By Emily Navarre
e-navarre@onu.edu
Andrew Shaffer, ONU alumnus and current graduate student of Theology at Emory University, spoke during last week’s Faith Lift about rituals and meaning in Christian and everyday life.
According to Shaffer, people find meaning in certain objects and rituals in life. In these objects and rituals, he said, “we deposit the meaning of our lives, and from them we make withdrawals of meaning as well. Everyday, ordinary objects become extraordinary, rich with meaning and importance.”
Shaffer based his discussion of meaning in objects around one of his favorite pastimes: pottery. In particular, he recalled one less-than-perfect jar he made that came to have special meaning for a friend and himself. Though they used the jar to store spare change, it also collected memories.
“[The jar] represented our times together,” Shaffer said. “Our dates, our meals, our school work, all the things that defined our lives...[It was] something that we both added to at the end of our day …[and] made meaningful together.”
Much as the jar collected memories in addition to coins, other objects and rituals collect meaning and value for people as individuals, whether it is a cup of coffee shared with friends or car-pooling.
“These are all rituals,” Shaffer said, “though we might not always think that they are.”
The same application of meaning applies to the objects and rituals associated with Christianity. To demonstrate this, Shaffer spoke about the plate and cup used in Communion. For Christians, this church sacrament represents Christ’s sacrifice and creates a communion with God.
As a ritual, Communion also brings fellow believers together to a common meal. Shared rituals, Shaffer believes, are the most important because they “bind us together in our common humanity.”
The value of Communion is based in part on the meaning given to it by the participants. According to Shaffer, people must be able to find meaning in the act. One way that this is done is through the words used during the ritual.
“Let’s say we have Communion [but] we don’t say any words,” Shaffer said. “We just throw some bread on a plate, pour some juice in a cup, and say, ‘Hey, it’s Communion! Dig in.’ That’s not meaningful now. Something’s been lost.”
As a result, neglecting Communion—or any other such ritual—causes the church to suffer.
“We suffer,” he said, “because [Communion is] a tangible expression of something that’s going on in our hearts ... This is a dramatic ritual and representation of something we believe. If we say we believe it, then it should be seen. […] If we do not act these things out, we don’t realize that [they have] meaning.”     
All church rituals, from Communion to sharing coffee and doughnuts, have some spiritual significance and meaning for the church and those who participate in them. Ultimately, Shaffer said, it is through the meaning that we find in these rituals that “we make order out of the chaos that rumbles beneath the surface of our psyche.”