"The Table of Christ"
Matthew 26:26-27; 1 Corinthians 11:17-26
Next month, I will begin the annual task of planning the menu for Thanksgiving dinner. Those sitting around the table will come with a variety of tastes, preferences, and dietary needs. But despite these differences, we will all sit down around that Thanksgiving table and enjoy our meal together.
In the same way, Christians will gather this World Communion Sunday for another kind of thanksgiving meal -- at the communion table -- and there will be variations in what we call it, how we understand it, and how we celebrate it. But whether it is called Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist… Whether we bless and break wafers or pita bread or plain old white bread… whether the cup is filled with wine or grape juice… Whether it is served by a pastor, a priest, a Eucharistic minister, a deacon, or layperson… Whether it is served in the pew, or received at a railing, or passed around in a circle… Whether it is celebrated in a sanctuary, a home, a hut in the jungle, a clearing in the forest, or on a patch of desert... Whether the recipients believe it fully and actually becomes the body and blood of Christ, or understand Jesus as being spiritually present… Regardless of all these differences, the sacrament is an opportunity for Christians all over the world to pause where we are and remember that, at the table of Christ, we are called together into community with each other and into unity as God’s family.
Please join us for worship at 10 am this Sunday, October 2, at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton, United Church of Christ, 76 Pierce Street, Stoughton, MA. For more information, log on to www.uccstoughton.orgwww.uccstoughton.org, or check us out (and like us!) at www.facebook.com/FirstCongregationalChurchofStoughton.
