Somewhere along the way, some people got the notion that God has favorites, that God prefers some of us over others of us.
Somewhere along the way, some people got the idea that there was a holy club of people chosen by God to get righteousness and justice.
Somewhere along the way, some people decided that a meal of grace was something to be earned, something you could only sit for if you measure up in some way.
Somewhere along the way, some people decided the reign of God was as much about control as the reign of the tyrants we know in our own time and place.
Some people complained to Moses that unauthorized folks were declaring God’s love and vision.
But Moses answered, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all of God’s people were prophets! If only YHWH would bestow the Spirit on them all!”
Friends, this meal is God’s response to all that posturing and power-mongering.
In this meal, God invites, offers, refuses to take sides, attests that we are all worthy and beloved.
This meal is God’s declaration that God’s business-as-usual is the most life-giving kind, the most nourishing kind.
This meal, infused with God’s spirit, is for all of us, for any of us hungry ones, a meal for a world starved of community, divided by fear.
It is like that time Jesus gathered with his friends in the upper room on a weekend when life was about to blow apart, but it is not only like that.
It is also like with the crowds on the mountainside, with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and just about every other time he shared a meal:
He took bread, blessed and broke it.
He took wine, blessed and poured it.
He passed these things around and said
“My body, my life blood, are for you. Eat, drink and remember.”
The spirit blows where it wills.
When we gather, we are where it wills, among us it where it chooses to blow.
We eat and drink the way Jesus told us, finding our life in this free-blowing spirit of God.
Let us pray:
Pour out your spirit, O God, on this bread and drink.
Let it be nourishment, but so much more.
Let it be power and grace and vision and grit, that we may be strengthened to be and do as you invite.
Let us be your grace, your hands, your eyes; your tellers of all that is true, your messengers of all that is holy and good.
Let us be as you imagine.
Amen.
After communion:
Let us pray: You always feed us, O God, and we remain grateful. Give us grace throughout our days, and let us always be your inspired people. Amen.