Behold what you are; become what you receive.
Every week, after we’ve said the Great Amen and consecrated the bread and the wine, these are the words I say when we lift the bread and wine and extend the invitation that all who seek Christ are welcome at God’s table.
It is an adaptation of a phrase from a sermon by St. Augustine (ce 354-430). In sermon 272, he links the bread of the Eucharist (the body of Christ) with those who receive it, proclaiming that they too are the body of Christ.
This invitation captured my imagination the first time I heard it several years ago, not only for the deep truth I believe it expresses, but also for the way it embraces the mystery of what we do and mean in the Eucharist.
When we gather every week to share the bread and wine and tell each other this story of Jesus’ last night with his friends, we call on the Spirit to be present, and then gradually we are there and it is here. When we receive the bread and wine we taste a mystery – one of which we are a part. We share the bread and wine and tell this story because it helps us go where words and thinking alone can’t take us. And a part of that is the astonishing assertion that we are the body of Christ today – here and now – and that the world will know Christ through us. It is an awesome call and responsibility.
Stay tuned next week for Part 2: Being Sent.
Yours in God’s peace,
Kristin+