God be with you.
And with you.
My friends, we are on a journey together.
We are community for one another.
We gather to share a meal, bread of life, cup of promise, food for the wilderness.
It is the bread that Jesus shared with his friends.
They had traveled together for just this moment: a meal, an arrest, a bad trial, a journey through death to life.
This was the night that resistance claimed his life.
That night was the point of no return.
It happened like this:
They were eating dinner.
When they were nearly done,
Jesus took the remaining loaf,
and (just like he’d done everytime he’d fed a group),
he blessed and broke it.
He gave thanks for his community, for food,
for the promise that the Spirit of God accompanies us even when we cannot see.
Then he gave it to his friends.
One more bite, he said;
and when you do this from now on, do it to remember me.
We do this to remember.
Then, he took one of the cups of wine,
gave thanks for vineyards
(which probably made them think of all the
subversive vineyard stories he had told).
He took the cup of wine and gave it to them.
One more drink, he said;
and when you do this from now on, do it to remember me.
We do this to remember.
On our own journey through a wilderness, we offer these gifts of bread and wine,
And, in our gathering, the Spirit of God pours on them, through them, through us,
nourishing us and inviting us again into sacred community.
Let us pray:
God of hope, of power, of vision,
With manna in the desert, with bread on the road to Emmaus,
with bread for a gathered crowd,
with Jesus the bread of life,
you feed your people.
Let this bread and wine feed us with all that is possible,
and let your Spirit linger with us.
Give us this day our daily bread. Amen.
Post-communion Prayer
God of the daily bread, in this meal, you have shared yourself with us once again. Nourish us in this meal to be righteous partners with you in making the world whole. In the Spirit of Jesus, claim us again.
Teach us to love; send us to care. Amen.