Dear Church: Let's Embrace an Open Table

Dear Church,

It is time for us to embrace an open table. 

The Gifts of God for the People of God. 
This is God’s table and all are welcome here. 
No exceptions.

These are the words I say each and every time I celebrate the eucharist (communion, mass, Lord’s Supper).  Numerous other pastors, priests, and bishops say these, or similar words, at the tender moment in our worship when the gathered people come forward to receive the everyday items of bread and wine. We do not fully understand it, but we know that somehow Christ is really and truly present in the bread and wine. They nourish us with peace, grace, unconditional love, and acceptance. It is sacred, indeed. 

Maybe it is the sacredness of the experience that has prevented us from embracing an open table. The official teaching of the Episcopal Church (the denomination I serve), is that all baptized Christians are invited to come forward to receive the bread and wine. Those who are not baptized may come forward for a blessing. I imagine for those who remember the days when confirmation was required to receive the eucharist (prior to 1982), this approach for “all baptized Christians” was pretty radical. After all, it meant baptized Christians of any and all denominations were welcome to come forward to receive the bread and wine. The only problem is that even this can feel exclusive. These are the rules of our human institutions, and I think we have missed the mark. 

Recently, a parishioner of the church I serve, Bruce*, shared he visited another Episcopal Church in his travels. He had grown accustomed to our invitation at the eucharist, where the celebrant says, “The Gifts of God for the People of God. This is God’s table and all are welcome here. No exceptions.”  When the celebrant at this church said, “The Gifts of God for the People of God” they went on to add “All baptized Christians are welcome to receive communion...”. Bruce is not new to the church. He is a cradle Episcopalian. Yet this moment for him, was in such stark contrast to the love and welcome he feels each week when there are “no exceptions”, that he simply got up and left the service. 

When we see Jesus break bread with his followers, there are no conditions to receiving. Everyone present is simply welcomed and enveloped into the gathered people, into this Jesus movement. Whether they know what they are getting into, or not. Each and every week strangers walk into our churches, often with no prior experience of church, or more often, recovering from wounds they received from a faith community along the way. Every week, someone will come up to me after church and say how meaningful our invitation is. We have all experienced rejection.  God’s table is the place where no one willing to be there need be rejected or limited from fully partaking. 

If there is only one thing we do each week, Church, let it be that we love too generously. Let it be that we break the rules and welcome every single broken, beloved, and beautiful child of God to experience the life changing real presence of Christ in the everyday and ordinary items of bread and wine. 

Church, life is short and the people in our communities are hungry.  Let us follow Jesus’ example and build bigger tables. Let us love too generously, this day and everyday. 

Love in Christ, 
Rev. Heather J. Blais

*Bruce gave his permission for me to share this story. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Swords to Plowshares

Image
Yesterday, our family joined folks from across our diocese for an event they co sponsored with Christ Trinity, Sheffield; St. Paul’s Stockbridge; Grace, Great Barrington; and Swords to Plowshares Northeas t. The Rt. Rev. Jim Curry, a retired Bishop Suffragan in Connecticut is the chief blacksmith for Swords to Plowshares. This ministry was inspired by the prophet Isaiah, who proclaimed: “...they shall beat their swords into ploughshares…” (2:4) Their organization works with local police departments, taking guns that have been bought back from the community and then turning them into garden tools. What we witnessed yesterday was beautiful, and I will tell you why, but first, I want to share why I think addressing gun violence matters so much. For me, it’s always been personal. My father was an avid hunter. He was also an alcoholic, whose disease took over his life during the course of my early childhood. When I was four years old, my mom came home from her shift at the naval air stati
Read more

Commissioned

In today’s gospel lesson we witness the apostles’ transition from students to interns.  They have abandoned their former lives as fisherfolk and tax collectors to learn from Jesus as he engages in the work of proclaiming the good news of God’s love across the region.  In what may have been one of the most terrifying moments of their lives, Jesus commissioned these twelve apostles to the work of preaching, teaching, and healing. Jesus gives the apostles some parting instructions:   First, their work should only focus on their fellow Jewish neighbors.  The work of sharing the good news with the Gentiles, those outside the Jewish community, will come later.  Second, they don’t need to pack anything.  Instead they are to rely on the hospitality of those they encounter along the way.   Third, they will meet resistance as they spread the message of God’s love.   Some are going to feel threatened, particularly those with power and privilege to lose.  They may be brought before governors; they
Read more

Why Our Buildings Just Don't Matter

Image
As appears in Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices This past weekend I had the chance to visit a parish a lot like the one I currently serve. The property featured a beautiful and inspiring church with a cozy chapel; an enormous rectory, and several buildings that made up the parish house. You can imagine the complex must have been truly grand in its day. Yet inside the church pews are no longer full; and outside the neighborhood is facing the challenges of economic hardship: poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Many of the day-to-day conversations seem to have a recurring theme: the building. How to raise funds to care for the building instead of spending down the endowment? How to get more volunteers to care for the building? How to best utilize the space and bring more of the community into the building?  So much of the faith community’s time, energy, and financial resources are poured into their beautiful buildings . This Sunday’s Gospel is the story of Jesus and the ric
Read more