There is nothing that
marks the passing of time, the special days, the milestones of life like
sharing food. Nothing shapes our common
life in the same way as meals we eat together. Aren’t the most joyful occasions
with loved ones centered around sharing food and drink? Eating is so very
special.
Yet eating is so ordinary.
Is there anything that reveals
our human frailty more than our hunger?
It is a daily reminder to us of our need. We are creatures that will be broken if we do
not have our recommended daily allowance of nutrients. You are not a rock; you are not an island;
you are dependent on the rest of God’s creation to survive and thrive. We all
are. We need to eat; no matter what else
is going on in our lives we need to eat.
God knows this is true.
That day when Jesus led
his disciples away to a deserted place, they were hungry. There were so many
people around wanting so many things from them - they were being pulled in so
many directions away from themselves and their own needs, to rest or to eat.
They were hungry when Jesus took them away from the crowds that day to a
deserted place. The crowds found them anyway. And it turned out that the
thousands of people who found them there were hungry too.
There they were: a throng
of hungry people in a lonely, deserted place.
The disciples were concerned.
They said to Jesus, “send them away so they can go somewhere else to be fed.” Surely,
here in the wilderness, there would not be enough. But it turned out there was enough...and more. Five loaves and two fishes turned into a meal
for 5,000 with 12 baskets full of leftovers.
The people were in a
lonely place, a place that looked like death, a place that didn’t look like it
could sustain life, then – amazingly – out of almost nothing there was plenty.
It was like that in the
wilderness with Moses and the Israelites too.
There they were without their fleshpots and whatnot, and they panicked.
But God provided the manna
and people went out and gathered it up.
Now, here is something special about this story: it didn’t matter how
much they gathered; they all had enough...enough and no more. Some gathered more, some gathered less, but
every single one had enough. You
couldn’t hoard it, you couldn’t save it up for later just in case, but every
day there was enough.
If we accept what God has
to offer, we won’t be in a deserted place anymore.
Bonhoeffer wrote about table fellowship in his book
Life Together. He said ever since Jesus sat at table with his disciples, the
table fellowship of the church has been blessed with his presence.
We are most aware of this when we gather at the
communion table. When we set the table with the cup and the loaf; when we
invite you to come to the table to receive the bread and the cup, or when we
pass the plates in the pews, from one to another to another; when we repeat the
words that Jesus said to his friends at that last dinner they shared together: this is my body, this is my blood; do this
in remembrance of me.
In these moments we know he is there with us. He is
our guest and our host. Christ is the giver of all gifts and the gift itself. How
can we fail to be thankful? This is why the communion prayer is called the
Great Thanksgiving. In this prayer we remember the ways God has provided for us
through the ages. In this prayer we are recognizing the unbroken chain linking
us to all the generations who came before, all of us sustained by the steadfast,
nurturing love of God.
The sacrament of communion is about life in Christ,
life together.
And because we have this beautifully unique
sacrament, we are blessed with the knowledge that anytime and anywhere we
gather at table in his name he is present there with us. The first prayer I
learned was, “Come, Lord Jesus; be our guest. And may these gifts to us be
blessed.” He is our guest and our host, our gift and our giver. And he is at
table with us whenever, wherever we extend the invitation.
Every time. Munch and Mingle in the Fellowship Hall.
Donuts and coffee before worship. Wednesday night suppers, or Thursdays at the
Red Roost – whether we are breaking bread or picking crabs – whenever and
wherever we gather as the church around the table, Christ is there too.
You see, when you belong
to the body of Christ, amazing things happen.
There was once a time when
I had an enemy in the church; someone who had offended me deeply. He called me to offer an apology and invited
me to lunch, but I declined. I was not
ready to forgive him. And I certainly didn’t want table fellowship with him.
But some time later, we
were in worship together. Communion was
celebrated, and we were invited to form a circle around the table, passing the
bread and the cup to one another. I took my place in the circle; I took the
loaf and the cup that was passed to me, then I turned to the man on my right
and offered them to him. I looked in his
eyes and said, “The body of Christ, broken for you; the blood of Christ, shed
for you.”
It wasn’t until later that
I realized that man I shared the loaf and cup with was my enemy, the one whose
lunch invitation I refused. How could I
have not known this? When I looked in
his eyes at the communion table, I saw a man who was just as much in need of
forgiveness as I was, a person as hungry as I was. I didn’t see an enemy – I
saw a brother.
It’s a mystery and a
miracle. It was a gift that allowed me
to see him in a new light.
When Christ is present you
are no longer in a lonely place, but you are part of a beloved community. When
Christ is present, life is bountiful and there is enough for everyone.
To Christ our Lord be all honor and glory
forever. Amen.
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