Proper Bread

I just led by first properly live zoom communion. It's not ideal but it's what we can do right now. Because I was leading live I decided I wasn't going to have the same issues as l had the last time we did a semi live communion (the one with the youtube video made a few days before broadcast over zoom) and only be left with a choice of lasagne or cake for communion so this morning instead of going for what has nearly become traditional Sunday morning walk I'd avoid the wall of pollen outside and make bread. 

The trouble is I'd forgotten that my scales had broken yesterday so I did it by cup (how cups are an accurate way to measure I have no idea) and feel. 

I waited until we broke bread together to try it. 

But by eck, it was good. I couldn't stop eating it. 

It wasn't that it was bread, I can give or take bread which is why I normally don't have any in the house. 

It wasn't even that I'd made it - I've made enough bread now to be able to go through the motions, and to be honest I don't put effort into it as I use a dough hook in my mixer. 

It was that it was the best bread I've made in a while. Perfectly airy in the middle, crunchy on the outside, with a bit of flavour, but not so much you don't want to put a big chunk of butter on or ladle of jam. I sat through the zoom chat afterwards munching away. I sat through the playing of 'the old rugged cross' after we'd broken bread munching away. It was goooooood. 

That's enough bigging up my bread making skills...... 

Whenever I talk about food and faith I get passionate about the value of the homemade, about the value of abundance, about being generous in our feeding, about being people where the cup overflows, not slightly misses, because that is the God we worship - a generous, blessing overflowing, creator God who is about abundance not not quite enough. 

It's been hard being so passionate about the value of gathering around the table over the last few weeks, because I am eating alone, in a house on my own, with shopping I've risked my life to purchase and it's not the most fun of times. I've had a theological discussion on food and faith cancelled, which is only right, because how can I talk about the value of the table when we cannot gather?

Yet today, I was reminded of something of the goodness of God. Zoom communion is always going to be odd and slightly disappointing, but the value in trying is immense. It wasn't in that though I was reminded of the goodness of God - but it was in the bread. 

So often we use the tiny morsels of bread for communion, the one hamburger roll that has no actual bread inside so you struggle to share it amongst the congregation, the classic cubes of bread and the wafers - I will never forget the time I had to break bread as part of the communion liturgy and all I had was a tiny wafer. 

But real proper bread - it speaks better of the story - of the love and generosity and abundance of God. It smells good, it tastes good, it feels good - you feel satisfied.

While we cannot gather at a physical table and share amazing, wondrous bring and shares together (if you've never been to one of those then come to my church when we're allowed again and you will see what I mean), this meal of bread and wine, it reminds of the importance of our Christ centred community. 

The bread we break and the wine (summer fruits squash) that we drink centres us back on the story where Jesus is at the table - a story that centres on one man at a table who speaks of abundance, not frugality, of blessing, not curse, of restoration from brokenness, not the crumbs left behind....... and no more than now has our understanding of the value of table and our participation in it got to be affirmed and challenged. 

For those churches who are not able to meet around bread and wine at the moment as well as normal every day food because of theology and rule of institution, I'm sad for you, but as you eat and drink differently and make moments of agape around food, whether that's with family, on zoom, in supermarkets as you remember that everyone needs tinned tomatoes, be remembering the story that Jesus lived and told where the broken bread and shed wine speak of life in all its fullness. 

Life is grown around the table and it begins with story of Christ, who is the bread of life.

Let us celebrate that many more times over than the story of good bread (which also must be celebrated and will serve as a reminder of how much more we have than we might realise as it brings us back again to the story of Christ). 

"Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever"           John 6:35 (The Message)

Maundy Thursday Communion 2020 - Gathered yet Scattered

This is a communion service written for New Addington Baptist Church as we are unable to meet because of the restrictions imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea is that we will all take part at the same time (8.15pm - after the clap for carers) on Maundy Thursday, and those who are able will meet virtually as we take part via zoom (which will be shared separately). The video of the service is below the script. 

Maundy Thursday Communion – Scattered but Gathered

Before we begin set the table with wine and with bread, ready to participate together. If you are with others, gather if you can. If you are alone be assured that you sit with many others even if you may not see them right now.

Find a quiet space, a different space, a space to be and take a moment to lay your day, your week before God, to say sorry for the things you have done wrong and to rest in his presence.

You might want to light a candle to remind you that wherever you are, whoever you are with, the Christ light will always shine. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness will not overcome it.

At this time we are unable to meet in person because it is not safe to leave our homes. We gather in an unfamiliar way, but as we gather we remember that many others sit with us, lay their tables and serve bread and wine. 

As we break bread and drink wine together we remember that we are part of something far bigger than what is in our homes, bigger than even when we meet in our church – that we are part of a worldwide church where this meal is a familiar meal, where bread broken and wine drunk is a remembrance meal that speaks of that time spent in an upper room as the disciples gathered with Jesus on the night before his death.

Read – Mark 14:12-16

So we gather at our tables, of different sizes and shapes. Some are mourning the loss of the sound of family meals. Some are where we would normally meet with those who can’t walk through our doors. Some are where school happens, where work is trawled through. Some are where jigsaws and the craft that we’ve taken up again have lain throughout the week.

Each table, it tells a story, and today the story it will tell is the story of 2000 years of history where the people of God have gathered and eaten and drunk to remember the first time that Jesus did this, on that first Thursday, the day before he was to go to the cross.

As we gather this evening, scattered in the community, this story that centres us reminds us that we are not alone.

We gather with those who we know well, who are part of our story, who we see on screens and hear through the telephone.

We gather with those we do not know, who are joining the story, all are welcome here.

We gather because we love one another.

We gather because we are broken.

We gather in our fears, in our worries, in our sickness, we gather to share in this story that brings us together.

As we gather we tell His story, which is our story too.

We gather at the table, with bread and wine, scattered yet together to give thanks through this meal.

Let us pray and give thanks

We gather here, Gracious God, struggling with being separate but glad to stand together

We give thanks for all you have given to us.

For this beautiful world we live in.

For family and friends, some of whom are with us, some of whom are far away

For food, for our homes, for the telephone, for the internet.

For those we know who are working on the frontline, who are serving and caring and sacrificing for others.

For all those things that make our life as full as it can be right now.

We offer our thanks and praise.

We thank you for this bread and this wine, on different tables, in different cups, on different plates, in different places, all symbols of your body broken and your blood shed for us.

We thank you for your story, which is our story – a story of redemption and new life, a story of restoration and forgiveness. We thank you that this meal speaks of healing and of mending and of love so deep it is beyond all comprehension.

We sit together, yet scattered, and we praise you Lord.

Amen

Read Mark 14:22-26

Take your bread and break it. This is Jesus’ body, which is broken for you. Though we eat from many loaves, we remember that in Christ, we, though many, form one body and each belongs to all the others.

Eat the bread and remember that Christ calls you to be his follower, he welcomes you as his friend, he calls you his family and he invites you to become part of his story.

Pause

Take your wine and hold it. This is Jesus’ blood, which is shed for you. Though we drink from many cups, we remember that in Christ, we though many, form one body and each belongs to all the others.

Drink this wine and remember that Christ died for you, he offers you forgiveness, he calls you his own and he restores your soul.

Pause

The disciples left that upper room and they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. In the garden Jesus called them to prayer. He called them to wait. He called them to stand beside him. They waited and they waited for the events to come. It was to get worse before it got better, for as we approach tomorrow, the stink of death is in the air.

Pause

Beyond tomorrow this story speaks of hope, of new beginnings, of a time when the loneliness of the cross will become the glory of resurrection.

But for now, we wait and we watch and we pray.

Staying Loud

This week in 1969, the first person set foot on the moon. You can't miss it in the news at the moment - it's on all the time - a celebration of the moment 50 years ago when Neil Armstrong said his famous words. It was a moment that brought the whole world together - a moment when millions and millions of people united sat around TV screens and radios waiting for a significant bit of history to unroll before their eyes. The astronauts left a plaque on the moon that said 'we came in peace for all mankind' and President Nixon said that in this moment '.....all the people on this Earth are truly one'.

This week in 1969, for a moment, the world was united. An amazing moment where people who wouldn't ever meet face to face and would probably cross the street before speaking to united together around the same thing, with the same awe and amazement. 

Yet this moment only happened because of conflict - because the US believed that if the Soviet Union got their first then they had lost somehow. They made a commitment to getting to the moon first because the Soviets had beaten them at everything else when it came to the space race. 

Yet this moment happened only a year after Martin Luther King was assassinated because his fight for civil rights for all was so distasteful to those traditionally in power in the US he had to be wiped out. This moment was only a moment and didn't - doesn't - mean that the world was then united. 

Because in 2019 we watch as the US President stands in silence as a rally chants 'send her back' to a Somalian born American citizen who says stuff they don't like.

Because in 2019 we hear news of how their are people living in effectively concentration camps on the southern US border and being treated like not-humans. 

Because in 2019 we face the prospect of having a prime minister be announced in the next week who thinks its OK to tell jokes about people's choice of religious dress and to mock where people come from in a way that speaks of prejudices that should have died out a long time ago (and are scarily similar to the rhetoric that led to the chanting in the US).

Because in 2019 we watch programmes like 'Years and Years' and 'The Handmaids Tale' and worry how close they are to the truth. 

I have been challenged in the last few weeks that where we see wrong - those things that divide and don't unite that we need to call it out. I have been challenged that we need to not stand by and let it happen as hostile and divisive policies and ideas begin to presented as normal and OK. I don't want to be complicit in the chanting of 'send her back'. I don't want to be complicit in the hostile environment that shuts the door in the faces of people who are desperately seeking help, that sends people to a home that hasn't been a home for many years because of a lost piece of paperwork.... I don't want to be complicit in all of this....

In 1969 the first meal that was shared on the moon was communion. Buzz Aldrin unpacked bread and wine and together the crew committed the mission to God, recognising that in this meal that unites, in this meal where all invited, that there in it was a centre that they must not lose. The language of bread and wine transcends cultural barriers and different languages and identities. In that moment where we centre on the story of Jesus, we are united in his love which reaches the whole world........ And its because of Jesus that we must call our leaders to account and I will not ever, I hope, choose to be silent. 

Love from the centre of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fuelled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Romans 12:9-21 (The Message)