Enjoying The Lord’s Supper: The Great Equaliser

A beautiful scene of what the Lord’s Supper means to me was enacted before me a few years ago.

John (not his real name) was high up in the organisation, among the senior management team, he was a good nominal Christian, but had recently appreciated how shallow his faith was and wanted to deepen it.  Jo (not her real name) was one of the residents who had suffered from a number of abusive relationships.  Kat (not her real name) was also another resident who didn’t know much about the faith, but was interested to find out further.  Rob (not his real name) worked alongside me and did a lot of Christian work anyway, so knew his way around.

There we were together around the table – Rob, Kat, Jo, John and myself.

Kat had made a profession of faith a few weeks earlier, but was struggling living that out in the context of the tough temptations among the residents.  Jo had been knocking around with Rob and myself and thought she was a good Christian anyway, although she was not slow to carry on with some practices that others might have ‘questioned’.  We carefully challenged her, but in no way kicked her out – we just wanted to love her.

Here we all were around the table, talking about what it was like for Jesus to wash the feet of his disciples and what the modern equivalent would be.  The beauty of this conversation was how everyone contributed something profound, even if Kat and Jo still barely knew their way round the Bible and Kat in particularly was still finding reading difficult.  Her insights were just as welcome and profound as anything Rob or I came up with.

John was enjoying this as well, getting to be just John, not a man with titles and work based responsibilities, but actually being embraced as a brother in this wonderful family.  He relished this opportunity to be vulnerable, even if it was with some of the residents in attendance.  All those labels and tags did not have any weight around this table.  Rob and I were not the Christian experts at this table.  We were just as open to receive from the Spirit as anyone else.  So we all humbly put our thoughts and ideas to the conversation and it was so rich and humbling, that there was a tangible expression of something unifying, something warm and encouraging among us.

By the time we partook of bread and wine, it really was a mutual sharing in Christ.  We were all brothers and sisters in Him.  Thanking Him for the opportunity to do this.  Thanking Him for the family that we now had because of Him.  Thanking Him for the wider family that we were attached to because of this.  Thanking Him for what He did in His broken body and His shed blood to bridge the gap and bring us back to a right relationship with our Father.

That experience highlighted what a great equaliser this special meal was.  Not a time for rites and rituals for the sake of it.  Not a time for customs and traditions that divided and alienated, but a time to express this life-changing sacrificial love through these regular human vessels in our regular human existence.  It was so humbling and so enriching.

I know I won’t have such an opportunity like that again – it was unique.  We were so blessed by the occasion, and we knew it wouldn’t be that way again.  There was no guarantee we would stay the course. At least, however, we had this shared time together.  We had this precious memory of mutual engagement together.

We had this shared experience of a deep love and unity in Spirit that was not constructed by our masterful planning and timing.  This was God honouring us by being with us and us sensitive to Him and enjoying Him being the great equaliser among us.

I still think Lord’s Supper experiences can be about that – expressing to community that this grace community invites you to be a part of us and share this new life available to all from any walk of life.  Sharing this feast together, can allow us to see Jesus and each other in richer and deeper ways.

Although I won’t have that experience again, I am glad at the thought that others will happen which will be about the ethos of that day – all are one in Christ, and because of Christ we can be one and share that unity to others.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden