I observed a Mass at our local Roman Catholic parish this weekend. Hearing the eucharistic prayers reminded me of how much I love Holy Communion and serving at The Table. And my own hunger and need for God has probably never been clearer to me.
Holy Communion is the Truth: it sums up the truth about God, humankind and the cosmos. It reveals God made human in the state of pure gift for us and invites us to become pure gifts for God and one another through the same celebration. All this takes place in the most humble and hidden way: the incarnate Son becomes present to us in the form of simple bread and cup. If we accept the “logic” of God’s self-emptying love, Communion becomes that luminous center which sheds new light upon all the other mysteries of faith and shows what our faith means for our communal and personal existence. When we come to this table we come to the sacred mystery of our faith, the sacred mystery of God’s love. (Roch Kereszty)
Rachel Held Evans wrote, “This is not a table for the worthy, it’s a table for the hungry”.
Jesus said that he didn’t come for the sake of the healthy, but for those who are sick.
In the broken body and spilled out blood of Jesus, we see the entrance of God into our brokenness, into our disastrous wandering, and flailing and failing arrogance that streams through our relating and thinking and doing.
Here we see God doing what only God can do.
We are un-done by our sin, but God is un-doing our un-doing.
That which is God, and of God, is remaking and restoring and rescuing and redeeming us as we are spiritually nourished by the holy memory of the life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus, The Christ.
Henri Nouwen said:
Holy Communion is recognition. It is the full realization that the one who takes, blesses, breaks, and gives is the One who, from the beginning of time, has desired to enter into communion with us. Communion is what God wants and what we want.
Every human heart, whether they realize it or not, is longing to meet a God who longs for us.
“This is not a table for the worthy, it’s a table for the hungry”.
I grew up in churches with a pretty flat understanding of Communion. It was loaded with a high value of control and manufactured regret. (All the talk about grace is pretty much lip service. Just watch what happens when the rubber hits the road.)
Growing up, we did communion about once a month partly so we could check the box because “Jesus said to do communion.” So we did it, all the while criticizing other traditions that we believed did communion only as an empty ritual.
Friends.
On the regret side, we would only talk about communion in terms of the cost of sin and how awful and bad we are. So I would find myself many times thinking that if I couldn’t drum up bad feelings about myself on command, then I just didn’t really respect communion or love Jesus.
But this is not a Table that perverts the good news of Jesus by calling you to celebrate your shame as a precondition for grace. This is not a table that proclaims freedom by inviting you to inhabit bondage as your identity and destiny.
“This is not a table for the worthy, it’s a table for the hungry”.
We come to The Table hungry for the healing and sustaining presence of a God who is reaching to us. We come to The Table to be energized by God’s life-giving power so that we can continue and extend God’s reach to all who are far from God’s Love.
We won’t miss out on the power of Holy Communion if we lose moralistic ideas of control and regret. But we will miss it if we fail to see that The Table invites us to be formed, shaped and sent out as a people who together are the living presence of God’s love. We will miss the power of what Christ has done and is doing if we make the body and blood of Jesus all about little old me and my get of out hell for free card for the sweet bye and bye…
“This is not a table for the worthy, it’s a table for the hungry”.
Every time we receive God’s food that relieves our hunger and longing, we are reminded of the great mass of a starving, hurting, forgotten, broken humanity who have yet to know that there is a Table for the hungry, hosted by the God of the hurting, the broken hearted and the crushed in spirit. We are reminded that where we live and work is filled with people who are treasured by God who desires that they would be saved.
“This is not a table for the worthy, it’s a table for the hungry”.
So if you have made known your need for God, and have recognized the deep hunger of your life will be filled by God’s love, then The Table is for you.
Praise to the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, Lover, Beloved and Love. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. Alleluia. Alleluia. Amen.