by Clay Gentry<\/p>\n
What do shopping at Kroger and prepackaged communion kits have in common?<\/p>\n
It starts with a small change I noticed at Kroger last night that completely changes how checking out feels. It used to be that after everything was scanned, the screen would scroll through line after line of your “Kroger Savings.” A quarter or two here, a dollar there, all piling up into “Your Total Savings.” It was a great little moment of payoff. You saw, all at once, the benefits of shopping at Kroger.<\/p>\nNow? The savings are unceremoniously tucked under each item as they’re scanned.
\nI asked my cashier about it last night. He wasn’t sure why they changed it, but guessed it was probably to prevent people from thinking a sale price didn’t ring up. I guess that makes sense from an operational standpoint – maybe incrementally faster checkout?\n
But emotionally? It’s a total letdown. I had $8.25 in total savings last night, but spreading that discount across forty-two items, instead of 12 lines of savings at the end, made it feel like I didn’t save anything at all.<\/p>\n
Without that moment of satisfaction before I pay, the “Kroger Card” program loses its appeal. I was thinking, “If there’s no joy at the end of this, I might as well just go to Walmart.”<\/p>\n
And of course, it got me to thinking about Church life – got to get a lesson out of everything, right?<\/p>\n
On paper, small structural or practical tweaks usually make sense. They solve an efficiency problem, save time, or remove a minor inconvenience. But in the process, we often inadvertently strip away the sensory rhythm that gave people joy and a sense of connection.<\/p>\nI’ve recently visited three congregations that are still using those pre-packaged, disposable communion kits – the plastic pods with the cellophane seal – a holdover from COVID, I guess.
\nSure, from a practical standpoint, it makes total sense. They save time (you don’t have to pass out trays), they’re easier to prepare (you just open a box), and cleanup is a breeze (sort of). But it trades the symbolism of a shared memorial for the mechanics of a drive-thru.\n
The theology is technically still intact, but the experience has been flattened for the sake of convenience. Replacing the taste of real bread and the richness of real “fruit of the vine” with a styrofoam wafer and a sterile, lukewarm sip of grape-flavored chemical solution transforms a deeply tactile moment into something that feels… well, less than holy.<\/p>\n
Now, a quick disclaimer: I’m certainly not passing judgment on congregations that choose to use these (for the record, we don’t use them at Jackson Heights). But I would encourage leadership in congregations who do use them to take a long, hard look at what is being lost through convenience – because it’s so much more than just a matter of taste.<\/p>\n
Worse yet, I think it quietly undermines our argument for weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper.<\/p>\n
When we treat the Lord’s Supper as a cheap, disposable ritual, we erode the very reverence that makes us treasure coming to the Table on the first day of every week. Streamlining the Communion leaves us with a sterile substitute that’s hard to defend.<\/p>\n
Convenience always comes at a price, and too often, the cost is the very joy, beauty, and reverence that made the experience worth having in the first place.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Clay Gentry What do shopping at Kroger and prepackaged communion kits have in common? It starts with a small change I noticed at Kroger last night that completely changes how checking out feels. It used to be that after everything was scanned, the screen would scroll through line after line of your “Kroger Savings.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-97200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-lords-supper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":97200,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? Answer: Registering for the draft is a government law that does not violate any teaching of God. \"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-boy-girl-relationships-not-advisable-at-a-young-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":97200,"position":1},"title":"Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age Answer: Youth is a time of impatient desires. They want the things available to adults, but adulthood seems so far away. The typical teenage boy enters puberty around the age of 11. The typical teenage girl enters puberty around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-lost-the-surprise-somewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":97200,"position":2},"title":"We Lost the Surprise Somewhere","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I remember watching Mayberry RFD and related shows most of my childhood. Poor ignorant Gomer Pyle who worked as an auto mechanic was a notable character. 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Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":97200,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":97200,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). 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