Bonhoeffer asks, concerning
the three communal meals, “What does it mean to recognize Jesus Christ by way
of these gifts?” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life
Together, Fortress Press, 2015 (Reader’s Edition), page 46.
The first thing it means,
Bonhoeffer replies, is that we recognize Christ as the Giver of all gifts.
Secondly it means that all gifts are given “only for the sake of Christ” and “for
the sake of Christ’s Word and its proclamation.” Christ is worthy to be praised because He (and
the Father and Holy Spirit) has created all things and for His glory and
pleasure they were created. When we gather for a communal meal our gathering
should have Jesus Christ at its center and focus.
Thirdly it means that our Lord
Jesus desires to be present with us and we are to confess the “gracious
omnipresence of Jesus Christ” (page 47) when we gather. “Every breaking of
bread together fills Christians with gratitude for the present Lord and God,
Jesus Christ…Christians recognize their Lord as the true giver of all good
gifts,” (page 47).
“At the table they [the
community of believers] recognize their Lord as the one who breaks bread for
them. The eyes of their faith are opened,” (page 47).
Thus there is a sacramental
element to communal meals, whether it be the Eucharist, or a lunch together of
hot dogs and potato chips. Both of the foregoing acknowledge the Presence of
Christ in His people and they both look forward to the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb – they not only look forward to that Supper, but they draw their strength
from the reality of the Supper as they live as who they are in Christ. When
those in life together gather, they
gather in unity and communion with the transcendent people of God (Hebrews
12:18 – 24), they gather acknowledging that they have come to “Mount Zion and
to the city of the living God” (Hebrews 12:22) and to “Jesus the Mediator of
the new covenant” (12:24). One wonders why we don’t eat together more often.
It must have been a grand time
of grace and love and communion when those first disciples in Acts gathered
from house to house sharing both the Word of God and communal meals. In communion the sum is greater than the
parts, but the parts living in isolation are less than they are – for they are
only who they are when they are joined to one another. In unity there is
witness of Jesus Christ and the Gospel (John 17), in isolation there is….what?
Communal meals and communal
living (however that may look, and I think it may look a number of different
ways), represent a statement that we are putting the Kingdom of God first and
that our primary family is the family of God, Yes, we want to draw all of our
natural family into our primary family, just as Noah no doubt wished to draw all
of his family into the Ark, but when we come to Jesus Christ we, in a sense,
are called to leave our father and mother and be joined to Christ. We can and
must trust God in this, trust Him to give us wisdom and love and grace for
others, trust Him to give us a sensitive compassionate witness, and trust Him
for grace to be obedient witnesses. But it is Jesus who said that He would
create division – we cannot explain that away as something that He really didn’t
mean – there is a cost to following Jesus Christ.
If we
believe Jesus, then unity in community is essential for witness (John 17) and
therefore community (koinonia, life
together) as a way of life (and community can only be found and experienced
as a way of life) must be nurtured, encouraged, and sought – which necessarily
means leaving behind the spirit of this age and living in the Spirit of the new
creation which is coming in us and through us in Jesus Christ. We must be about
building the Lord’s House and not our own individual houses (see Haggai).
Who
knew the potential in a shared meal of hot dogs and potato chips?
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