For me, Sunday worship now takes place in the kitchen, where candles and palm cross have joined the salt and pepper and unopened post on the table. The acoustics are pretty good. And it’s very handy if I haven’t quite finished breakfast… Besides, the communion service is a meal, and on the whole Jesus seems rather fond of meals.
But meals are one of the many things we no longer take for granted. More effort is needed to get food, whether we’re queueing outside supermarkets or relying on deliveries from friends or strangers. And we have fewer, if any, people to share our meals with. Members of our international group and homeless people throughout the country have struggled to find food. And turning to our neighbours in South Africa we hear of lockdown in the townships causing severe poverty and hunger.
Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
What does this mean when bread is scarce; when decisions to protect life are destroying livelihoods. What is communion when friends are on a computer screen and neighbours are crying for food?
In Jesus, we worship God who was broken. God who knows hunger, loneliness, even death. God who has given everything to walk beside us and be locked in with us. God who sits down at our table, however little is on it, and shares the meal with us.
Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him.
Susannah Woodd
