focal point

Episcopalians are a peculiar branch of the Jesus movement. 

We follow Jesus, yes. He is the Word. 

We speak the Word, sing the Word, pray the Word, eat and drink the Word. 

Jesus is 'our meat and drink' - in him is the source of life, and to receive him is to be fed by the staff of life that is the Word.

He is the Word come into the world. And in him we find the ultimate self-revelation of God.

So what is peculiar about that? It infects our worship. We center on the table where we eat and drink. 

Everything that happens in the service leads up to that, from initial prayer and praise and proclamation, through confession and word of grace, to the celebration of the goodness of God in bread and wine.

The focus of our worship is obvious from the shape of our gatherings. Central - where all eyes follow - is the table and on it the cup and the plate, the bread and the wine, the elements of the Holy Eucharist, that is, the Great Thanksgiving. 

On one side you may see the clergy and on the other the choir or servers. The people may look at them from time to time, when they are reading or leading prayers or singing or preaching. 

But all the time the eyes of all are turning to the prize - the  Eucharist, God's presence among us - and we seek no distraction from that. 

Once we have each, as many of us as can, gone up and taken bread and wine, we go out, sent by a deacon's dismissal and a priest's blessing, to carry the Word into the world.

welcome diner

Yesterday at the Welcome Diner I sat at the counter alongside four women, all of whom had got up early to watch the royal wedding. He preached about love, they said, and he quoted Martin Luther King. Two of them introduced themselves to me as mother and daughter. What are you doing? Talking to you... and working in alumni relations at the university. The other said, I'm a labor nurse. The one said to the other, I could never do what you do. And the other said to the first, I could never do what you do. Different gifts. 

And the same spirit. 

And yes that is what Pentecost is about. A celebration of love, love of God in each other, exhibited in different gifts, all expressing one common spirit. A spirit of love. And of welcome, at a feast. 

The feast we celebrate today - what is on the menu at this place of welcome - is no less than the feast of the first Eucharist: the Thanksgiving Dinner of the Lamb of God. We welcome each other and are welcomed, we celebrate in each other our different gifts - and the one gift we all share - as we come together at the Lord's Feast. The supper of the Lamb, the Lord's supper. The Eucharist. 

And from here we go, and are sent, to spread that love. The message we preach is simple. The words may be different from the royal wedding sermon, but the lesson is the same. God loves you. Jesus proves it. Let's go live it.

Cranmer on Communion

As the bread and wine which we do eat be turned into our flesh and blood, and be made our very flesh and very blood, and so be joined and mixed with our flesh and blood, that they be made one whole body together; even so be all faithful Christians spiritually turned into the body of Christ, and so be joined into Christ, and also together among themselves, that they do make but one mystical body of Christ, as St Paul saith: (1 Cor x.) ‘We be one bread and one body, as many as be partakers of one bread and one cup.’

What, then, can be more comfortable to us that to eat this meat, and drink this drink? whereby Christ certifieth us, that we be spiritually, and truly, fed and nourished by him, and that we dwell in him, and he in us. Can this be shewed unto us more plainly, than when he saith himself, ‘He that eateth me shall live by me?’ (John xi.)

Thomas Cranmer, from the First Book of the Sacrament. Love’s Redeeming Work. Oxford, 2001. 31-32.

eucharistic ministry

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3)

Serving in the liturgy (Gk., leitourgia, ‘the work of the people’) can involve something that looks simple – but has deep meaning. Once while hitchhiking home from a community college class, I had an encounter that stayed in my mind. A fellow student picked me up, an older guy from my class. He said he used to be a nuclear warhead mechanic – but retired. “It’s time for somebody else to play god.”

At the holy Table, we work with elements much more powerful: the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, in the gifts of bread and wine at the Eucharist. We, who serve at the altar, clergy, acolytes, and Eucharistic ministers, take in our hands the offerings of the people, as they are transformed by the Spirit of God into the presence of the Lord. We offer them: “The body of Christ, the bread of heaven; the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.”

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

What we have in our hands is Life itself. As we take part in the thanksgiving, we bring into the present the great event of Christ – his life, his death, resurrection, and ascension, and we proclaim that self-offering, until his coming again.

In ourselves we are not worthy; it is in the very sacrament we take in, that we are made worthy. What we are doing at the altar is holy. It is the transformation of bread and wine, and of ourselves, into offerings giving glory to God – and transforming the world.

Take Jesus in – and live. Take Jesus in – and have grace enough to share in abundance. Take Jesus in – and proclaim the good news.

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

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