St. Boniface House

A man and a woman are celebrating their wedding anniversary, so what do they do? They go out to eat together. A family wants to spend time with another family from the church or from the neighborhood, so what do they do? They invite them over for supper. Two men want to get together to encourage one another, to seek one another’s counsel, visit together, so what do they do? They have lunch together. When people want to spend time together, to fellowship together, they gather together around a table.

When a man has to work late and can’t make it home in time for dinner with his family, the disappointment is palpable. Paul had to rebuke Peter to his face—why? Because he was not able to correctly formulate the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness? Because he had been caught in some scandalous immorality? No, because he had been seduced into refusing to eat at the same table with gentile Christians. Everywhere the Bible makes the table the place of fellowship, the place where relationships are formed and cultivated, the place where instruction occurs, the place where the people of God are transformed into what they were always intended to be.

Therefore it is at the same time not surprising and the greatest surprise of all that the focus of Christian worship should be the Lord’s Supper. It is not surprising, because this is the way we are wired, so to speak. Nothing could make more sense than that we should worship God by eating a meal. But at the same time it is profoundly surprising, even shocking, because we are eating a meal with God. The creator of the universe calls us to his table, and sits down to a fellowship feast with us! The only thing more astounding is that we are all invited. At the tabernacle, the faithful Israelite could eat with Yahweh, but he entered the Lord’s presence through the sacrificial animal. In the Roman empire, fellowship meals were organized around a class system that excluded the poor, slaves, women, children, and even lower classes of dignitaries, depending on who was hosting the meal. Not so the Eucharist. All the baptized are welcome together, small and great, young and old, new convert to most sanctified saint.

Therefore let us keep the feast with thanksgiving for we are sitting down to a fellowship meal with the LORD.

This is the Lord’s table…