There’s Magic When We Eat Together

Devotional Reflection, Thursday,  March 28, 2024

Maundy Thursday

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 957)

AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 142, 143

Lam. 2:10-18; 1 Cor. 10:14-17, 11:27-32; Mark 14:12-25

David’s Reflections

“There’s magic when we eat together.” So proclaims a recent soft drink ad. On this Maundy Thursday, we reenact Jesus’ last meal with his disciples in the liturgy of Holy Eucharist and foot washing.  But, remembering Jesus’ larger meal ministry, in addition to the Last Supper, enlarges our understanding of Holy Eucharist. There indeed is spiritual magic when we eat together.

“Jesus ate good food with bad people,” says French cleric Jean Leclercq. * For example, Luke 19 relates the incident of Jesus going into the home of Zacchaeus to dine.  Zacchaeus was a Jew who collaborated with the Romans as a revenue agent, which put him on the undesirable and unclean list of the religious leaders.  Yet, Jesus shared a meal with this social and religious outcast, and during that meal Zacchaeus became a convert and a disciple.

For Episcopalians the idea of being transformed by sharing a table with Jesus is nothing new. We enter into fellowship with Christ each Sunday in Holy Eucharist and receive his nurturing, forgiving, transforming presence in bread and wine.  Yet, it may be a new thought that those without faith could be transformed and come to faith for the very first time while worshipping at table with us.  The story of salvation told in The Great Thanksgiving, the images of bread and wine, the mystery of Jesus’ presence there, and the warm, loving reception of a believing community all can impinge on a person in quite powerful and surprising ways. There is magic when we eat together.

Sara Miles, a journalist and atheist, attended St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco out of curiosity. She actually had an aversion to organized religion., She describers what happened when she went up for communion. She became a parishioner as a result.

. . .we gathered around that table.  And, there was more singing and standing, and someone was putting a piece of fresh, crumbly bread in my hands, and saying, ‘The body of Christ,’ and handing me the goblet of sweet wine, saying,  ‘the blood of Christ,’ and then something outrageous and terrifying happened. Jesus happened to me,”  +

The Alpha Course creates another meal situation with very permeable boundaries for outsiders.  (https://alpha.org) They do not have to enter a church worship space on a Sunday morning;  rather, they sit at table and in small groups and hear about the Christian faith in a very nonthreatening environment.  Unchurched people do not have to brave a church building or sit through worship before the meal. The informality and hospitality of the meal come first. There is magic when we eat together.

On this Maundy Thursday, join me in giving thanks for Holy Eucharist but also for every table situation.  Jesus shares the table at every meal.  Who can tell what mystery and magic of grace might be worked over lunch on a workday, at a bar in the evening, or around the table at an Alpha supper or at a supper club that includes outsiders to the church.

Jesus did eat good food with bad people but those people seldom remained bad as a result.  Can you even begin to measure the transformation that has taken place in your life because you have shared table settings with Jesus and with others in whom he lived?  Join me in giving thanks that Jesus eats good food with bad people, because that means you and I get to share table with him.

There is magic when we eat together.

* Cited by Leonard I. Sweet, "The Rainbow Church, " The Christian Ministry 17 (March 1986):7

+Sara Miles, Take This Bread:  The Spiritual memoir of a twenty-first century Christian.  (New York:  Ballantine Books, 2007), pp. 57-58.

Collect for the Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 219)

Collect for Maundy Thursday

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever Amen.  (BCP, 221).

A Collect for Protection

O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  (BCP, 124)

A GAELIC PRAYER

As the rain hides the stars,

As the Autumn mist hides the hills,

As the clouds veil the blue of the sky,

So the dark happenings of my lot

Hide the shining of thy face from me.

Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness,

It is enough.

Since I know, that though I may stumble in my going

Thou dost not fall.

(Theme prayer for the congregation of the Saxon Church of Escomb, England

Church constructed in 670-690 CE and still the site of worship for the parish.  The visitor's handbook attributes some of the architectural features to Irish Celtic influence.  Source: The Saxon Church: Escomb: A Guide for Pilgrims.  The Saxon Church.  Escomb, Durham County, England.)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 257)

Daily Office Gospel, Mark 14:12-25

12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

17 When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ 19They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ 20He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. 21For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’

22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer