@ The Communion Table

The Communion table was Jesus’ last meal with his friends.  It was a place of immense sorrow and hope.  Betrayal and friendship.  All of these tensions held gently in one space.  So too at Metro, Jose invited us a couple weeks ago to Jesus’ table where all were welcomed.  People encircled while the musicians played the instrumental of “Came to My Rescue,” a song that our church knows very well.  It speaks of God answering our call to rescue us.

Around the table, it was as if we were encountering Jesus through one another.  Jose passed around the bread and cup with the invitation not to commemorate, but remember Jesus.  In my spirit, I was grateful he made the distinction.  Commemorating Jesus memorializes him.  As if the bread and cup are tombstones, physical salutations of his death.  Rather, remembering Christ is to embody his death and resurrection in community.  How? We embody his death, when we choose to suffer together.  We embody resurrection when we stand in solidarity and walk together in resurrection-hope.

As Metro’s pastor, Jose spoke about the privilege he’s had in walking with us in some dark spaces.  At the Communion table, he reminded us, this relationship was not one sided.  He asked Metro to journey with him and his family, as they were entering what may be the hardest season they have ever experienced.  At the Communion table we made commitments to stand, pray together, and share in one another’s sorrow and healing.

The Apostle Paul once said in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7,

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Paul writes not “if,” but when we experience suffering, so too shall we experience comfort, not only from a com-passionate God, a co-suffering God, but also through community.  Suffering and comfort are held together gently in one space by the body, who is inextricably linked to the source of comfort and care, God.

Whenever we gather at Metro, around the communion table, I experience God.  God’s presence moves between us.  God’s presence transforms strangers, who would otherwise have stood divided, into one body, one family.  Around the table, I experience the living Jesus, alive in those standing next to me.  With our hands held, Jesus holds us.  Even with the tensions, paradoxes, and contradictions that exist between and within, at Communion we don’t commemorate.  We remember a living Jesus, who joins us in our suffering and in our comfort; holding us close, so we can hold one another gently.

Relationships Pt.I – Sacred Eco-System

This first Sunday of February, Metro Hope Church began a new series on Relationships. I had the privilege of introducing the topic and getting our minds and spirits stirring.

We looked at the creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2 and re-imagined the Garden of Eden as a sacred eco-system. Creator, creation, humanity, and the Earth not simply co-existing or being tolerant of each other, but living as interconnected and interdependent beings. This sacred eco-system, built on relationships, functioned and thrived in harmony and balance. When we talk about the “Fall” we re-imagined it as the event that disrupted the balance of the Garden. We begin to see sin, as that which disrupts and dishonors relationships. Whatever divides, diminishes, minimizes, is sinful, a consequence of the Fall.

Jesus’ mission, then, was to restore the balance of that eco-system, where the integrity of relationships is of utmost importance and value.

Jesus’ revolution was a radical redefinition of relationships.

He redefined the concept of family by calling his disciples his mother, brother, and sisters. Jesus redefined the relationship between the elite and the downcast of society, like the ill, those of ill repute (i.e. tax-collectors and prostitutes), women, and children. Jesus redefines relationships in such a radical way that it shakes up the status quo.

Jesus disrupts to interrupt the dysfunction.

Dysfunctional relationships, from the beginning of time, has a compounding effect. We don’t know how to relate to God, to one another, or to the Earth. We enslave. Genetically alter nature. Legalize greed. We find more ways to manipulate God’s eco-system.

Jesus’ revolution begins with repentance.

Repent for the kingdom of God is near (Matthew 4:7).

Repent is metanoia in Greek.

When I asked the Metro crew what came to mind when they heard the word “repent,” it was interesting that most of the words were reminiscent of Adam and Eve’s realization of nakedness, shame, and fear. Someone shouted, it reminded him of the blow-horn guy on the street, whose words are often condemning and apocalyptic. Guilt. Mia culpa. Sackcloth and ashes.

In our religious culture, we’ve somehow reduced “repent” to guilt and condemnation. When Jesus said, “repent,” (metanoia) it was a command to re-think, re-evaluate, and by doing so, undergo an internal revolution. It’s a complete 180. The present systems and structures would have to undergo a revolution too, from the inside-out.

So I challenged the Metro crew to discern with God, one relationship that needs to be repented – reconsidered and reevaluated. It could be personal. We need to repent the relationship we have with ourselves. Maybe we need to be more kind to ourselves and embrace our imperfections through God’s grace.

Maybe we need to repent an interpersonal relationship. Do you need forgiveness? Or need to forgive someone else?

Maybe we need to repent a social or political relationship. How does our role as voters, consumers, and citizens honor the relationships of God’s eco-system? In this current political climate, I called for “corporate repentance” the reevaluation of the marriage between big corporations and Washington.

Ultimately repentance is holistic. It’s all encompassing. It’s personal and public, local and global.

I’m inviting you, Metro this week to let Jesus disrupt you to interrupt the dysfunction.

Share one relationship that you’re discerning, re-thinking, and re-evaluating. You can email me at chantilly@metrohopenyc.org and I’ll do my best to continue the conversation here on this blog and share some of your reflections with others.

peace this week,
Chantilly