I was reading Barbara Brown Taylor's book Home by Another Way a couple of nights ago, and I came upon a quote that resonated with me and still makes me excited two days later.
She was springboarding off of the scripture in Luke 24 wherein the resurrected Jesus tells the disciples to look at his hands and feet. He wanted them to touch them, to look at them, to realize that he was not a ghost but a resurrected being with flesh and bone. He wanted them to know that he was back. That whom they were looking at was he, himself.
Barbara was an Episcopal priest, and this book is a compilation of some of her sermons. Every week, as a Priest, she celebrated Eucharist (Communion) with her congregation, so as she told the story of Jesus, she likened it to them a bit. She said, "I could identify some of you by your hands, I think. I have had the privilege of putting brown bread into them over the past two years, and I know some of them by heart. I don't know which ones I like better: the hand with some wear and tear on them, who have some clue what this meal cost, or the little children's hands who reach out and take it entirely for granted. This is God's table. I am God's child. Give me my bread."
That last line sums up how I feel about a relationship with God, and it is the springboard to some of my own thoughts.
In some churches, if you are "unworthy", you are not allowed to partake of communion. This brings me to my point: either we are ALL unworthy, or we are ALL worthy through grace. There is no other choice, for there is no way we can possibly be worthy on our own. Another thought: human judgement of another's sin and finding some worthy and some unworthy is a hefty form of cherry picking. ONE sin is all that keeps you from heaven. One. And we aren't just talking about the biggies like adultery and theft here. It could be a lie. It could be gossip. It could be a mean thing that you said when someone cut you off in traffic. One.
I prefer to take the grace side. After all, God is so perfect that our good works appear to Him to be nothing more than filthy rags anyway, so says Isaiah.
So when any human pronounces judgement on another and tries to keep communion from them, I hope that they remember theses words:
"This is God's table. I am God's child. Give me my bread."
Unequivocally.
"Judgement is mine, sayeth the Lord."
So, give me my bread.
♥ Melody
