05 December 2011

Ur doin it rong

If your kids take communion in a church like ours, you want them to be suitably reverent.

It's great when they learn to quietly say "Thankyou God for Jesus," and "Sorry for the wrong things that I do," before they quietly eat their bread and drink their teensy bit of juice.

But if after drinking the juice, your six year old boy lets out a burp and says, "C'n I 'ave some more?" it may be time to retire him from communion for a bit.

11 comments:

Emily Sue said...

At my church we sometimes have communion in our seats and sometimes we go up to the front to be served there. Only it's not just 'the front' - being a med-large church, we have 5 serving points, otherwise the process would take an hour. My friend's son is 19 and has Down Syndrome. She realised one day that he was taking communion at three different points every time. She questioned him about it and he said, "But... I'm hungry!" :D

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Oh dear! After last Sunday's service, when all the adults were busy chatting, I noticed the kids descend on the communion table and start slamming back the grape juice shots and tearing into the remaining bread.

I brought it to someone else's attention. "Should we be stopping that?" I asked, wavering between horror and amusement.

He considered the sight. "I say, let's just let 'em!" he said, and chuckled.

That man I asked is one of the straightest, most by-the-book old Baptists I've met, so I happily bowed to his opinion.

Or maybe he was rostered on to cleanup and didn't want to deal with the left overs...

Swift Jan said...

LOL oh I love that!!! It means that maybe, just maybe my kids are normal!!

tinsenpup said...

Um... Apparently that's a great compliment in some cultures! I'm not sure which, that's just what my partner keeps telling me. I'm sure God would take it that way though. lol.

Heather said...

My own kiddo has been known to spot the elements up on the altar table on Communion Sundays and gleefully shout "OH GOOD, WE GET SNACK TODAY!"

It didn't help that yesterday's Communion servers were tearing off hunks of bread large enough to make a sandwich out of, either. *I* couldn't get my piece into my mouth easily in one go, and for my daughter it was like a three minute process of diligently biting and chewing to finish her piece.

I'm pretty sure Jesus and God are cool with most behavior of kids, though, thank goodness. :-)

Tracy P. said...

When Jesus said let the CHILDREN come to me, I'm pretty sure he knew what he was in for. ;-)

Unknown said...

The innocence of childhood. Love it! All these comments are hilarious too. Crazy Sister, I'm going to have to remember communion etiquette myself now. 'Grape Juice Shots' - so true, it will take everything in me now not to throw my head back down the Blood of Christ and then wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and issue a big sigh afterwards now.

Hippomanic Jen said...

Parents may now be swallowed up by the earth. Kids! We would take everything too seriously without them.

Andi said...

I am guessing you are Baptist...Considering you are calling it "juice." My Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic friends all drink wine. I don't know about other denominations...Anyway, that is funny! Our "bread" is never good. And one day we had a young friend with our girls who decided she hated grape juice too much to drink it...I thought my husband was going to have a stroke at her rudeness/irreverence.

Emily Sue said...

At my church (Anglican) we usually have a choice of juice in the teeny cups or wine (port) from the common cup. Which frankly I think is disgusting, as does my minister who is a former nurse, but he offers the common cup every other time because it keeps the traditionalists happy.

John Ross Barnes said...

Ah yes, those wonderful little things the kiddos say. Don't let em kid ya, they do that on purpose. Ok, maybe not, but what if they did?

Thanks for this reminder that all we parents share some common woes. ;-)