Dr. Kristine Stache
Over two decades ago, my husband and I splurged on a new dining room table. Going over budget, we selected a table small enough to seat our then family of six comfortably, yet expandable to accompany our extended family and friends. This table has served our family well. It has weathered several moves and still sits in a central part of our home. We eat at this table, share stories, play games, do homework, laugh together, pray together, and even on occasion fall asleep there.
The table is far from new. It has stains from art projects and the finish has worn thin in places. It has chips and scratches, and in one corner you can even find a name carved. (Whose name exactly has yet to be determined.) This table centers us and our identity as a family day after day through the ways we receive nourishment at this place and through the things we do at that place, all of which gives us strength for when we are scattered each and every day.
Today is Maundy Thursday. Today Christians around the world will gather at the Lords’ table, a centering place where communities of faith gather to tell stories, to eat, to pray, and remember what God in Christ has done and continues to do. When we gather at the Lord’s table, we receive God’s gifts for all people and are sent into the world in Jesus’ name to share those gifts. These gifts, Christ’s body and blood in the bread and the wine are for all of creation as it waits with bated breath for that which makes us anew.
Let us bless the bread
That gives itself to us
With its terrible weight, its infinite grace.
Let us bless the cup
poured out for us
with a love
that makes us anew.
Let us gather
around these gifts
simply given
and deeply blessed.
And then let us go
Bearing the bread,
Carrying the cup,
Laying the table
Within a hungering world.
Blessing the Bread, The Cup, by Jan Richardson in Circle of Grace, a Book of Blessings for the Seasons
