us all. 

    One little cup. One little mistake. One big reminder. 
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    I cannot in good conscious promise the people of my congregation that I won’t make a mistake at communion again. But I do know this, Jesus’s love is bigger than any mistake I may make. This isn’t a table for the perfect, but for those, like me, who screw up all the time. Christ’s table, just like his love, is big enough to hold all of that too. And even redeem the “Jesus-slushie”
to break into hearts who are waiting to receive.