The Oneness of Christ's Table

It was a requirement, when my sisters and I were growing up, that we were in our seats at the kitchen table for dinner. It didn’t matter where we were or what we were doing, my mother was firm that we would be present for supper. However, while my mother expected us to be at the table, it didn’t mean we had to say good-bye to the friends we were playing with. Our friends were always invited to eat over and our table of four often held 6, 8 or even 12. And somehow my mother was able to do a “loaves and fishes” miracle and make our meatloaf or pasta feed everyone present.

I realize this early experience of the table has shaped how I understand coming to Christ’s table: everyone is invited, and there is always room for one more.

Tomorrow, we celebrate World Communion Sunday. Christians around the world will gather before a table and with outstretched hands reach for the bread and cup as they recall Jesus’ words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” And as the grain of the bread mingles with the sweetness of the cup, a holy mystery occurs: we are made one in Christ. Divisions of nation, language, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, and race fall away as we become the Body of Christ, no part unlovely or unneeded, no law or polity able to compete with Jesus’ invitation: “Take, eat, do this in remembrance of me.”

Oh, how we need this reminder in these days of division. Our human tendency to erect walls of who is in and who is out, of distrusting those who aren’t like us, breaks down in the breaking of the bread. We are reminded of this in I Corinthians 10: 16-17

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Don’t hold yourself back from coming to the table tomorrow. There is a place for you! And as you raise the cup to your lips, who else is there with you? Who is receiving this gift from God not only in your own church but in other churches around the world? What does it mean to you, that you are made one with them in this meal? How does it inform your living?