Bread of Life

[lunamoth]

This NPR interview was passed on to me by a good friend who thought it would speak to me, and does it ever. Hope you like it too.

Faith turned out not to be abstract at all, but material and physical. I'd thought Christianity meant angels and trinities and being good. Instead, I discovered a religion rooted in the most ordinary yet subversive practice: a dinner table where everyone is welcome, where the despised and outcasts are honored.
I came to believe that God is revealed not only in bread and wine during church services, but whenever we share food with others — particularly strangers. I came to believe that the fruits of creation are for everyone, without exception — not something to be doled out to insiders or the "deserving."

Strangers Bring Us Closer to God : NPR

 

[lizskid]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing that....would be a great sermon starter for me.

 

[sojourner]

That's because the universe, itself, is sacramental. It's our "job," as followers, to notice God everywhere.

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

"That's because the universe is sacramental"

I like that. And she's right, the Eucharist can not stop within the liturgical setting, but our encounter with Christ in it should radiate out beyond. Meals have always been, inherenly, acts of communion. That is one of the reasons why the Eucharist has always been so profound.

I enjoyed this book [Take this Bread] even though I disagree with significant portions of her theology and policies, one of them being open communion.

 

[Dunemeister]

So long as we're viewing meals with strangers as an analogical extension of the idea of Eucharist, I rejoice in what the OP said. However, the Eucharist is a closed meal in the sense that only baptized Christians ought to participate. To give meals with strangers/outcasts precisely the same meaning as what occurs at the communion table would cheapen Eucharist.

 

[sojourner]

On the other hand, the Eucharist is what it is. We cannot cheapen it, nor make it more valuable, since it is the Body of Christ. We can honor it. We can revere it. We can celebrate it. We can participate in it.

If Christ "cheapened" himself by touching the untouchable with his body, in what way can allowing all at the Table "cheapen" his body more?

When we participate in Eucharist, we assign a certain meaning and a certain value to it. We see it as set apart from all other meals. Don't you think that 1) because it is set apart, that others will not view it, in some way, as "different," "special," or "set apart" themselves? 2) that we who revere it set an example for others to follow?

In opening the Table to all baptized believers, we are opening the Table to differing perspectives. If we open it to all who would come, what difference is it, really? Do you think that a scoffer would really want to participate?