Despite the preaching you might hear in some churches, Jesus wasn’t big on issuing rules and commandments. The Hebrew scriptures, often called the Old Testament by Christians, have a lot of rules and commandments. The rules are frequently referred to as “The Law.” In Jesus’ time, there was constant debate about the law's intent. Does the commandment to observe the Sabbath preclude healing a sick person on that day? Is it lawful to harvest grain for food on the Sabbath? Is calling God “Abba” taking God’s name in vain? Jesus often found himself on the opposite side of the argument with the strictest Pharisees who took a narrow view of the law. However, Jesus did issue one commandment, often called the mandate. It is recorded in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another, just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Today, Maundy Thursday is the annual observance of that commandment. Christians worldwide gather to observe Maundy Thursday with various traditions, including foot-washing ceremonies, communion services, and special prayers and readings. Some congregations follow the communion service with Tenebrae, a gradual extinguishing of lights as a symbol of Jesus’ suffering.

An increasing number of congregations, however, have dropped Maundy Thursday services. Holy Week is marked in those congregations by Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. That is how it is in the congregation to which we belong. One of the things I miss about my working career is leading Holy Week services. I invested a lot of energy in the week's services and couldn’t imagine skipping Maundy Thursday. Although Maundy Thursday traditions shifted over the years I served, the service always included communion.

We will join a small United Church of Christ congregation with a Maundy Thursday service near our home. Christians believe communion is a sacrament that transcends time and space, connecting us with Christians in all times and places.

As a pastor, I have shared communion in many ways with many different foods. There were formal occasions with public prayers, private ceremonies in hospitals and homes, and informal times for sharing food and beverages. In the words of the institution for the sacrament, Jesus urged followers to remember this whenever they eat and drink.

Others might not consider it communion, but I shared food with a special ceremony and with the remembrance of Jesus during what has been called the coffee hour following worship. I have special memories of times when the food offering included Oreo cookies. I would gather a few cookies and sit with children at a table. I would take a cookie, carefully twist the two chocolate parts, and take them apart to reveal the cream in the middle. As I ate the cream first, I would say this is the proper way to eat the cookies. Some children would bring me Oreo cookies, and we would twist the cookies together and eat the cream. Some would bring me cookies years after our first sharing of them. It was a form of communion and an expression of the mandate to love one another. It was one of many places where I, as pastor, received the love that was shared.

However, the story of Oreo cookies has not always been a story of love. In 2018, Leaf Brands, makers of Hydrox cookies, sued Mondelez, the company that owns National Biscuit Company, makers of Oreo cookies. The claim is that Mondelez's direct-to-store marketing, where employees of Oreo stock grocery shelves, gave the giant company a competitive edge when their employees used that access to hide Hydrox cookies. The case is still in the courts.

If you aren’t a connoisseur of cream-filled chocolate cookies, the two brands are essentially the same for a good reason. In the 1890s, Joseph and Jacob Loose operated a very successful bakery in Kansas City, Missouri. Jacob became ill and went to Europe to regain his health. Joseph led the company into mergers with other bakeries against his brother’s advice. When Jacob returned, he started his own company, Sunshine Bakery. It succeeded and became second to his brother’s company, Nabisco. The smaller bakery began producing embossed chocolate wafers with a sweet vanilla filling. They called it Hydrox, a combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen, the two components of water. It was a subtle declaration of the purity of the ingredients. Hydrox became the most popular cookie of its day. Four years later, his brother’s company sought to increase their sales by experimenting with an imitation. They called it Oreo. For the rest of the brothers' lives, Hydrox outsold Oreo despite the latter's lower cost. People saw it as an imitation of the original.

Nowadays, Nabisco’s powerful marketing and distribution network has invested heavily in marketing Oreo cookies. Instead of lowering the price, they raised it to just a bit more than Hydrox. The tactic worked, and Oreo is now the most popular cookie.

I don’t bother to tell the story of the two brothers when I share cookies with children. I only ask them to check with their parents to ensure I have permission to give them a cookie. I have a slight preference for Hydrox, but without a doubt, it is easier to find Oreo on the grocery store shelves. Communion isn’t interested in brands or competition between brothers. It is invested in loving one another. It is based on love that goes both ways. Coke and Pepsi. The Beatles and the Stones. Hydrox and Oreo. You and me and all of God’s children.

In a day when political leaders collude with White Christian Nationalists to present a narrow and exclusive vision of Christianity, the celebration of communion at an open table where all are welcome is a critical act of defiance. We will join a service located less than a mile from the border. Those whose paperwork isn’t all sorted out will be welcome. Those whose gender identity doesn’t conform to standards set by others will be welcome. Those whose families are different from other families are welcome. The mandate leads us to affirm that all are welcome. “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”

We will share communion despite the government leaders, despite the whims of politics, despite the attempts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion.

And I will continue to share cookies with children.