It Is What He Says It Is

We end our Community, Purpose, Love series on a high note by gathering on holy ground: The Lord’s Table.  Jesus gave us a simple but deeply profound drama to reenact regularly.  These everyday acts of sharing in bread and cup were intended by Jesus to be a ground of unity for his people – but what questions and controversies have swirled round, especially in the past five centuries!  Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Table, communion – what shall we call it?  Is it a memorial, a sacrifice, a reenactment … a sacrament?  Every week, once a month, quarterly …?

We know it’s important, vitally important, though we may not be able to explain exactly why.  Let’s explore a bit.

First, Jesus gave us something to do together: The Table is an act of corporate worship.  As we corporately worship at the Table, we are incorporated into Christ.

Jesus gives us bread and cup; we eat and drink.  What could be more basic, more fundamental, more necessary?  Eating and drinking reminds us that life comes to us from the “outside,” that we are dependent upon nourishment and sustenance, upon energy and life, from outside our bodies, from outside ourselves – physically and spiritually.

Jesus first gave us these things to do together on Passover eve.  Passover, Israel’s great Freedom Feast: “We were slaves in Egypt, but the LORD delivered us with a mighty hand and outstretched arm!”  In an upper room two thousand years ago, God-in-our-flesh is about to deliver his people from greater enslaving Powers than Egypt or Rome, from more dreaded tyrants than Pharaoh or Caesar.

Jesus gave us a covenant meal, a new covenant meal.  His disciples had attended the Passover meal every year of their lives; they knew the words by heart, all of them.  Yet in the midst of all this familiarity, suddenly Jesus goes “off script”: this bread … is … my body.  This … is … my blood of the covenant …”  No one had ever said that before – no one could have ever said anything like that!  Until that night.

Jesus gave us a mystery.  Eating and drinking may seem like the least mysterious things!  We do them several times every day, usually without thinking a lot about it.  Mystery does not mean a secret known only to a select few, or a puzzle to be solved.  Mystery is a reality to enter into by faith.  Mystery is something we get in on, but are never in control of.  Mystery is … big.  Deep.  High.  Wide.

It is what he says it is: “This bread is my body; this cup is my blood of the covenant.”  It’s infinitely above my pay grade to “explain” or “define” precisely what happens at the Table.  I rest my faith in Jesus: it is what he says it is.

And we do it together, because he tells us to.  Before we are a community of love, of purpose, of mission, of outreach, of service or anything else, we are a community at this Table.

What is meaningful to you as we gather at the Lord’s Table?  What are some ways our faith is nourished as we share together in the Table?

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