The Open Table? Proper 13B

 

The Open Table?

We pray on this Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, “Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church. To which I would add, “cleanse and defend us all.” And “all,” in my way of thinking about Holy Communion, means all. The context of all these readings in the sixth chapter of John is Jesus feeding 5,000+ men, women and children with five barley loaves and a couple of fish that he takes from a young lad, blesses, breaks and gives it all away.

 

The miracle just as well might have been that so inspired by the total generosity of the young man and Jesus to give it all away, perhaps as the morsels of barley loaves and fish were distributed others gave all that they may have had with them. For we know at the end of the day there were twelve baskets of leftovers. Such giving and receiving would not only be a miracle in our own day, but a true moment of grace and mercy for all who were present.

 

There is no question that this story of feeding thousands is the core of John’s eucharistic theology as the fourth gospel’s later depiction of the Last Supper has no description of passing bread and wine around the table, but rather shows Jesus washing feet and issuing a “new commandment”: that those who are to follow in his Way are to love one another as he loves them. That is, to humble ourselves, taking the form of servants, and “become obedient, even to the point of death, even death on a cross.” [Philippians 2: 8] The feeding stories in the gospel go to great pains to portray these events as prototypical eucharists as Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives the bread away, the very actions reported by Paul, Matthew, Mark and Luke’s versions of the Last Supper.

 

It may seem obvious to point out, but at no point do any of the miraculous feeding stories in the four gospels depict Jesus appointing the disciples to go around and check to see if everyone present is in any way ‘credentialed’ or ‘worthy’ to receive the meal. Israel, even back then, being one of the most pluralistic parts of the ancient world due to the continued presence from all over the ancient world those who were traveling the great trade routes from east, west, north and south, as well as spiritual seekers who had heard of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus and wanted to see for themselves what this tradition is all about. All sorts and conditions of people are likely present. Jesus simply sees to it that all who seek to be fed are fed. The ‘table’ is his, and all are welcome. “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden…”

 

Or, as John puts it earlier in the gospel, God so loves the world that he gave his only Son so that all might share in eternal life…here…now…on earth as it is in heaven. God loves the whole world and gives Jesus to the whole world. To all.

 

And yet. And yet, Jesus’s Body, the Church, struggles to offer his sacred meal to all people, no matter what. In fact, except for a few small and largely unknown corners of the Church, requirements are routinely set for who can and cannot receive communion. Which always has struck me as odd, if not downright sad. To say, for instance as The Episcopal Church does, that one needs to be baptized seems to fly in the face of nearly all stories in the four gospels in which Jesus invites everyone, no matter what, to his table. After all, he is the host. His is the eternal presence at the center of our ritual meals of bread and wine. These restrictions are a problem.

 

To make matters worse, however, we read in the news that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is in the process of drawing up further restrictions of who can and who cannot receive communion based on, among other things, a person’s political opinions and positions. As one who was taught in my Calvinist confirmation class that one needs to feel “worthy” to receive communion in the strongest terms, I excommunicated myself for years. And yet, as we have been exploring in our Noonday Prayer sessions for the past month, it is abundantly clear that Jesus not only came for but actively sought out some of the most “unworthy” people to not only share meals with him, but to become his disciples, to share in his mission and ministry to spread God’s forgiveness and love to all people, no matter what, with no qualification whatsoever.

 

I remember hearing The Reverend John Westerhoff recalling that no less an Anglican than John Wesley suggesting that those who were “earnestly seeking” an experience of the Divine may come to the table and hopefully find the mercy of God and the grace that they need. Wesley is even reported to have said that no ecclesiastical authority has a right to “fence” the communion table except to the impertinent! It would seem that the seekers, the unworthy, the sinners, the outsiders are the very people Jesus came for and ought to be the most welcome to share in the Holy Eucharist, which by all accounts in scripture was an ‘open table,’ open to all.

 

I would not be here today doing what I do had not a young priest, William Rich, after seeing me sit resolutely in the pew while others received communion, personally let me know I was more than welcome to join in the Eucharistic feast, no matter what. After a decade of feeling I could not possibly feel worthy of doing so, at the next opportunity, still with reservations, I accepted the bread and the wine and found the mercy and grace of God we pray for the Church today, as well as a deep experience of the living God that was life changing and sustaining. There can be no fences, no barriers, for anyone seeking to join us at the Lord’s table. There can be no tests for a kind of purity of soul that simply cannot and does not exist even among those serving at the Holy Table. We are not the host of this grace meal, we are the servers at the Lord’s table.

 

As L. William Countryman sums it up so well in his little book, Good News of Jesus, “We are all of us outsiders miraculously included within the community of the gospel by God’s call.” [p.105]

 

Jesus says to the 5,000 and to all who have ears to hear, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” [John 6:35] Whoever comes, no questions asked; whoever comes, one and all.

 

May God the Father, the Word made flesh, and the Holy Spirit, with eternal mercy, forgiveness and love continue to welcome all who are heavy laden to come to his table, and may our Lord cleanse His Body, the Church, of any pretense to fence in and guard the sacramental gift of His life, blessed, broken, and given for the life of the world.

Amen.