“That We May be for the World the Body of Christ” (This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understandi

Jesus called and formed disciples around the table. Scenes around the table are particularly prominent in Luke's Gospel. One scholar writes, "Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal." (Robert J. Karras, Luke: Artist and Theologian, Luke's Passion Account as Literature. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. age 47.) And we might add, "Or talking about a meal."

From celebrating Levi's call to discipleship to the mysterious resurrection appearance at Emmaus, Luke portrays Jesus celebrating, teaching, inviting, welcoming, and serving around tables. Little wonder, then, that a charge hurled against Jesus by those who were more discriminatory in their table fellowship was that he "eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 5:29-32).

Luke, as well as Matthew and Mark, announce that in Jesus Christ a new world has dawned. It is the kingdom of God, the reign of God's compassion, justice, generosity, and joy. Around the table, citizens of this new world learn table manners, are formed and empowered for ministry in the old world.

Three basic questions emerge around the Table in God's commonwealth: Whose Table is it? Who is invited to the Table as honored guests? What are the prevailing manners, etiquette, and values at this Table? The document approved by the 2004 General Conference, "This Holy Mystery," seeks to answer these questions. The document declares: "Holy Communion is to be celebrated in ways that make apparent the link between the Table and holy living, both individual and corporate. Participation in the Eucharist bears fruit in the world in attitudes and actions of personal and social holiness." (The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church, 2004, page 926. Copyright © 2004, The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.)

The Eucharistic Table brings together all the tables around which Jesus gathered. The Lord's Supper was not the first table around which Jesus gathered, nor the last. All tables around which Jesus gathered are to be seen in continuity with the Table around which we call the church to gather more frequently and meaningfully. Sitting at Table with Jesus, we learn his radical, scandalous table manners. And we are to live out his radical table etiquette in the world.

This Holy Mystery affirms, "The sharing and bonding experienced at the Table exemplify the nature of the church and model the world as God would have it be" (Book of Resolutions, 2004, page 892). Therein lies our challenge! The church is called to be a sign and foretaste of the new commonwealth inaugurated and brought near in Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is the state dinner in God's kingdom. Do our Tables exemplify the nature of the church and model the world as God would have it? How are we to celebrate in ways that signs the world as God intends it?

Mission and Liturgy Are Intrinsic

In order for the Eucharistic Table to reflect God's new creation in Jesus Christ, missional renewal and liturgical renewal must be seen as inseparable and intrinsic. The Eucharist is participation in God's mission to save, reconcile, and renew the world. As the Passover came to celebrate God's liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage, so the Lord's Supper incorporates all of God's mighty acts in Jesus Christ. Around the Table, we remember and participate in Jesus' birth, life, teachings, death, resurrection, and ascension. We share in the presence of the Crucified and Risen Christ and anticipate with hope his final victory over sin and death.

Without focus on God's saving mission of the world, liturgy can become what Ed Phillips referred to in his presentation, "virtual" reality, not real. Apart from immersion in God's saving acts in the world, sacramental renewal efforts can become preoccupation with "cleaning the outside of the cup and plate" while neglecting "the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith" (Matthew 23:23-26).

Mission renews liturgy. God's mission includes making all things new and reconciling all creation. The Apostle Paul declares, " . . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us" (2 Corinthians 5:19). When the church is engaged in ministries of reconciliation, the church's liturgy is transformed.

Linda and I were privileged to visit South Africa in 1995, shortly after Nelson Mandela had been elected president. Apartheid had officially been dismantled, and hope pervaded the nation as the vision of a reconciled people seemed nearer than ever. I preached at Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg. Communion was part of the service. As the people gathered around the Table, I was struck by the diversity and inclusiveness of the community. It was the most inclusive Table at which I have been present. The races, ethnicity, languages, ages, classes, and colors kneeling around the Table represented the diversity of the human family. It was truly a sign and foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet.

My colleague and friend at Duke, Peter Storey, was the pastor of Central Methodist Mission during the terrible days of apartheid. His courageous leadership helped to make possible the inclusive Table that Linda and I experienced at Central Methodist Mission. That Table actually began with another table several years earlier. There was no place in Johannesburg that blacks and whites could eat together. So Peter and the members of Central started a restaurant in the fellowship hall. There, black and white South Africans could sit at table together, with whites serving as waiters. As black people were treated with hospitality at the tables in the fellowship hall, they began to feel welcome at the Table in the sanctuary. A ministry of reconciliation renewed the liturgy of Holy Communion.

Liturgy renews mission. As we recall God's mighty acts, put ourselves in God's salvation drama, we are motivated, shaped, and empowered for mission in the world. "This Holy Mystery" promises, "The grace we receive at the Lord's Table enables us to perform our ministry and mission, to continue his work in the world - the work of redemption, reconciliation, peace, and justice" (Book of Resolutions, 2004) page 895.

Court Street United Methodist Church is located in the inner city of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is typical of many United Methodist churches where the neighborhood changes from white to African American and/or Hispanic. The membership and attendance declined and survival was questionable. Joey and Connie Shelton, who are now the Directors of Field Education at Duke, were appointed pastors. Just this week, Joey told me of an event that helped mark the beginning of renewal of Court Street's mission.

Court Street, under the Sheltons' sensitive and compassionate pastoral leadership, began ministries with neighborhood children. The decision was made that the van that transported children to weekday activities at the church would also transport them to Sunday services. The first Sunday the kids showed up at worship in the old stately Court Street sanctuary, the Eucharist was served. Following the service, the kids, who didn't know "proper manners" at the Lord's Table, rushed to the Table and began grabbing food. Joey said, "It was bedlam." The chairperson of the Altar Guild stood by gasping in horror. She said to her pastor, "These kids aren't showing proper respect for the Lord's Table." This Eucharistic pastor, who knows that proper manners around Jesus' Table require welcoming the poor, replied in his characteristic soft voice, "But they are hungry."

The matriarch of Court Street's reply demonstrated that she also had learned new manners at the Lord's Table: "Oh, I didn't think about that. We will just have to start serving breakfast on Sunday mornings for the kids." The liturgy at the Lord's Table resulted in food for the hungry at the kitchen table.

It is in the Eucharist that we are fed more than bread and wine. The world surrounds us as the hungry children surrounded the Table at Court Street, hungry for "the bread of life."

The Lord's Table Gives Us Our Identity, Community, and Hope

We all hunger for an identity not dependent upon the fleeting values of this world. At the Lord's Table we learn who we are and whose we are. We belong to the One who invites us, the One whose Table it is. At the Table, we know that we have been created in the image of God, redeemed in Jesus Christ, forgiven and reconciled. Here at this Table, the least and most vulnerable are honored guests. Here former scorned and dishonest tax collectors, such as Levi, and women from the streets celebrate with abandon a new life. Here at this Table returning prodigals get new clothes of respectability, a new ring of dignity, and feast at the Father's banquet. Here we are somebody! We are beloved, forgiven sons and daughters of God; and it is all a gift!

Bishop Christopher Jokomo, former bishop of Zimbabwe, had the practice of celebrating Holy Communion in the home of the poorest families of the villages and townships he visited. I remember well that evening we gathered in a crowded, poverty-ridden township in Harare. We met in a little hovel filled with children, the poor, the hungry. There I saw those who had none of the world's signs of worth and importance receive dignity and honor by hosting the bishop and sharing Sacred Bread. Bishop Jokomo's willingness to enter their world of poverty and despair with the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation demonstrated the truth of what a South African friend says, "The opposite of poverty is not wealth; it is dignity."

In the Eucharist, we not only claim our new identity, but we also claim our place in a new community. The Lord's Table is our family dinner. In Christ we have been made part of a new family. Around Christ's Table, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

Proper manners at the Lord's Table require that we remember who is in charge of the Table. We don't decide the guest list. The Host sets the ground rules as to who belongs around the Table. Our responsibility is to ensure that all those whom Jesus invites are treated with appropriate hospitality, respect, dignity, and love.

There is a radical new etiquette standard at Jesus' Table. As he did around the tables in Luke's Gospel, Jesus takes charge and redefines politeness in the new community. At his Table, the seating is rearranged so those who seek the chief seats are moved to the back and those on the margins are seated at the head table. Here the most prominent One washes feet and waits on the table. Here the castaways and despised are sought after with special invitations.

In Luke's Gospel the most serious violation of etiquette when Jesus is at the table is exclusion. The absence of the poor, the outcasts, the blind, the lame, the nobodies invites Jesus' rebuke. He admonished the religious leaders, who assumed they determined the guest lists, that they should consider their manners and invite to dinner "the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind" rather than their friends and relatives (Luke 14:11).

The Corinthian Church failed to learn proper manners at the Lord's Table. Paul warned that they were partaking of the bread and cup "in an unworthy manner." The members of the community who had to labor and were unable to get to the table in a timely manner were being excluded, left out. Paul warned, "For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment upon themselves" (2 Corinthians 11:27-34).

What does it mean to "eat and drink without discerning the body"? Could it mean failure to remember the poor, the outcasts, those whom Jesus welcomed as honored guests? Failure to discern the body is failure to recognize the absence of those indispensable members of the Body of Christ, those whom Jesus called "the least of these."

We declare in our statement on Holy Communion, "As followers of Jesus, who ate with sinners and reached out to the marginalized, the church must intentionally concern itself about those who are absent from Christ's Table - those who feel unworthy, the poor, the unconverted, victims of prejudice, and others who are oppressed or neglected" (Book of Resolutions, 2004, page 924).

Herein lies our most formidable challenge if Communion in The United Methodist Church is to be "richer" and truly sharing in a holy mystery. The poor and marginalized are absent from the Table in most of our churches in America! And the great tragedy is that we seldom notice their absence! We, thereby, "eat and drink without discerning the body"; and such neglect is resulting in sickness and death among our congregations.

It may be an overstatement that begs more exposition than time permits here, but I venture this proposition based on the New Testament: The presence of the poor is as indispensable at the Lord's Table as the presence of bread and wine. The church made a feeble attempt to acknowledge the necessity of the presence of the poor by receiving an offering for them during Communion. But even that slight "discerning the body" has gone by the wayside in most of our churches.

We pray in the Prayer of Confession prior to coming to the Table: "We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy." Yet we continue week after week to ignore the needy and fail to go out into the highways and hedges and bid these our brothers and sisters, our parents and children, come to the Table.

Suppose you are presiding at the Lord's Table. When you remove the cover from the elements, there is no bread. There is no juice. What would you do? My first reaction would be panic. We would likely stop and say, "We aren't adequately prepared. We must get bread and wine before we can proceed." I can imagine the scurrying to find bread and wine; and strategies would likely develop to ensure that from henceforth the elements would be present.

When are we as United Methodists going to panic at the absence of the poor from the Table? Perhaps we should stop the service next Sunday and announce, "We cannot proceed with Communion. The essentials are not here. We must go out into the streets, the alleys, the mobile home neighborhoods, the jails, the homeless shelters and invite Jesus' special guests. Otherwise, the liturgy will not be The Lord's Supper."

The Lord's Supper is a combination of the tables in our soup kitchens and the Table in our sanctuaries; and sacramental renewal will come only when the two tables are combined. It is combined at a small church here in Nashville. The church is located near the state prisons located a couple of miles from where we are meeting. All members of Sixty-First Avenue United Methodist Church live in poverty. I recall my first time to attend worship there. Communion is served every week. I noted that several people went back to the Table for seconds! They took large pieces of bread and dipped them into the cup. I asked the pastor, Judy Loehr, about the appropriateness of the people returning for seconds. She replied, "Oh, yes, we encourage them to do so. You see, the Lord's Supper is part of our feeding program."

The Lord's Supper is part of Christ's feeding program! Bread and The Bread of Life are joined in Christ around the Table! Around the Table we claim our kinship with all persons for whom Jesus died; and it is when the whole family is present that we truly share in a Holy Mystery that transforms us and the world.

Finally, it is around the Table that we experience authentic hope. We affirm in This Holy Mystery: "To participate (in Communion) is to receive a foretaste of the future, pledge of heaven."

Here we share in a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, when Christ's victory over sin and death will be consummated and celebrated with the saints of the ages. At that banquet, they will come from the north and south, east and west, and sit at table with Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph, Paul and Priscilla, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mary McCloud Bethune, and all our anonymous brothers and sisters. There we will all be welcomed by the One who sets the table and whose death and resurrection make it possible.

The Eucharist celebrates the pivotal event of history. In the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God took on the principalities and powers of sin and death. In the Resurrection, God won the decisive victory. The future belongs to Christ and his Kingdom. God's new commonwealth inaugurated in Christ will be brought to completion. When we gather around the Table, we participate in and anticipate that future. We share in the state dinner in God's kingdom.

Soon we will gather around the Table. We will pray, "Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ." And we will plead, "Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others" (United Methodist Hymnal, page 11. Copyright © 1989. The United Methodist Publishing House).

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

"That We May be for the World the Body of Christ": This Holy Mystery. Copyright © 2005 Kenneth Carder. Used by permission.

Bishop Kenneth L. Carder is Professor of the Practice of Pastoral Formation and Director of The Duke Center for Excellence in Ministry, Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina.