I've been attending a U.C.C. church while I'm here trying to figure out what to do next.
The church has very welcoming, has a great music program, and a fairly high-church liturgy that I appreciate and enjoy.
Or, at least, a fairly high-church liturgy that I appreciate and enjoy until it's time for the Lord's Supper.
Between belonging to a home church that celebrates Eucharist every time we come together (the only worship service we have without communion each year is the Good Friday Tenebrae.), attending a seminary that started our program with a full year of classes on the Sacraments, and preparing for the Worship and Sacraments ordination exam, I've spent quite a bit of time developing my idea of sacramentology.
For me, the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist is almost entirely about three things.
First, Communion is about God's action on us. I love Calvin's image of God reaching down and lifting us bodily into heaven, so that in taking Communion we experience the real presence of God.
Second, it's about God's drawing the church together and empowering it as a community to go out in to the world to do the work of God, the Missio Dei.
And third, it's about our grateful thanksgiving for God's action.
With being said it shouldn't be hard to understand why I cringe and squirm when at this Congregational church's monthly Communion service the whole congregation sings:
"[W]e eat this bread before You is a token of our love" and "[W]e drink this cup before You as a token of our love." (emphasis mine)
That's right, we take Communion so that we can demonstrate how much we love God.
Every time I take Communion with them, all I can picture is an arrow pointing in the wrong direction.
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