the Lord's supper...a feast in the midst of all life

This was sent to me by my good friend Gail who is involved in ministry down at The Mustard Seed and here in Victoria.

"Who grieves God's heart more?

The masses who feed their loneliness and longings, their insatiable hunger and thirst on the world's hollow scraps?

Or we, His well-fed children, who hoard our Source of sustenance, the Living Water and Bread of Life, as though He were a private delight?

God's all-sufficient Son is meant to be shared.

Come to the table and meet my Jesus!

Feast on His eternal riches.

Let's tell the world."

( author-Susan Lenzkes )

It reminds me of the words of Sara Miles, author of " take this bread." Do we have a hope of deeply engaging the world apart from an open table...

Well, the Table is open....eternally. When churches forget that it's God's Table, and act as if it's theirs to control, then they lose God's power to touch, heal, feed and love without exception.

A few years ago, when I was involved in a leadership team of a traditional Anglican church, we made the decision to move the altar into the center of the community. For evangelical churches your probably thinking...ooooooooooh, big deal. Well, yes at first look it might not have looked like not much more than moving furniture. But, it was to point to a greater reality. Why, because really there is no more need for altars...there is no more need for sacrifice. Jesus took care of that forever.

So...get rid of the altar.

We were trying to point to a greater revelation of the " Table " being the " Altar " of the New Testament church.As a community we don't worship around the altar, we worship around the table.

The table fellowship of Jesus is weaved in and out, through out the whole gospels. There is something about a table. It is a huge part of life...every culture and people gather around some kind of table, and food. The table is like a basic building block of community. We usually gather around one everyday as families, or restaurants, and coffee shops with friends. Tables are a communal element of life.

A question which haunts me is, have we made the Eucharist, the Lords Supper, or Communion so ritualized...that we've removed it from the reality of everyday life.

I wonder if Jesus might even find this ritual foreign.

How could the disciples forget day one of seminary on the road, the wedding feast in Cana. The Pharisees shaking there bony fingers, asking the disciples why their master ate with sinners, and tax collectors. The prostitute that crashed lunch with the religious crowd to wash Jesus feet with her tears and hair. And, calling Zacheus out of a tree top, inviting himself to have dinner at Zach's house.

Seminary on the road has been a journey through life which started at a feast, a wedding, a celebration of life in the midst of family and community...around a table. Grad dinner ends in the upper room, students and teacher...around a table. Much of life seems to be navigated around the landscape of a table.

Here, Jesus takes two of the most common things in the life of his disciples, bread and wine, everyday things, things eaten at most meals...around a table. Here Jesus reveals he holds life in his hands, that all of life is grace, even the most common things. He takes the bread, and breaks it, revealing the brokenness of life...that his body will be broken for all life. He takes the wine, and pours it...revealing his blood will be poured into the brokenness of life. His blood will restore, heal and recreate the brokenness of all life.

18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. ( From Colossians 1, Eugene Peterson's, The Message )

This is a table he calls all humanity to, " come all those who are hungry." This a covenant he calls us to...to participate with him, to co-create with him, to restore, to heal, to build the new creation. And the table seems to be the landscape in which we navigate this redemptive process. The table is the altar in which we sacrifice ourselves with Jesus in which we can fix the broken and dislocated pieces of life....whether it be in church, a restaurant, a pub, coffee shop...sitting around a table at home with your family. Around every table we can imagine redemption.

So again I ask, have we made the Eucharist, the Lords Supper, or Communion so ritualized...that we've removed it from the reality of everyday life.

I wonder if Jesus might even find this ritual foreign.

Just a thought as I'm writing this, I wonder if " The Table ", this communal space in which community is discovered...is where real worship takes place. I wonder if those outside our church doors, in our neighbourhoods might hunger for this table more than 4 contemporary praise songs and a three point sermon. I wonder....

The table, the Altar of sacrifice...the most basic building block of community.

Comments

[brad grinnen]

great post... a couple thoughts.

1. if communion was initially an extension of a meal shared... and the early believers' community gathered in homes for meals AS communion... then why have we seemingly trivialized it or made it impotent by demanding ordained serve it to us during our weekly 'service' time.

2. it seems that if we are gathering with all sorts of people around tables...aren't we partaking in communion already? maybe we just don't recognize the sacred in the midst of the mundane.

anyway, these are the thoughts that have been in my head lately (caused by a few of your earlier posts). what if we approached every meal we had with people as an opportunity to partake in communion?

[jim]

As I began reading this, Ron, I was thinking "what does he do with all those places where we are told to pick up our cross and die to ourselves?" When I got to "The table is the altar in which we sacrifice ourselves with Jesus in which we can fix the broken and dislocated pieces of life, suddenly you gave me meaning to it all. In my experience, the altar was that area at the front of the church where people went to pray. I was a bit surprise, therefore, to discover it defined in more than one dictionary as, indeed, "a table". I think the key might be, as you indicate, in how we approach the location. I;m still thinking that an altar took several forms, from a stone slab, to a table, to a pile of rocks stacked for worship; and it is the attitude of the heart that "seals the deal". Great post, my friend....

[Mich]

Ron, thanks for this!

[HennHouse (Karin)]

Great post. And I'm looking forward to your answers to Brad's questions.

[ron cole]

Hey Brad, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I was over in Vancouver for a week visiting friends at Regent College and Trinity Western. Your bang on, We have trivialized it. The fact that we have ordained priests liscenced to conduct this ritual is mind boggling. It is nothing more than falling back in the the legalism of the OT Priesthood. We should allow children to do it. There is something so profound going on here, something so inviting, so open...something beyond us...all God. And somehow we think we own it. In reality, if we have faith...that is scandalous and as radical as Jesus...He is "in" us. Around any and every table we acn have communion and imagine redemption. It only hinges on one thing...FAITH.

[ron cole]

Jim, I agree...it's not location, it's the attitude of the heart. I would only add faith. I mean if we rest in the reality that Jesus dwells within us, made his home...we take, and make communion where and when we want. Around any table we have the opportunity to share the "living bread."