Giggling in church

Last night church contained one of those moments of comedy that comes along at a very inappropriate time.

I was on welcoming, and when I’d run out of things to do I was helping to get communion ready, which we were to celebrate later in the evening. The person usually in charge of this wasn’t there yet, so some of us were bumbling on through trying to be helpful. We pulled some grape juice out of the fridge, which had a label on it (three cheers for whoever labelled it) that said “opened on 22/8/11”. We decided that was too old, so someone trotted off to buy some new juice. That is the last I took any notice of it, as I then broke up the bread they came back with, while someone else dealt with the juice.

So, after the sermon we had communion in the church (sometimes we do it over in the hall) and the bread and juice came around, as always, and we all held it and waited. Then came the moment to drink the juice. I took a sip and grimaced, then I looked at the girl next to me and she pulled a face and kind of poked her tongue out, and a small giggle got the better of us. Someone in front of her turned around and smiled. Then one of the guys behind us made some murmured comment, that included something about the "expiry date", and at this point we’re all shaking in our seats. Then another fellow, who’s quite the wag, leans forward from behind and says wrily, “oh you guys are so superficial”, and it almost got the better of me. I haven’t had to try so hard not to explode laughing in church for years, during communion of all times!

And a quick glance around behind me revealed that everyone was either grimacing, taking a second look at their communion cup or chuckling. It really was too funny. Thankfully a song was next up, so we could all pull it together, though I had moments of trembling trying to sing.

Afterwards I asked the guy who is usually in charge of communion in passing about the juice, and he said that it was “grape and carrot or something”. I didn’t bother trying to verify this, but GRAPE AND CARROT?! Why would they make such a juice? Whatever it was it was horrible.

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that if you want people to focus on remembering Jesus’ blood shed for us, don't surprise them with the juice flavour.