GLEANINGS from the Daily Office – Table Manners

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Table Manners – Year One, Proper 21, Tuesday, October 6, 2015, 1 Corinthians 11:2, 17-22

“Is it not the Lord’s supper you eat.”

Too often we celebrate the “Lord’s supper” in such a way that we forget the early days. Rather than celebrated upon marble altars, the early communion meal was likely consumed on wooden tables in the upper rooms where the people of God assembled. Apparently communion elements were so accessible people helped themselves. Some overindulged. One got fat. Another got drunk.  In the process some went hungry and others thirsty. Put on a helmet and hang on for the ride.

But even this accessible meal requires manners. Just because we arrive early doesn’t mean we have license to consume without regard to those who would come later. Commend? “No, I will not,” says Paul.

Even the Lord’s Supper is about respecting community. Take care to regard all equally. Relationships matter.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–