This week we pick up with "Let the Bones Dance" - Marcia W. Mount Shoop - in a section called 'Disposition of Interdependence: Embodying Relationality.' The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is one of the most promising spaces for such body language. Breaking bread and drinking wine re-member our relational language. Dispositions of interdependence strive to give that reconnectional flesh. Liturgies for the Lord's Supper could allow participants to nurture responsiveness in how the meal is shared - face to face, hand to hand, voice to voice. The Lord's Supper could be emphasized for how it re-members Christ's body by putting broken relationships back together, by gathering in those who are estranged or dis-membered from the community of faith. Interdependence enables the Lord's Supper to embody what it is - a joyful feast of relationship, reconciliation, and re-membering Christ's body. The Lord's Supper is a moving time in worship. Moving in the sense that we literally get up and move - together. Even if someone is not able to move to the front to receive the meal, the meal is brought out to them. It is also moving in the sense that we get a glimpse of the community saying "yes." The body moves together. Walter Bouman used to say that coming forward to take the meal was the Lutheran version of an altar call. We do come forward as part of our ongoing discipline of following Jesus. We do come forward as individuals longing for food to sustain our hearts and souls and as a community longing to have our life together made whole and faithful. One of the most meaningful parts of the liturgy for me as the presiding minister, is to offer the bread - face to face - to people of all ages and all backgrounds. How one takes the meal is not key - it is key that one does take part in this simple act of remembrance that is the power to transform our life together. Connection: This sharing of this simple meal is a time to re-member one another. It can be the visual reminder of who we are to be when we say that Jesus is Lord and that our lives follow within the domain of that gracious Reign. Gather us as one, O God, as we walk together remembering your empowering love for life that takes on the servant life of your Beloved. Amen. |
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