52 Weeks at the Table – Week 5

Once there was an alliance of five kings who went to war against four kings. They took captive the wrong person – Lot, nephew of Abram. And Abram mustered an elite fighting force, who defeated them and returned the plundered treasures to their original owners. “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.’ And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” Bread and wine: ancient symbols of hospitality and graciousness. Not too many years ago, a family would be welcomed to a new home by their community with the gift and blessing of “bread, that this household may never know hunger; wine that it may never thirst for joy and prosperity.”

Many years after the meal in Abram’s honor, the psalmist King David wrote a messianic poem, referring to the incident, prophesying that the Lord God would one day judge the nations through a King who was “a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” And the writer of the letter to the Hebrews closes the prophecy, declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was that king, that priest … that bread, that wine.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Lord God of Israel, thank You for Your gift and blessing of bread that we might never know hunger again … the bread of heaven itself, Your Son, Jesus, the King and Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. May that blessing of His presence rest upon us now as it did those who shared His table then. We recognize His sacrifice and His presence now in bringing You this prayer. Amen.

A Prayer Over the Cup

Lord God of all creation, we give You praise for the blessing of anticipating the feast of your kingdom, purchased with the blood of Christ, present in this cup. May we always give You – not just a tenth – but all, as He gave all for us. He redeemed and rescued us from captivity to sin, and brings eternal treasure to our lives. May this blessing of generosity fill us completely as our appetite for your heavenly table is whetted by this cup. This we pray through the King of Shalom, the Prince of Peace: Amen.

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 4

In the early ages of mankind, Genesis 6 tells us, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” And He set the limit of man’s days – which had included some almost-thousand-year lifetimes – to a mere one hundred and twenty years. Then He resolutely promised to drown in water a mankind already drowning in wickedness, sparing only righteous Noah, his family, and the animals preserved on a great ship. When the flood receded, and Noah offered God a sacrifice from among the precious few animals, God blessed that family and permitted them to eat both grain and game. But He also warned them and the animals with them that in this new world, life was to be regarded as precious; and from every man and beast He would require an accounting for each life taken. And He promised never again to obliterate all life with the waters of a flood.

Luke 9 reveals that, after feeding a multitude with multiplied grain and game, the often-righteous Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus promised to die and be the sacrifice pleasing to God, establishing a new kingdom and obliterating sin and death. So He resolutely set His face toward Jerusalem, and when He was not welcomed in Samaria, He refused to let fire be called down from heaven. For every thought of his heart was only good all the time, and Jesus had in mind bringing earth and heaven together by being suspended between them. By letting His years be limited to between perhaps 30 and 33, His intention was that a man’s days would far, far exceed one hundred and twenty years.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Lord God of all creation, righteous and just, You have preserved us to this day and You save us through the waters that wash away sin. Yet we know that only the sacrifice that You made could do accomplish this. That You could do this for so many, preserved by a ship no larger than a bowsprit and a yardarm, is astounding to us – such was the power in the body of Jesus on that cross to take up again not only His life, but ours. As we share this bread, we pray that, through the One whose body it represents, You will multiply our years in Your new world, Your Kingdom. Amen.

A Prayer Over the Cup

We give you honor and glory and praise, O God, and thanksgiving for the One whose blood was acceptable to you when ours was not, for our thoughts are so often given over to evil. Through that blood, celebrated in this cup, we are no longer held accountable for lives we have wasted, and we see how precious Your gift of life truly is. May a constant recognition of its value be our blessing as we drink together, we pray through Your righteous Son. Amen.

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 3

When the sons of Adam and Eve brought their offerings to the Lord, He looked with favor upon the fat portions of the flocks given by Abel, but not upon the fruits of the soil offered by Cain. Scripture does not tell us why. It doesn’t even say that jealousy over God’s favor was the motive Cain had in angrily murdering his brother. But before it happened, the Lord warned Cain that if he did not do what was right, something that desired to have him would lie crouching at his door – and that “something” had a name. God spoke the word “sin” into our lexicon in that warning. Confronted later by the Lord about his sin, Cain seemed to know that he deserved to die.

Yet in spite of the curse that he would wander the earth as a vagabond, the Lord showed him mercy – and put His mark of protection on him.

When Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders’ reaction was clearly jealousy over what they feared people would perceive as God’s power in the vagabond Preacher of repentance from sin. Even while plotting His murder, their high priest Caiaphas could not seem to keep from uttering the prophetic words: “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

Yet in spite of the fact that Jesus was God’s very own Son, the Lord did not put a mark of protection on Him, nor prevent His murderers from showing no mercy.

Something within the heart and head of every descendant of Adam with a working heart and head hears these stories and cries out: “That’s not fair! Cain deserved to die! Jesus did not deserve to die!”

And we are perfectly correct. Maybe the offering that Abel gave pleased the Lord because it recognized that the sin of Adam’s children leads to death; that sin requires sacrifice; that the blood of the innocent cries out from the altar, from the ground, even from a cross – and that God hears its cry.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Holy God, You have put within us a sense of right and wrong; of justice and mercy. You have refined it through Your teachings. You have perfected it in Your Son. We have all failed to live up to His example, and our self-righteous posturing and jealousy of each other would be sin enough to make us unworthy of His sacrifice. But the good in us still yearns for Your favor; to be the body of Christ as He gave His body for us. Through Him we ask Your blessing on this bread, His body. Amen.

 

A Prayer Over the Cup

Righteous God, we ask Your forgiveness for all those times when we have murdered others, just a little – by wishing them ill or judging them or dashing their hopes or stealing what they treasure. We know their blood cries out to you even while it still flows within them. We know that the only thing that can make it right is Your Son’s blood flowing in us, which He gave for all. Through Him we ask Your blessing on this cup, His blood. Amen.

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 2

When God brought the first Adam into the world, it did not take long for it to be obvious that it was not good for him to be alone. So God gave the man Eve, and He gave them a garden in their world, and He gave them everything they needed it, and to make them fully human, He gave them a choice between the self-minded sin and love for others and Him. When true evil came into the garden, He let them be tempted through hunger and doubt and ambition. When they heard God’s voice in the garden and were awakened to evil’s presence, they were forced from the garden together … they worked against hunger and thirst together … and they faced the death of their child together.

When God brought the last Adam into the world, God gave Him very little – a family and friends. Everything He needed to be fully human, including the choice between the selfishness of sin and the selflessness of love. He let Jesus be tempted through hunger and doubt and ambition. And when Jesus’ closest friends dozed off hearing His voice, they were awakened to true evil coming into the garden. When He was forced from the garden, He was led alone … when His last meal with them was gone, He thirsted alone … and at the end, he faced death alone.

But God knew it was not good for Him to be alone, nor for us. So we remember the Christ in this last meal together, and yearn for the day when we will be brought back to life as He was. We anticipate the day we’ll be presented to Him as His bride, beautifully dressed for her Husband. We look forward to the timeless day of a wedding feast that satisfies our hunger and thirst for his righteousness far beyond what these morsels of bread and sips from a cup can whet our hopeful appetites to share with Him.

And in them we remember His body and His blood, given selflessly so that we could be together for all time, by giving us life without end through His Spirit.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Father of the Bridegroom, we praise You for Your wisdom in providing all that we needed, from our families and friends to the relationship we deeply and desperately need with You. We thank You for placing us, the lonely, in Your gathered family, as Your children by giving your one and only true Son. Feed our hunger for Him through this bread, His body; feed our doubt through His faith; feed our ambition through His selflessness. Bless this bread and we who share it, recalling Jesus Christ and praying through His intercession. Amen.

 

A Prayer Over the Cup

Father of the Given Son, we give You glory for giving us all that we needed to be human – from the power of choice that speaks of Your faith in us to the blood of your Son which erases the sin we have selfishly chosen. Thank you for this cup which eases our thirst for the righteousness we cannot achieve alone. Bless it and us as we share in the joy of His redemption and praise You through His name. Amen.

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 1

At a time when there was nothing, God created. He created the heavens and the earth … light and darkness … waters and land … life and vegetation … vessels of light in the heavens … fish and fowl … beast and beastmaster, mankind. That’s what the first chapter of Genesis tells us.

Written many years later, the first chapter of John’s gospel tells us that everything was made through Jesus – yet the world He made did not recognize Him.

Yet from the beginning, God must have known what He would ask mankind to accept on faith, and how we would fail Him. On the third day, when He created trees, He must have known that their wood could be used to create a cross. When He created vines, He must have known that their fruit could be used to fill a cup of blessing. When He created grains, He must have known that the bread made from them could be used to strengthen the body.

So from the beginning, He provided for our failure with His success. He provided for our hunger and need with His sufficiency. He provided for our nothing with everything. He provided His own body and blood to buy ours back from sin and self. And on the third day, He lived again so that we could live forever.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Glorious God and author of all creation … thank You for using your unlimited knowledge, wisdom, power and love to create a world of beauty even in view of the ugliness that could be brought to it. Help us to recognize You in it. Thank You for this bread that we have made from what You have made. Help us recognize You in it. Thank you most of all for Your Son, Whom it represents: the bread of heaven, broken for us. Help us recognize Him in it as He brings this prayer to you. Amen.

 

A Prayer Over the Cup

Thank You, Creator God, for setting eternity in our hearts even though we cannot fathom what You have done from beginning to end. Help us to recognize You where creation testifies of Your infinite love. Thank you for the contents of this cup, which we have distilled from what You have poured out: life and blessing through the blood of Jesus Christ. Help us always recognize Him in it as He bears this thanksgiving to Your throne. Amen.

Preface: A Story to Share While Dining Together

In my church tradition – churches of Christ – we observe the Lord’s Supper every week. The key word in that sentence is “tradition,” based on an interpretation that the incident recounted in Acts 20:7 implies that first-century Christians shared the bread and the cup every week, and only on the first day of the week. Some even go so far as to call that interpretation a command, and others would insist that the meal has no significance more or less often, or celebrated on any other day.

Other fellowships observe this feast less often – some, once a year because Passover is observed once a year (and the first Last Supper was almost certainly a Passover meal); others, twice a year or quarterly (because that is their tradition). Some followers observe it rarely or not at all.

For some, only the bread is shared.

For some, the elements are shared only among believers and/or the baptized.

For some, the cup is filled with water rather than wine or the unfermented blood of the grape.

For some, the bread is flat and unleavened (like Passover matzoh) and for others it is not.

There are almost as many ways, rules, practices and traditions surrounding the Lord’s Table as there are church fellowships which dine there.

Personally, I think each one brings something unique to the Table. However, the Table is a place where the lavish meal shared by the Host shows the poverty of anything that anyone else could bring.

But on the subject of frequency (and even that subject is far too complex to treat in the preface to a book), I can’t say that I have ever heard of a group of believers who gather to partake of this meal every single day of every week of every year.

Yet, if the term “breaking bread” carries a consistent meaning in the New Testament, that is what the first believers did – in their homes and at the temple courts, the places where they worshiped together (Acts 2:42-47).

Perhaps that was observing too frequently and would be observing too frequently today. Perhaps not.

What we can be certain about from scripture – and this requires no interpretation – is that Jesus Christ, on the night He was betrayed, took the bread and the cup and blessed and shared them with His closest friends. He is quoted by Paul as saying twice to them that when they took the bread and cup, they were to remember Him (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). When Luke records His visit in resurrected form with two men walking to Emmaus, it was when He broke the bread at dinner that they recognized Him (Luke 24:13-35).

And that’s the purpose of this series of posts: to recognize Jesus in the bread and the cup.

There is a wrong way to observe this meal, and Paul is plain about it in that chapter to Corinth. He doesn’t mention content of the cup or the type of bread or the frequency of observance – in fact, quotes Jesus as saying, “whenever” or “as often as.” But he does emphasize intent, purpose, meaning, remembrance (twice), proclamation, recognition, and community with others – expressed in Corinth as patience until all arrive to share in the meal.

There is a right way to celebrate this Eucharist, too: with an unwavering, wholly fascinated, holy focus on the Christ.

He says “remember me,” and although Paul adds that we proclaim His death until He comes, His death is not the entirety of who He is. Jesus was before creation; all things were made by, through and for Him; and He sustains them all. He was spoken about by the Father to the first Adam, to the patriarchs, to Moses the lawgiver, to the prophets. He was born, lived, grew, taught, helped, healed, loved and died, then lived again … just as God’s word to all those before had said. And in living again, He gave His Holy Spirit to men to carry on the work God had in mind for us to do all the time: tell His Story and make known His name in all the earth (Genesis 12:8; Exodus 9:16; 1 Chronicles 16:8; Isaiah 12:4; Matthew 21:9, 28:19 Acts 2:21, 9:28; Revelation 15:4).

That’s the Story related by scripture: the Story of God and man. Jesus was both, to reconcile both. It is a Story about Him, start to finish. It looks forward to Him, looks intently at Him, looks back toward Him, then looks forward to His glorious return.

In every way, the Bible is the Story to be shared at the Table.

That’s what I hope this series of posts will communicate:

• A call to remember Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Son of Man and the Savior of this world.
• A call to proclaim Him as such; to demonstrate His unparalleled love for us in this self-sacrifice and to hear our own lives challenged to imitate it.
• A call to corporately recognize the Host of our meal in its elements, in His presiding role at the Table, and in His Spirit within each one around it.

I don’t really intend for these posts to be a lectionary for communion. With fifty-five devotional thoughts expressed (there are alternates), this series of posts contains too few to reflect the exuberance of the Christians’ daily observance in Acts 2 and contains too many to examine for church traditions which surround the table only one to four times each year. If this series of posts must be used as such, let it guide rather than dictate; suggest rather than script.

I do hope these posts will simply prompt a yearning to delve more deeply into the Story and help transform our time at the Table together from a rote requirement of law into an opportunity to remember, proclaim and recognize Jesus Christ.

Whether we’re at the Table or not, that’s something God wants us to do and be blessed by doing.

Every day of every week of every year.