​Join Us for A Unique Sunday Around the Lord’s Table

“While they were at supper, Jesus took bread and said, ‘Take and eat.’” Every time we gather for the Eucharist, we hear these words as they have been repeated for more than two millennia. Yet for many of us, we mostly experience the Lord’s Supper in settings that don’t look like dining rooms and through a ritual that minimally suggests a meal.

But it hasn’t always been like that. Starting on that night prior to his death, then experienced again on the evening of his resurrection (see Luke 24:30) and continuing for years and years afterward (see Acts 2:46), Jesus’s followers came to recognize his continued presence among them within the context of eating. Early Christians would meet in each other’s homes for their daily meal; they would swap stories about Jesus – sometimes told by people who knew him first-hand – and listen to letters they received from apostles like Paul; and then they would remember and repeat what Jesus did on the night before he died.

But over time, the setting moved from homes to specially designated places. The sites were embellished with architectural grandeur. Prayers became formulaic and prescribed. Processions and ceremonial objects became part of the “service.” Musical instruments took on an importance of their own. And unfortunately, the more that was added, the less the people were involved. Sharing a meal had long disappeared from the practice. Real bread was replaced with mass produced wafers and wine was dispensed in small sips. The people (that is, we) were deemed to be unworthy and became little more than passive observers. We were relegated to kneel in rows, separated from the action and, for a period, even denied the Eucharist, except for perhaps monthly or other occasions.

No more. Today the Episcopal Church defines the Eucharist as the principal act of Christian worship. Here at St. Paul’s, we hold that God loves and invites everyone, no exceptions. We believe that any time we spend together is an occasion to draw closer to God by drawing closer to each other.

This week, during our Summer of Suppers, the Worship Commission is designating the 9:45 service to highlight the Eucharist as the most sacred of suppers. As closely as feasible, we’ll return to its origins, doing away with many of the trappings that have become associated with “going to church.” We will gather where we eat meals together – in the parish hall. We will sit equally around the table. Our prayers and our songs will come from the heart, not from sheets of paper. And although we will not serve a full meal as they might have in early Christian times, our time together will focus on the Lord’s Supper as a source of nourishment, not as an act unto itself, but to strengthen us for the service that continues outside of Sunday mornings.

By coincidence and by design, this Sunday comes during a five-week stretch of Gospels about bread. In them, Jesus offers himself, his body, as the bread of life. Last weekend our deacon Theodore preached about how we need bread. This Sunday, I invite you to come, taste and see, and be fed.