I have come to understand that the center of our life together as a community at Saint Andrew's is slightly unequal parts of Altar Table and plastic folding table - the heavier portion goes towards the Altar table, simply because without this, we cannot have the other. Each week we gather around both of these tables, one as we receive the sacrament of Christ’s presence with us, and one as we enjoy coffee in the presence of each other. In the absence of one of these tables, things just feel “off”. As I read the Gospels and trace the activity of Jesus throughout his time on earth, this seems to be a pattern that he himself established for us to follow in. Jesus was constantly reaching into heaven bringing the eternal and divine into the temporal and broken and also inviting all people to gather around tables to fellowship and eat together.
This is the pattern of the Christian journey. Receiving the sacrament of Christ, and enjoying it together as a joyful community committed to reflecting the image of Christ to the world. In the next few weeks we will enter into Holy Week, a culmination of the several weeks of Lent. Holy Week is all about this pattern of life that we are invited into. It invites us to gather around the table that Christ has set and remember well the source of life that is within us. We ourselves dare to extend our open hands towards the heavens in hopes of receiving from Christ that which is not of the kingdom of this world but is of Christ’s kingdom. We gather to remember and to dedicate our lives to the way of the cross that Christ has established on Good Friday and we officially celebrate the resurrection of Christ at the Easter Vigil in the darkness of the night on Saturday leading into Easter Sunday.
Just as our community is incomplete without both the Altar table and the plastic folding table, so also our Easter celebrations are lacking without the time our community has spent leading up to it throughout Lent and Holy Week. I do hope you will join us for our Holy Week services this year, as we move together towards the resurrection of Easter, we are stronger for our gathering together.
Lenten blessings to you all,
Rev’d Ben
Comments