Churchisms

Some of the most humourous and enjoyable memories that you will ever experience often happen in church. Seriously. There have been many Sundays where I've found myself doubled over in laughter whilst sitting in church. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Churches consist of people; and the truth is that most people frequently do or say funny things. Church dwellers certainly follow this pattern of humanity. Communion is a wonderful example of a very serious and important practice found within churches that can often give way to the ridiculous.

A few months ago I was sitting beside Sara Fraser. Need I say more? Those of you who know Sara are probably already picturing her huge smile and beautifully genuine laugh. It was communion time, and the little bowl full of tiny bread pieces was making it's way along the aisle. As the bowl neared where Sara was sitting, she quickly turned in her chair and knocked the bowl straight out of the hand of the poor person she was sitting next to. Pieces of bread went EVERYWHERE! As a few of us got onto our hands and knees and starting picking up the bread, Sara passed the comment "At least we're not Catholic", to which I gave the obligatory overly loud snort-laugh response. She had a very good, if not hilarious, point.

A few years ago, my sister, Mum and I used to attend a church that preferred to give traditional church routines an alternative twist. On this particular Sunday, the elders had erected a large wooden cross in the middle of the stage and tied a large bread roll to the centre of the cross with a bit of rope. The church members were to file past the cross and tear off a piece of bread from the roll. It seemed a little bit random to me, but I suppose that's ok, at the very least the big lump of bread was quite clearly symbolic of the body of Christ. Anywho, as Mum went to retrieve her piece of bread from the cross, she pulled with a little bit too much gusto, and the bread roll dislodged itself from the cross and proceeded to roll down the aisle for the length of the church. Gold. Mum was so embarrassed, hehe.. I think the elders had to discreetly tie the bread back to the cross so that the rest of the congregation could continue on with communion. Guess who was once again laughing the loudest?

My Uncle tells a great story about when he and a friend were playing in the church music team back in the day. This was in a very proper old-school Uniting church where the people were very particular about things being done a certain way. Once again it was communion time, and the members of the music team were being served the bread and juice. Communion at this church required the congregation to tear an appropriately sized piece of bread from a large bread roll. My uncle's friend was served first. He gave the bread roll a tug, and only a tiny crumb-sized piece of bread came loose. My uncle had a bit of a chuckle at how ridiculously small his friend's piece of bread was, and then proceeded to tear off a piece of bread for himself. As my uncle pulled at the bread, he managed to grab an outer piece that was attached to the soft inner bread. When my uncle removed his hand, he realised that he had retrieved a long coiled piece of bread that was completely inappropriate for one man to devour for communion. As the server moved on to the next member of the band, my uncle looked at his friend's miniscule bread crumb, and then looked at his long snake-like coil of bread, and it was almost more than he could bare. As many of you would have guessed, laughing out loud at an old school Uniting church is certainly frowned upon. In fact even the smallest distraction or change in routine would be cause for concern. Although my uncle needed to laugh, badly. The church stage had petitions that the music team stood behind that lined the stage all the way to the room out the back. So my uncle swung his guitar onto his back, discreetly lay down on his belly, and army crawled along the floor behind the petitions (so as to not be seen) and went out the back room door, laughed until he could hardly breathe, and then crawled back onto the stage. From what he could tell, no-one seemed to notice his absense, and the communition routine could continue as usual.

I'm always encouraged when ridiculous things happen at church. I'm so thankful that many of my fellow brothers and sisters seem to have an abundance of crazy...and not just because it makes me feel a little more normal. Enjoying these moments is yet another way that we can show love to our family under Christ.
Feel free to share any stories that you may have here.. I'd love to read them :)