a picnic at the heart of the universe

Pentecost 13B
St Paul’s Church, Ipswich
18 August 2024

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At the heart of every faith community there is a symbol of the good life, or perhaps the struggle to overcome evil.

Sometimes there are multiple symbols.

These symbols capture almost without words the essence of our faith.

For some Christians, the ultimate symbol of our faith is the cross. It certainly represents a distinctive and unique aspect of our faith, and is easily recognised as the de facto “trademark” of Christianity. It has parallels in Judaism and Islam, with their symbols of the star of David and the crescent (sometimes with a star).

However, for me as an Anglican, the central symbol is the Table of Jesus; that Table where Jesus is both the host and the menu. The Table—the Altar—is the most prominent and central feature of our church space.

I wonder which symbols speak most powerfully to you and your faith?

In churches where the Table takes precedence over the pulpit or the organ, we are being reminded each time we step inside the church that God has called us to a place at the Table, at God’s Table.

In this understanding of faith, there is a picnic at the very heart of the universe.

Indeed, the whole point of the cosmos is God inviting us to claim our place at the Table

In the ancient book of Proverbs we read these words:

Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.  She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.  She has sent out her servant girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, “You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”[Proverbs 9:1-6 NRSV]

The prophet Isaiah imagined God inviting people to a magnificent feast:

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. [Isaiah 55:1-3 NRSV]

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus—the wisdom of God in human form—inviting people to the meal where he is both host and menu:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 
[John 6:35, 51, 54-55, 58 NRSV]

To imagine God as setting a table and inviting us to come and eat together, is to see the world through the eyes of Jesus.

In the time of Jesus, there were strict boundaries around meal customs. Purity rules once designed for the temple in Jerusalem were increasingly applied to everyday life out in the villages.

Jesus broke the rules.

He ate and drank with anyone and everyone.

The shared meal—the open table—was at the very heart of his mission. It was both his message and his program.

He gathered people for meals and in those gatherings around a shared table they discovered forgiveness, healing and new wisdom for everyday life.

The rich and powerful hated it, and they hated him.

Indeed, they killed him because of his radical idea that God was closest when we sit around a table with strangers, rather than when the High Priest offers a lamb in the temple.

So we come to the table of Jesus here today.

It is Jesus who invites us.

The bread we break and the cup we share is a communion in the essence of Jesus. We are fed with his life, we are shaped by his wisdom, we are renewed by his love, we are strengthened by his faithfulness.

As we prepare to reach out our hands to receive the Bread of Life, we say this line from the prayer that Jesus himself gave us:

Give us today our daily bread …

Yes, Lord, give us that bread.

One day at a time—one step at a time—grant us the wisdom, the courage and the grace to be authentic followers of Jesus. 

That is the blessing we seek as we come to the Table of Jesus.