Sharing the Eucharist Before a Lecture on the Eucharist

Today I sprung a surprise on my students.  When the students in my “Church, Ministry, and Sacraments” class arrived, they found the chairs and tables stacked up, the floor filled with pillows and bean bags, and a modest agape feast prepared for them.  We then had the Lord’s Supper, sang “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, I spoke from Ezekiel 16.59-63 about the new covenant, and we finished with a prayer. After some serious snacking, we then had a debate between two teams on the “Symbolic” vs. “Sacramental” interpretation of the Eucharist. It was a great debate, good fun, done in a good spirit, and a good exercise in theological thinking. Since votes for the winning team were tied, I cast the deciding vote in favor of the Sacramental position. Then we had a lecture on different views of the Eucharist including Catholic, Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Reformed perspectives. A great morning of feeding on Christ, fellowshipping with each other, and doing theology.