On the Common 072
Good morning!
Like many of you, we had an Easter weekend where the weather seemed to reflect the story well; Friday and Saturday poured down buckets of rain, and Sunday broke sunny. Everything was still wet when we left for church Sunday morning, resulting in me helpfully telling everyone at our Easter gathering: “If there’s dirt on your chair, sorry, just brush it off.” Amidst the downed oak pollen pods, the dirt, and the last-minute additions leading to a temporary chair shortage,
we had a wonderful celebration with friends.The Part Where There’s an Essay: Remembrance
I remember a Sunday in a small church in Nashville, attending the regular service after a weekend conference. The liturgy followed the regular pattern, including confession and proclamation of the Gospel. The music swelled to a crescendo as we filed forward for communion. “The Body of Christ! Given for you!” Father Thomas practically yelled in my face. “Amen!” I shouted back. As I knelt at the rail to partake, I thought, “This feels like a party.” Loud singing. Beautiful instruments. It was a feast, taking in that single wafer at the altar.
I remember another Sunday a few years later, standing around a table with fifteen others, being served the bread and the wine by an elder and his wife. They passed the platter much like you’d expect at a dinner table, rehearsing the words of Christ at the table on that Thursday night in the Upper Room. “Do this in remembrance of me,” they reminded us. We looked across the table at one another as we partook. It felt like a meal, standing in that small group amongst the larger congregation, all of whom would take turns at their own tables in the same way.
And yet still a few years later, I remember sitting under a white tent in a lawn chair, sweat rolling down my back. The locusts had begun to buzz in the pine trees at the edge of the church lawn. The humidity was stifling. “And after supper, he took the bread…” the pastor recited, and we peeled back the cellophane. A low crackle rolled through the crowd as everyone did the same motion, opening our pandemic-safe wafer and juice. It felt farther apart somehow, this bizarre way of being together but distant. A snack.
There are many ways of eating the meal together; there are many different earthly interpretations of the verses telling us to “do this in remembrance of” him (1 Corinthians 11:23-34). But always, it is an embodied reminder of our membership in the body. Whether we look each other in the eye, kneel before the table, or sit together in quiet — we do this together, as one, as recipients.
We have been given this practice, and we will give it to the next generation. It is a piece of the Christian story that encompasses our senses in a way that no other practice does.
Let us keep the feast.
For the Anglophiles
We’re coming up on Tax Day here in the US, but it has just passed in the UK. Across the pond, the new tax year begins on April 6, or Lady Day. It used to be the first day of the year, celebrating Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she was to bear the Christ child. Everything about the new year has shifted around since then, but the start of the new year for taxes remains.
Reads & Listens of the Week
The Withywindle podcast is back for season five! This is a delightful podcast that you might enjoy with your kids. Here’s an older episode talking about The Wingfeather Saga with author Andrew Peterson and creator Chris Wall.
What Easter Has to Do With Fairy-Stories. Here’s a great reminder of why we Lord of the Rings nerds use that brilliant word eucatastrophe.
I was shocked to know that (a) people are still going to the mall and (b) in the great tradition of Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, there are still concerts happening in malls. The joy and pain of a ’90s boy band concert at a mall in 2023.
My friend Leslie Bustard is in her last days. I only got to know her over the last year and a half or so, but she was a brilliant light to many in her community for decades. Last month, a group of us got together to record Leslie’s book of poetry for her. If you’d like to partake in her words, you can watch the video below. Her love for Christ and the life she’s been given in the world (“The land of the living”) shines through brilliantly.
Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
a good problem to have.
Once again, this is so good.