Were you one of those yesterday who gathered around tables to give thanks & share a meal with family? Or did you used to do that as a kid? If you were like me, you had to sit at the kids’ table (usually a flimsy, foldable card table) while the grown-ups sat at the nice big table. But that was OK because we were still all together sharing the same food. Tables represent fellowship.
I spend alot of time at our family kitchen table (as pictured). Every Monday it’s where I research & write my Sunday message, & where I pray online with the Elders. I’ve taught online classes & Bible studies from it too. It’s a beautiful, solid-oak table made by Mennonites with a lifetime guarantee. We intend for it to last our entire lives, & then pass it down to our family. That’s why we had a glass top custom-made to protect it. But after over 3 decades, the glass finally cracked. To replace it would be pricey, so we debated whether to use just a table cloth instead. But it would be a shame to cover up that beautiful wood where I spend so much time, & where we’ve shared family meals, & hosted guests. So last week I brought home a new custom-made protective glass top.
At the Last Supper, Jesus & His disciples reclined at a table. He transformed the annual holiday Passover meal of unleavened bread & fruit of the vine into the weekly Lord’s Supper (communion) when we remember His body & blood given for us. It’s a place of fellowship with the Lord & one another. Yet years later, Paul writes to a church that was experiencing discrimination & division at the table. During the Lord’s Supper, they were experiencing estrangement & reinforcing social divisions instead of expressing unity. So Paul reminds them: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” Then Paul refers to communion as “the table of the Lord” (1 Cor. 10:17-21).
The church I grew up in, like so many other churches of the time, had an actual table at the front of the auditorium where the communion trays were stacked. It wasn’t really a table but more like a heavy wooden stand with the words “This Do in Remembrance of Me” carved in. The congregation didn’t recline at it, or even sit around it—it was simply where the trays were prominently displayed. But the Lord’s table doesn’t have to be a physical table. Whenever we share in communion, we’re expressing our unity at His table.
The closest thing we have to this outside of church is the Thanksgiving meal. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he did it by giving thanks (1 Cor. 11:23-24). The word for “giving thanks” in the original Greek language of the New Testament is transliterated as “eucharistia,” which is why some churches call communion the “Eucharist.” This is the term some church leaders used as early as the 2nd century. Today it’s used by certain branches of Christianity, but not others. Regardless, it’s supposed to be a time when we all remember & give thanks for what Jesus has done for us through His sacrificial death.
Jesus has gathered a redeemed people to form a forever family. We don’t choose who gets invited because it’s not our table–it’s His. Unlike the school lunchroom where kids reinforce social distinctions & cliques around different tables (the cool kids, jocks, nerds, brainiacs, loners, etc.), there can be no segregation & exclusivity in the church. There’s just one true table where we’re all welcome & equal, & everyone fits in because we all need God’s grace. So in our church, we practice “open” communion where all who consider themselves Christians are welcome to participate whether they’re members of our congregation or not (as opposed to “closed” communion).
For some reason, most churches have largely downplayed communion, relegating it to once a month or a quarter, or practically abandoning it altogether. The refreshment area with cookies & coffee has in some unintentional sense replaced the bread & the cup. Yet communion was integral to the weekly gathering of early Christians (Acts 2:42, 20:7). The church was to meet “on the first day of the week” with the purpose of “breaking bread” (1 Cor. 16:2, 11:17-34).
At the same time, many Christians downplay communion by practicing an individualist faith & staying away from weekly gatherings. Communion isn’t just between “Jesus & me”—it’s about us together. So they’re missing the meaning of being the church by avoiding going to church. Most of the New Testament letters weren’t written to individuals but to churches. Even of the 6 written to individuals, 3 were written to church leaders (Tim. & Titus) & 1 possibly to a church personified (2 John).
The major point of gathering is not for the Lord’s benefit but for our own. This is where we express & demonstrate our communal fellowship. Communion unites us across languages, cultures, ethnicities, social & economic distinctions. It even unites us across generations because we’re linked together as we remember the past & glimpse the future, looking forward to sharing it with Jesus & all the saints around the heavenly table (Luke 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:26, Matt. 26:29, Rev. 19:9).