Last Sunday night marked the end of our Eucharist and Mission series at The Practice. Part of that night was spent in the practice of remembering and reflecting on where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. Enjoy this special edition of The Practice Podcast that includes our closing reflections on what we’ve learned and where we’ve been this past six weeks together.
“5 weeks ago our community embarked upon a journey to explore and deepen the significant connections between Eucharist & Mission. Through a freight train of incredible information, preaching, advocacy and wisdom, we have been invited into the significance of this table and the different connections between what happens here, and in our day to day lives and in our world.
Together we have journeyed a great intellectual and emotional distance. Together, I want to take just a moment to recap each step of this journey as we once again approach this table.
Our journey began with Scot McKnight, who gave us a foundational theology of the Eucharist. In it, he pointed out that the Eucharist, like Passover is in fact a liberation meal, given for an occupied people. We learned that through participating in this table we become connected to the liberation offered through Jesus.
For week 2 Jonathan Martin reminded us that: Absolutely everyone is invited and welcome to the high and glorious call of the table. Whosoever desires to loose their life, submit to the mysterious presence and power of Christ at this table – is wanted and is welcome.
For week 3 David Fitch taught us that the postures we practice here at this table, of are actually shaping us for the tables of fellowship and of mission in our own lives. If we can learn to attend to the presence of Christ here, in this moment, we are being shaped into kingdom people who can recognize and attend to Christ in the world.
What happens around this sacrament of Christ’s blood and body that was broken open for us, breaks us open. We don’t go forth in mission for any greater reason than what happens right here. The love and sacrifice of Christ becoming broken open for us is what breaks us open for the sake of the world. Therefore in the weeks to come, we looked at how to practice Eucharist and Mission in our own lives.
In week 4, Austin Channing Brown shared how the Eucharist breaks us open for the sake of reconciliation. To resound with the cry of injustice, to flip the homogeneous tables that bind us to the imperialism of the world so that we may be prophetic voices in the shape of Christ, protesting with our very lives, showing that we are for everything this table stands for. God reconciled himself to us – now we are to be reconciled to one another and to the world.
And finally through the beautiful and compelling story of Lynne Hybels, we saw how the Eucharist breaks us open for the sake of real, radical, costly peace. Through this table, this incredible sacrament that represents the lengths Christ went to, to make peace with us and with the world, we are beckoned to make peace in his name.
I think we can all agree that this has been quite the journey.”
I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite parts of this experience in my own life, have been the amazing stories that have been popping up all over my life connecting what happens here at The Eucharist table, with the other tables in my life. A few weeks ago, my husband John and I had the pleasure of sitting around our table in fellowship with a dear friend from The Practice, Sarah, who many of you have seen serving communion week to week. The connections Sarah has been making between Eucharist and her life are so incredibly moving and powerful, and as I listened to her I thought to myself,
Waow. I want that. I want to know the real, radical connections between what takes place here and what takes place in my life, and in the life of the world… I want to be broken open by this powerful practice of Eucharist for mission and the sake of the world.
It is my prayer for you that as we move forward from this journey that we would all give thanks to God for how we’ve been seeing the connections, and that we would continue to say, yes Lord show me, the vivid, beautiful connections in my life.
Blessings and peace to you,
Jenna Perrine and The Practice Team
We’d love to hear from you, what connections have you seen? How has this series deepened your understanding and practice of Eucharist And Mission?