January 20, 2016

In his book, A Table in the Desert: Making Space Holy, Rev. W. Paul Jones presents a variety of opportunities to do just that: he asks us to see God and the Church as being in the lost and found business; to see our daily, mundane activities as a holy liturgy; to see activities and relationships with both “first time” and “last time” eyes; and to participate in the old, old story of Christ, rather than simply “tell the old, old story.”

I appreciate his ability to make me look at things in new and fresh ways.  And I appreciate his ability to help me form a holy space around the entirety of my life (not that I live up to that ideal of holiness, but I appreciate the attempt).

This book talks a lot about sacraments – in particular Baptism and Eucharist.  In a section where he discusses the Eucharist, he said something that caught my attention (and something I wish I had originally said).  I, like millions of Christians before me, with me, and after me, have referred to that meal Christ shared with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion as “the Last Supper.”

But Fr. Jones takes a different approach.  In discussing what we understand as the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, he says, “The Church grasped early that what Christ intended by what they had assumed to be the last supper, was in fact the first supper of an endless stream of resurrection banquets.”

We all should have an, “Aha” moment every now and then.  This is one.

Yes, Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of the continual remembrance of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.  Yes, we “Do this in remembrance of me.”  Yes, we celebrate the memorial of our redemption, recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension.  And yes, we receive those gifts in remembrance that Christ died for us.  The whole of the Eucharist is a re-remembering of the God story as reflected in Jesus Christ.

But it might be helpful if we recognize that this event was also the first of its kind.  During those last few hours with his disciples, Christ gave them a new, first commandment.  Mary Magdalene met the resurrected Christ on the first day of the week.  We celebrate the Eucharist on that same first day.  Eucharistic Prayer C says in part, “Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table . . . for pardon only, and not for renewal.”  And we recognize that in Holy Communion we receive a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.

How would our theology change if we looked upon the Eucharist not as a remembering of things past but as an introduction of things to come?  How would our theology change if we viewed worship in general, and the Eucharist in particular, not as a remembrance of how we've always done it, but as a new way of living into first things?

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”  The Eucharist is a new thing.  The Eucharist is the first thing.  May this meal remind us not of how things were, but as how things will be.  And may we live out that theology of first things in our daily lives.

Amen.