Table Fellowship - Pastor's Column April 2022
Table Fellowship
I must admit that it has been good and pleasant to be in table fellowship with a number of you for the Soup Suppers during this season of Lent. I give thanks for the lowered pandemic numbers that have made gathering less of a risk in recent weeks. You may recall that as the pandemic began for us in the US in March of 2020, we were in the middle of our Lenten Soup Suppers, and it was the first thing we gave up. We did not even plan them for 2021. So to say that it is good to have been together these last weeks in that way is an understatement. Perhaps fellowship around the table is the church’s best expression of fellowship.
In the first century, following Christ’s resurrection and ascension, and as Christianity began to spread, the early church met in homes where table fellowship was central to it’s gathering. Those of “the way” gathered in a home and began their time together by sharing a meal at the table. The meal would have ended with Holy Communion: sharing the bread and cup in the way Christ had instructed and with the words of promise he gave us, “this is my body, this is my blood given for you.” After this time of table fellowship, the church would then adjourn to the courtyard or another common room for singing psalms, hymns, the prayers, or hearing a reading from Paul’s or another apostle’s letters.
It is somewhat strange that as the church began to build buildings and set formal liturgies, the meal of Holy Communion moved to the end of the service. It is as if we have said, “Okay, we’ll pray, sing, hear the Word together, and then maybe we’ll venture to eat with each other.” Coming late in the service as it does, the meal risks losing its central place in the life of the church. But still, celebration of Holy Communion at each gathering of the church was the norm. As the church began in America, there were not pastors for every congregation every Sunday. This led to the celebration of Holy Communion only when the pastor was in town. With this, the meal lost a bit more of its central place in the life of the church.
Not only has the pandemic continued to wreck the church’s ability to enjoy fellowship in general congregational meals, but it has led to some strange observances of Holy Communion in the worship service, from completely forsaking the meal to heretical practices like “virtual communion” with whatever elements you have at home. That’s why it has been important for me to offer individual communion for those who have not felt comfortable in large gatherings. Its why home communions have always been important for the homebound and institutionalized. It is so that they may continue to be made a part of this same table fellowship, sharing the same bread and cup. The connection is there, even if from a distance.
During Holy Week, on Maundy Thursday in particular, we read of Jesus’ “last supper” in table fellowship with his disciples. We make no mistake there about the importance of the meal’s central place in our life of faith. For the words of Christ, “This is my body, this is my blood given for you” and the elements of bread and wine, to which those words are attached, are a means of grace for us. We remember our Lord’s death and resurrection and give thanks for the forgiveness of sins and the promise of resurrection and eternal life. In this meal we have table fellowship with our Lord Jesus who feeds and nourishes us with his own life, we have fellowship with our Father in Heaven to whom we have been reconciled, and we have fellowship with one another, and with the whole church on earth and in Heaven.