Sometimes "The Way We Used to Do It" is the Best way to do it.

I have been attending Baptist churches since I was a young child and today I had an experience during worship that I have never encountered before.  Now I know that we attend church to have those “never before” experiences with the Lord’s people and His presence but this one really was a surprise of a different kind. 

To be certain it took place during what should always be a most hollowed and solemn observance . . .  The observation of the Lord’s Supper. For those who are not aware, the Lord’s Supper is in Baptist churches a symbolic activity. . . . it a sense it is a metaphorical not metaphysical experience.

 For us, Baptist, the Lord’s Supper (Communion) is where we create a living picture through action which reminds us of the Lord Jesus’ sacrificial death. The elements bread and wine (grape juice for Baptist since prohibition) represent his body and his shed blood as he died for our sin. It conveys no special grace or spiritual endowment but serves as a reminder of what the Lord has done for us. It can and should be a spiritually rewarding experience.

Now while the meaning of the Lord’s Supper has not changed over the centuries among Baptist the means whereby we observe it certainly has evolved. In the early days Baptist were literalist in the way we observed the Lord’s Supper. Baptist in past centuries would literally take a loaf of unleavened bread, break off a piece and pass it around the group where the rest of the congregants could break off their own piece of bread. For centuries this was the way we did it. However, eventually we did start precrumbling the bread and offering it in small bite size pieces to make sure there was enough to go around. 

However, when it came to the wine, we remained literalist in the strictest sense. Jesus passed his chalice around and so Baptist used a single chalice from which all would drink. Then, probably due more to modern science than anything else, this single cup idea began to change. Some churches (more liberal  minded) started using individual cups while others (more conservatively minded) continued to use the single cup. The theological argument against the individual cups was that the practice corrupted the ordinance. Jesus did not use many cups but one signifying his dying once for sin Of course the use of an individual cups could just as easily been said to represent the fact that He shed his blood for all people. However, that would have opened a larger argument between the Calvinist and the Armenianist. I suspect the most common argument for the single cup was the fact that Jesus used a single cup andthe fact that he said he would not share it again until He did so in the Kingom.

I think the use of individual cups prevailed because the non-dippers (snuff) and non tobacco chewers of the 1800's just got tired of the tobacco juice being left behind in the wine and on the cup. So in my mind while the single cup appeals to me spiritually, the use of individual cups gets my attention hygienically. 

I was OK with the change in the way we accessed the bread that represents the body of Christ and the wine that represents His shed blood because it didn’t change my focus during the ceremony on the meaning of that in which we are engaged . . . the Lord’s Supper as He instituted it. I was still able to focus on the ordinance, its meaning and my spiritual condition at the time without beiing distracted by the containers that delivered he elements to me.

But today, I had a new experience regarding the Lord's Supper.  I suppose was inevitable  . . . . after all I'd head about these cups many years ago.Today as I observed the Lord’s supper I received both elements (bread and wine) in a self-contained hermeneutically sealed cup. I must say right up front that I didn’t like it. At first I couldn’t think of any theological reason to object. After all, we were still remembering Christ sacrificial death. I just knew, I didn’t like it.  

Then we began to observe the ordinance and I discovered several problems. First, my wife could not get her container opened so while the pastor spoke I was busy trying to open the little sealed up cup so we could eat the styrofoam wafer and drink the BHT laced grape juice. I'm not even sure the wafer was bread . . . it seemed to me to be more like a thin rice cake or a slice of the little filler under the cap of a bottle of Alka-Selcer. Then we went through the same battle with the grape juice. To tell you the truth I thought I was opening my ketchup at Burger King.

Suddenly, it dawned on me about what was wrong with this approach. The problem is not with the elements themself or which how the ceremony was performed. The problem is that it forces us to focus on the instrument by which the elements were delivered and not on the elements and their meaning. I couldn’t focus on the ordinance for struggling with the container and the struggle other people were having.  

 I think I am going to relegate these things to “nice try” but no thanks. I’ll just stick with either of the old fashioned ways of observing the Lord’s Supper mentioned above.  

Sometimes, the way we used to do it is the best way.

I Want My Microwavable Bottle Back!

I know that what is on my mind right now is probably not one of the more earth shaking thoughts that I have had. In fact, it might even be considered by some as petty and in the broad spectrum of things pretty irrelevant.

However, it is on my mind.  And what you ask is that? Well, it is Hungry Jack Pancake Syrup. Now in my mind Hungry Jack and Log Cabin Syrup are manly syrups. Most of the others are feminine with name like Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth but Hungry Jack, even Hungry Jack Lite, has a manly sound to it.  And not only did it sound manly it could be microwaved. It was our syrup of choice.

Then one day I noticed that my wife was pouring a 26 ounce bottle of H.E.B. brand (Regional Grocery Store Chain) syrup in an old Hungry Jack Microwavable bottle. Of course my suspicious mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was trying to pass off that cheaper store brand for my preferred syrup. But I didn't say a word.

No, I kept this little secret to myself until one morning when we were having pancakes for breakfast. I waited until everything was just right. Pancakes piping hot and buttered and I had poured an unusually sufficient amount of syrup on them. Then, I took my fork, cut through the short stack of pancakes and took a big bite. Then I said, "This syrup doesn't taste like what we usually have are you sure its Hungry Jack?"  To my astonishment she replied, "No, it's not Hungry Jack. I haven't been able to find the Hungry Jack Microwavable Syrup in any of the stores so for the last few months I've been using H.E.B. syrup in the Hungry Jack Microwavable bottle."

That's when I began to feel the real culprit was not my wife but the Smucker's Food Company who makes and markets syrup under the Hungry Jack name.  A little research on my part and I discovered that back on April 28, an entry appeared on the Hungry Jack Facebook page that said,  “As some of our most loyal fans, we want you to know that later this month we are changing the look and size of our syrup bottle! Our new bottle will be taller and thinner and will hold 24 oz. instead of 27.6 oz. As a result, we have decreased the suggested retail price so the cost per ounce stays the same as it was prior to the change. No changes are being made to the actual syrup. Please post any questions you have and we’ll do our best to answer each one. Thanks again for being some of our most loyal fans!”

As I read through the 100's of comments I could not help but notice that the page administrators gave the same answer to every question regarding this dastardly deed. " “We made the decision to change our bottle based on a shift in consumer preference toward a taller, simpler bottle and a shift in consumer preference away from warming syrup in its original bottle.”

They had changed the  bottle because according to some consumer study they had done people no longer wanted their syrup hot or warm. Of course I don't know who they surveyed . . . probably their office staff. I know who they didn't ask . . . .me! I know at I Hop Pancake Houses people are constantly asking for hot maple syrup.

Cheap syrup heated in old Hungry Jack bottle

However, the more I thought about it the more I realized it was not the syrup that was at issue. Syrup, after all,  regardless of the brand is pretty much all the same. It was the perfectly designed microwavable bottle that was at issue. Even though it was squatty it held a full 3.5 ounces more than the standard bottle. It had a wonderful pour spout and a crimped handle that did not get hot. It also had invisible letter that when the syrup was just right became visible telling me that my syrup was hot.  Yep, its all about the bottle.  Fortunately for us we have a couple of those now obsolete squatty deceptively small bottles.

So here's my thinking on this weighty matter: Since 99% of syrup you buy at the local grocery store regardless of brand is really nothing but  high fructose corn syrup and water combined with natural and artificial flavors brand is not really important. They are all basically the same thing. Just buy the brand that has the lowest per ounce price which will almost certainly be the house (store) brand. At any rate that's what we do. We buy H.E.B. Brand syrup and pour it in our Hungry Jack bottle, heat it in the microwave, pour it on our pancakes and continue to enjoy our pancake breakfast.

Like I said in the beginning most folks might consider this a petty thing but I personally hope that Smucker’s Food Company will discover that people were loyal to the bottle, not to the corn syrup, water and flavoring that comes in it.