Ritual over Relationship?

I'm going to let out a big secret. There are Corps in Canada who practice the ritual of communion in their worhsip service. Perhaps practice isn't right to say. Some have done it so often I'm sure they're quite good at it. Some will say, "it's a love feast". I say, "if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck?" Moving on...Why is it people would settle for the ritual rather than the relationship of a sacramental lifestyle. We know grace is not transferred during the ritual, but it is exchanged in the giving of oneself in sacramental living for others. For some, I think ritual is easier. For others, I feel we start looking for other touchpoints of faith when we are struggling to find our own identity. To this end let me help you out with a couple of words from our Generals. The first is General Booth's mandate for The Salvation Army found in Isaiah 58. It's a great read on relationship versus ritual. Then check out General Orsborn:

My life must be Christ's broken bread,
My love his outpoured wine,
A cup o'erfilled, a table spread
Beneath his name and sign.
That other souls, refreshed and fed,
May share his life through mine.

My all is in the Master's hands
For him to bless and break;
Beyond the brook his winepress stands
And thence my way I take,
Resolved the whole of love's demands
To give, for his dear sake.

Lord, let me share that grace of thine
Wherewith thou didst sustain
The burden of the fruitful vine,
The gift of buried grain.
Who dies with thee, O Word divine,
Shall rise and live again.
Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)

Grace,
rZ