April 27, 2025 • 31 mins
The Table — not the cross — is the symbol Jesus chose to remember him by.
In this Easter reflection, we step into the Strange New World of resurrection and explore why the Eucharist, Communion, and the Lord’s Supper have always been at the heart of Christian practice. Long before the gospels were written, before theology was fully formed, the first followers of Jesus gathered around a table — and they experienced grace you could taste.
In this video, discover:
- 🕊 Why Jesus asked to be remembered through a meal, not a monument
- 🛐 The ancient Christian symbols — from the Chi-Rho to the Ichthus — and their hidden meanings
- 📜 Why the Eucharist is the earliest Christian ritual we know
- ✝️ How real presence, mystery, and grace still meet us at the table today
This isn’t just remembering a story. It’s encountering the Spirit that remakes the world — one shared meal, one open table, one broken loaf at a time.
#Communion #Eucharist #LordsSupper #TableOfChrist #Easter #Resurrection #ChristianSymbols #Grace #FaithAndPractice
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy Duncan (00:00):
The table is where we're called to ask to let
(00:02):
go of a lot. And I think this iswhy maybe theologically the
table has always beencomplicated. There's something
very primitive and unvarnishedin our encounter here, then I
can see why Jesus uses suchevocative language here. Last
week, I ended our time by sayingthat Easter Sunday is about
(00:26):
celebrating that tomorrow is anew Monday morning. A new
morning when you can wake upmore honest with yourself than
ever before, more free fromwhatever it was that has felt
like it had you trapped before,more motivated to the good than
you have ever possibly imaginedbefore, perhaps even believing
(00:47):
for the very first time thatwhatever death you've
experienced or encountered inyour life was not the end.
Because resurrection is somehowthe natural state of the cosmos.
However, if all that is true,and I absolutely believe it is,
then Easter has to be more thanjust a celebration. It has to
(01:11):
become for us a launching pointinto a strange new world where
so many of our prior assumptionsabout the world are replaced
with new fascinations. And thisis why I think in the wisdom of
the church, Easter is more thanjust a day. Easter is an entry
point into fifty days ofEastertide.
(01:34):
And so this year, we've chosento enter into that season with a
series where we are gonna focuson how resurrection changes our
postures toward some of the mostbasic and fundamental practices
of the church. Today, we'regonna talk about the Eucharist
table. Our mission and missionsnext week, baptism after that,
(01:56):
then partnership and marriage,and finally, we'll talk about
death to close this series. Butthis is all about how Easter
shapes and reshapes, guides ourvision for the community of
Christ. Now, as I said, we'regonna talk about death at the
end of this series, five weeksfrom now.
But I do want to mention thistoday. Many of us will know that
(02:17):
Brandon Healy passed away onGood Friday. Brandon was a young
dad who had been part of thiscommunity since day one. I had
the privilege of being hispastor for the better part of
fifteen years, and I wasactually able to visit him in
the hospital on Friday before hepassed. Brandon's son, Walter,
is just four months old.
(02:37):
His wife, Julian, is obviouslydealing with the shock of all
this. Everything happened soquickly, after his cancer
returned only about a month ago.But a GoFundMe was established
just this week to help Walterand Julianne. You can find a
link on my Facebook page, but Ineed you to know this already.
All of you, the community thathas surrounded Brandon and
(02:57):
Julianne for years, you haveexceeded all expectations.
Your generosity has beenremarkable. And in my last
conversation with Brandon onFriday, he was even then in
those moments expressing hisdeep gratitude and peace.
Knowing that there were so manypeople surrounding and
supporting, caring for Walterand for Julianne. I need you to
(03:21):
keep all of that energy now foryears to come, and I know you
will. We need to surround Walteras he grows, Julianne as she
processes all of this.
So, thank you for all of that.The funeral will be held on May
19. It's gonna be at Rock PointBears Point Church just outside
the city on the way to Cochrane.We will post the details on the
(03:43):
community discord for anyone whoneeds them. But please, I'm
asking you to keep Walter andJulianne and everyone that knew
and loved Brandon in yourprayers, especially for this
Eastertide season.
Of course, we also know thatPope Francis passed away this
week, and so we also want tocontinue to pray for all of our
Catholic siblings as they movetoward the election of a new
(04:06):
leader who will guide thechurch. So let's pray together.
Gracious and risen Jesus, wegather in the light of your
resurrection. Hearts stillechoing the joy of Easter
morning, hearts still heavy withthe news of tragedy in our
midst, and yet we live in thetrust that you have conquered
(04:27):
death, shattered our tombs,breathe new peace into rooms
that we have locked through ourfear. And today, are reminded
that Easter is not just a singlemoment, but a season and a way
of being, a rhythm of lifemarked by hope and renewal.
Yes, death, but alsoresurrection. And so just as you
(04:51):
appear to your friends in theirdoubt and their fear, We trust
that you are with us in all ofour uncertainties today. Speak
peace over the places that stilltremble within us, and awaken
faith where our struggles stilllinger. Breathe once again into
your people and let our lives befilled with resurrection wonder.
(05:15):
In the strong name of the risenChrist we pray.
Amen. Today is a strange newworld as we wake in the light of
resurrection. And today, wewanna talk about the table of
Christ. So, we will cover all ofour symbols. Jesus' ask, Jesus'
(05:36):
intent, and finally Jesus'presence with us.
At first, a thought. One of myfavorite things about our
rhythms here at Commons throughEaster and Holy Week is all the
work that gets put into thestage and the decor, the way we
decorate the room. We have four,we call them tent pole events
(05:58):
across the year here at Commons.That's the Stampede Breakfast,
which is up next in July. Ourfall launch every year in
September, Christmas Eve inDecember, and of course Easter
in the spring each year.
And we wanna make those weekendsfun, but we also want to get
creative about how we tell thestory each time. And so for
(06:18):
Easter this year, we werethinking about resurrection and
new life, and this year we hadthe image of the sun coming up
over a valley, if that is theimage we had in mind. And so if
you notice we had those sun raysbehind the cross in front of
that lush green valley on thescreens behind it, We had
streaks of sunlight coming upfrom behind our green meadow
covered in flowers over on theother side in the gym. And it's
(06:41):
actually a lot of fun to thinkabout these things. It's fun to
pull together all the staff andall the volunteers that it takes
to make that happen each year.
But one of my favorite thingsevery year across Holy Week is
when we bring out the cross onthe stage. We have this
beautiful slab cross, just thesewonderful solid wood beams. By
(07:03):
the way, quite heavy if you haveto set this up. If you ever
gotten up close to it though,you also might have noticed
there's these wonderful bow tieinserts holding together the
natural cracks and splits in thewood. I love it.
And I love seeing it change fromPalm Sunday to Good Friday to
Easter each year. The colors andthe flowers on the cross
(07:25):
reflecting the colors that wewear on stage during Holy Week.
All of that tells a story initself. But it is interesting to
me that one of our mostcherished and beloved symbols
within Christianity, the cross,is not an image that Jesus chose
for himself. Now get get mewrong.
The cross is beautiful. I knowsometimes people will say it's
(07:47):
like wearing an electric chairaround your neck, and it is. The
cross was a method of execution.And there's something shocking
about turning that into aneveryday symbol in our lives. At
the same time though, somethingprofoundly subversive in that.
Right? Like, to take an imagethat was meant for death and
transform it into a symbol forlife is resistance. It's a
(08:11):
pushback against everything thatpromotes and wants everything
that manufactures death in ourworld. So, put me on record
here. We should keep the crossand it will be back next Easter.
But, when Jesus told us what hewanted to be remembered by, it
was not a cross. It wassomething very different. And
(08:36):
that's okay. We have a lot ofsymbols in Christianity, and the
diversity of those symbolsitself is quite beautiful. For
example, we have somethingcalled the chairo.
Sort of looks like a p and an xcombined together. Sometimes
we'll have what looks to be an aand an upside down u beside it.
Looks something like this. Well,in Greek, that x makes a sound,
(09:00):
and what looks to be a p theremakes an r sound. So these are
actually the first two lettersof the word Christ.
And beside it are the alpha andthe omega. That's the first and
last letters of the Greekalphabet. They symbolize Christ
as the beginning and the endingof all things. Now, this is sort
of a stylized version of theCairo, but in really old
(09:24):
illuminated manuscripts of theBible. You would often find
illustrations at the top of thepage that looked something like
this with that x and pdecorated, inviting you to then
look for Christ as you readthrough the text.
We also have something calledthe ichthus. That's those Jesus
fishes you find on the back ofyour cars. Personally, no chance
(09:47):
I would ever put that on my car.Not because I'm ashamed of my
faith, because I am ashamed ofmy driving, and I would never
want that to be associated withmy Lord. Please, if you have
one, keep it clean.
Okay? But this symbol actuallycomes from the acronym I x o y e
or better said here, I o d x Itheta upsilon sigma. Because
(10:10):
those are the first letters ofthe phrase, Jesus Christ, son of
God, savior. And in Greek, thoseletters just happen to spell the
word ichthus, which is the wordfor fish. So the legend goes
that early Christians would usethis symbol as a way to identify
themselves to one another.
And if you drew a swoop of thefish and the other person
(10:32):
talking to came along andcompleted the second half to
make the image, you could trustthat they were then part of that
same community of Christ. Nowduring times when the church was
persecuted, that Jesus fishbecame more than a symbol. It
actually became a valuable toolthat was used. Just for fun,
there is another version of theichthus, that may actually have
(10:53):
been older than the fish. It wasactually discovered in some
graffiti uncovered in Ephesus,and it looked like this.
You'll see the same letters, butit's a different symbol here.
It's not a fish this time, but awheel. However, if you notice,
in that eight spoked wheel, youcan actually draw out all five
letters. Now if you're havingtrouble seeing it here, this
(11:16):
might help. Here they arehighlighted here.
Eotexi, theta, upsilon, andsigma. That eight spoked wheel
is yet another way to spell outJesus Christ, son of God,
savior. Except this timeencompassed in the circle that
represents all things heldtogether and sustained in
Christ. Look, pretty cool. Andall of this is kind of fun.
(11:41):
More than that though, I thinkit's actually quite beautiful to
understand our symbols. Wherethey come from, what they were
trying to express, And yetstill, as I said earlier, none
of these are actually the symbolthat Jesus asked to be
remembered by. Because that wasthe table. Specifically, in Luke
(12:06):
22, at the last supper, right onthe verge of Good Friday, we
hear Jesus saying, this is mybody given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me.
And both a symbol and apractice, an image of community
gathered, instituted directly byJesus, who then tells us
(12:27):
specifically that this is how Iwant to be remembered. Now
what's interesting here is thatthis is actually one of the
earliest sayings of Jesus thatis corroborated for us outside
of the gospels. We have fourgospels in our bible. They're
all written in the second halfof the first century. Mark is
(12:49):
probably the earliest, possiblywritten in the mid fifties.
The last of them, which we tendto believe is John, written
probably in the late firstcentury. Although all that is
speculation. We don't know forsure, of course. But if you
remember a few weeks ago, Italked about a document called
the Didache or the teachings ofthe apostles. And you can go
(13:10):
back to the last week in our howto pray series if you want to
hear some of the history aboutthat text.
But the Didache was an earlychurch manual circulating in the
second half of the firstcentury. Essentially, was
guiding church planters in howto start Christian communities,
how to conduct the practices ofthe church. And the Didache was
(13:33):
already teaching the Lord'sSupper in the seventies right
around the time that Luke andMatthew were being written down.
However, maybe even moreinteresting is that this line we
read from Jesus in Luke 22actually shows up in one of
Paul's earliest letters. Infact, this line from Jesus about
(13:55):
how he wants to be remembered isthe only direct quote of Jesus
that Paul records anywhere inall of his writings.
First Corinthians 11, he writes,for I received from the Lord
what I also passed on to you.The Lord Jesus on the night that
he was betrayed took bread. Andwhen he had given thanks, he
broke it and said, this is mybody, which is for you. Do this
(14:20):
in remembrance of me. Now,understand that even the most
skeptical of scholars wouldacknowledge that Paul was
writing in the late fortiesthrough the fifties and the
early sixties.
And that first Corinthians isone of Paul's first undisputed
letters. It would have beenwritten very early in the
fifties of the first century.Probably likely before any of
(14:44):
the gospels had even beenwritten. And what this means is
that not only was the table thesymbol by which Jesus asked to
be remembered by, not only wasthat request circulating in the
writings of Paul and theteachings of the apostles, but
this was indeed one of the veryfirst rituals that the Jesus
community adopted. In otherwords, we actually did what
(15:09):
Jesus asked for once, andhonestly good for us.
Just think about it. We don'teven have gospels yet. And yet,
here's Paul passing on to hisfriends in Corinth what even
earlier Christians had passed onto him. Practices that would
later be recorded in theDidache, narratives that would
(15:30):
later be recorded in thegospels. What all this means is
that the Eucharist table is themost primitive experience of
Christianity that we haveavailable to us.
And I mean that primitive in thebest possible sense here. The
table comes from before ourbible. Even before our gospels,
(15:54):
it traces its roots all the wayback to the very first followers
of the way. The Christians whowere teaching Paul about what it
meant to follow Jesus. And forme, there's something quite
profound about realizing thatbefore we had even begun to
figure out our theology, even aswe were still working to make
(16:16):
sense of what the Jesus storymeant and what it was all about,
before we even wrote any of itdown, we knew from day one that
gathering together around atable.
Rich and poor, slave and free,Greek and Jew, barbarian and
Roman, everyone offered a seattogether. This was somehow the
(16:37):
very heart of Jesus' message,the very expression of Jesus'
life now resurrected within us.And so for two thousand years
now, the church has continued invarious forms with different
approaches and understandings,and granted sometimes with a lot
of disagreement about howexactly it should be done. But
(17:00):
for two thousand years now,Christians have continued to
gather around a table simplybecause Jesus asked us to. And
low key, I kinda love that.
Now, depending on the traditionthat you're familiar with, you
might be more comfortablereferring to the table as the
Eucharist or perhaps ascommunion, maybe even the Lord's
(17:25):
Supper. All of those are fine,by the way. They're all
acceptable. They all point tothe same thing. Eucharist is a
Greek word that means good gift.
Communion points to our sharedexperience together and with
Christ at this meal, and theLord's Supper points us all the
way back to where Jesusinstituted this practice at the
(17:45):
last supper. But even with thosedifferent names, they point us
back to the surplus of meaningembedded here in this simple
meal, which makes me want toreturn to Jesus' choice. Like,
why did Jesus want to beremembered this way? Now, sure.
(18:07):
A meal is nice.
And when I go, I would like asmall group of my friends to get
together and share a meal in mymemory. But this particular meal
strikes me as a uniquely painfulmoment in Jesus' story to be
remembered by. If you think backthrough the events of Holy Week,
events that we just movedthrough, events that culminated
(18:27):
as we shared at the Eucharisttable on resurrection Sunday
seven days ago, then you'llremember that the last supper is
not Jesus' last meal with hisfriends in a nice get together
kind of way, reunion. It was hislast moment before one of those
friends invited to that verymeal would betray him even to
his death. It's also the tableat which he told his perhaps
(18:51):
best friend Peter that he woulddeny him three times.
It's also the table at which hisfriends, presumably those who
understood his teachings thebest, get into an argument about
who would be considered thegreatest in his kingdom. I mean,
imagine that. You gather yourfriends for one last meal. You
tell them you're gonna die. Youpour out your heart before them
(19:13):
asking them to remember you, andthey're so off in their own
world, caught up in their ownambitions that they brush off
your warnings and proceed toargue about their own self
importance.
Sure, Jesus. We're busy here.The last supper is not a
particularly friendly, cozy,cuddly moment. It's not the kind
of moment I would hope myfriends would commemorate to
(19:35):
remember me. Remember that timewe kinda ignored you, Jeremy?
The last supper is profoundlyraw. Again, here's Jesus,
anxious about the path in frontof him, misunderstood by his
closest friends, ignored for thewarnings he offers, and then
almost immediately sold out tohis enemies. And maybe that's
(19:58):
the point. There's somethingabout Jesus' disdain for
personal marketing here thatreally challenges me. You know
what I mean by personalmarketing.
Right? Like, I've talked aboutthis lots of times before, but
the me that you see on the stageright now is not who I really
am. This is me with enoughpreparation to be at least 18%
(20:18):
more eloquent than I am in realtime. Of course, it's more than
that though. We all have verycurated Instagrams and managed
LinkedIns, and that's not a badthing by the way.
You should not be puttingeverything, every story online.
I have lots of stories I'llshare with you on a Sunday, but
I have even more that Iabsolutely will not. Still, we
(20:40):
all struggle with thisdissonance between ourselves,
who we really are, and how wewant to be remembered. Jesus,
though, he seems to invite usinto all of it. And I mean,
think about it.
He could have pointed us back tothat meal on the beach with his
friends after his resurrection.I mean, that's a great meal
(21:00):
story. And conveniently, it'sonly two chapters later in Luke
24. Why not go with that one? Hecould have got all the juice out
of that image there without allthe smoke that surrounds this
one here.
And again, I think that's thepoint. Let me come at this from
a different angle. A number ofyears ago, someone who was
really important in my life,very instrumental in my career,
(21:22):
someone who'd been a mentor tome really, had a very public
downfall. And at first, it wasall very painful for me. Like
somehow this was a betrayal ofme.
Like, they had let me down.Like, I had lost something very
important in all this. Over timethough, in that process of grief
and forgiveness and evenreconciliation, part of what I
(21:45):
had to realize was the onlything that I had lost were my
own illusions. My friend didn'tchange that day. He was still
the same person that I caredabout, still the same person
that had taken a lot of time toinvest in me, didn't all of a
sudden become flawed.
The truth was he always was. Andso at least part of what I was
(22:06):
mourning in that moment wasn'treally the loss of my friend. It
was the loss of someartificially manufactured
persona that I had bought into.And sure, some of that was
created and projected by myfriend, but if I'm honest, at
least as much of it wasconstructed and projected by me
onto him. Everything I wanted tosee in him, everything I wanted
(22:30):
in a friend, everything that Ithought I deserved in a mentor.
I had built him up intosomething that he wasn't, and it
came back to burn me. Jesusseems to want to go out of his
way to destroy all of theillusions we build for ourselves
about him. And that's notbecause Jesus is flawed. It's
(22:52):
not because Jesus is gonna letus down. It's not what I'm
saying here.
What I'm saying is that ourillusions about Jesus, those
inevitably will. The ways thatwe want him to be fearless and
untouchable, or the ways we wanthim to be the perfect leader,
never misunderstood by anyone,always getting the best out of
(23:12):
those around him. Thosefantasies inevitably will fail
us. And so Jesus decides insteadto call us back to Jesus at his
most vulnerable, opening upabout all his fears, To Jesus at
his most misunderstood, even byhis closest friends, to Jesus at
(23:36):
his most graceful, inviting evenhis own betrayer to come and sit
and eat with him. I think Jesuscalls us back to this moment so
that we might, just like thedisciples were forced to that
night, let go of all of ourillusions about Jesus.
Perhaps even so that we might beforced to let go of our
(23:58):
illusions that we could everpolice who was worthy of being
invited to sit at the table withJesus. I mean, trust me, if
Judas was welcome there, Ipromise you are as well. The
table is where we're called toask to let go of a lot. And I
think this is why maybetheologically, the table has
(24:20):
always been complicated. I mean,if we are really stripping away
our illusions here for meetingdirectly with Jesus here, if
there's something very primitiveand unvarnished in our encounter
here, then I can see why Jesususes such evocative language
here.
This is my body broken for you.This is my blood poured out. We
(24:45):
are taking in something of Jesusin a very real way here. Now, in
church history, that's beeninterpreted in a lot of
different ways. Our Catholicfriends will believe in
something they calltransubstantiation.
It's a very big word to say thatthe bread and the wine in some
real but undetectable wayactually becomes the very body
(25:08):
and blood of Jesus. On the otherside of the aisle, our Baptist
friends will say, well, no, thismeal is a sign of something
important, a central and a vitalsymbol, but it's just a symbol
nonetheless, a remembrance thatpoints us back to the very body
and blood of Jesus. Now, forwhat it's worth, I think all of
that is fair game. It's allacceptable. I have less than no
(25:31):
interest in policing theboundaries of the Eucharist.
As I said earlier, the tablepredates even our theological
speculations about it, and Ithink at some level it probably
should stay that way. But for mymoney, and for the tradition
that commons roots itself in,there is also a middle ground.
(25:52):
And this approach often fallsunder the larger category called
real presence. In this specificlanguage we use in our
tradition, the table is a meansof grace. And what we're saying
here in broad terms along withthe Lutherans and the Anglicans
and even the Eastern Orthodoxtraditions is that Christ is
(26:13):
somehow mysteriously actuallyreally present every time we
gather at the table to eat.
Now maybe that sounds like akapo to you. And to be fair,
anytime we use the word mysteryin our theology, that's sort of
our shorthand of way of saying,I don't know. But I think this
time it really is the best thatwe've got. Because last week, as
(26:38):
we all of us stood in line toreceive, trusting or maybe even
just wanting to trust inresurrection. My belief, my
trust is that Christ was reallythere with us.
That you and I, we can actuallytaste the spirit of Jesus every
(26:58):
time we eat at his table. Yousee, you in your bedroom with
crackers and grapes, that is notthe good gift of God. But all of
us here together, all of ustogether anywhere, having our
illusions dispelled over andagain, knowing that we're
welcome every time we fail,seated and standing between
(27:20):
those that we know arestruggling to believe the same
things that we are, thatresurrection really has been set
loose in the world. That isgrace we can taste. And it's
what makes the Eucharist morethan just a belief, more than
just a theological statementthat we give our mental assent
(27:41):
to.
It is an encounter with thespirit that animates all things
in the light of that firstEaster morning. It is an
experience of grace that invadesour world in order to reshape
how we choose to live in it. TheEucharist is the sign of a
(28:03):
strange new world where breadand grape smack of the kingdom
of God. And that is real gracecome to find us. Let's pray.
God, we are so grateful for thatfirst Easter morning and for the
ways that that resurrection hasreverberated out through history
(28:28):
to find us in every newencounter, every reconciliation,
every first bud of spring. Thisslow, small, growing conviction
that resurrection is the naturalstate of the cosmos. All around
us, all the time, just waitingfor us to notice. And now, God,
(28:51):
we recognize this table that youhave offered us, a symbol and an
image, an encounter, anexperience with grace where we
get to taste something of yourkingdom. As we stand with each
other, as we wait in line, as wejockey for position and find our
(29:11):
seat around your table, as wewait for one another to eat, all
of this community helps us toexperience grace in new and
profound ways.
When we doubt, we're surroundedby trust. When we trust, we
offer that to the person besideus. When we gather together, we
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embody something of your spirithere in the world. And we trust
that in that, we areencountering the goodness, the
grace that sits at the foundingof the universe. And so, we're
grateful for the table.
And we're grateful for eachother. And we trust that your
(29:52):
spirit will slowly help usencounter you in new and deeper
ways each time we come tofellowship with you. May the
table guide us out into theworld with grace that defies our
expectations even for ourselvesand transforms the relationships
around us. In the strong name ofthe risen Christ we pray. Amen.
(30:22):
Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks forlistening to our podcast. If
you're intrigued by the workthat we're doing here at
Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch. You can subscribeto our YouTube channel where we
are posting content regularlyfor the community. You can also
join our Discord server.
(30:43):
Head to commons.churchdiscordfor the invite, and there you
will find the community havingall kinds of conversations about
how we can encourage each otherto follow the way of Jesus. We
would love to hear from you.Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
The table is where we're called to ask to let
(00:02):
go of a lot. And I think this iswhy maybe theologically the
table has always beencomplicated. There's something
very primitive and unvarnishedin our encounter here, then I
can see why Jesus uses suchevocative language here. Last
week, I ended our time by sayingthat Easter Sunday is about
(00:26):
celebrating that tomorrow is anew Monday morning. A new
morning when you can wake upmore honest with yourself than
ever before, more free fromwhatever it was that has felt
like it had you trapped before,more motivated to the good than
you have ever possibly imaginedbefore, perhaps even believing
(00:47):
for the very first time thatwhatever death you've
experienced or encountered inyour life was not the end.
Because resurrection is somehowthe natural state of the cosmos.
However, if all that is true,and I absolutely believe it is,
then Easter has to be more thanjust a celebration. It has to
(01:11):
become for us a launching pointinto a strange new world where
so many of our prior assumptionsabout the world are replaced
with new fascinations. And thisis why I think in the wisdom of
the church, Easter is more thanjust a day. Easter is an entry
point into fifty days ofEastertide.
(01:34):
And so this year, we've chosento enter into that season with a
series where we are gonna focuson how resurrection changes our
postures toward some of the mostbasic and fundamental practices
of the church. Today, we'regonna talk about the Eucharist
table. Our mission and missionsnext week, baptism after that,
(01:56):
then partnership and marriage,and finally, we'll talk about
death to close this series. Butthis is all about how Easter
shapes and reshapes, guides ourvision for the community of
Christ. Now, as I said, we'regonna talk about death at the
end of this series, five weeksfrom now.
But I do want to mention thistoday. Many of us will know that
(02:17):
Brandon Healy passed away onGood Friday. Brandon was a young
dad who had been part of thiscommunity since day one. I had
the privilege of being hispastor for the better part of
fifteen years, and I wasactually able to visit him in
the hospital on Friday before hepassed. Brandon's son, Walter,
is just four months old.
(02:37):
His wife, Julian, is obviouslydealing with the shock of all
this. Everything happened soquickly, after his cancer
returned only about a month ago.But a GoFundMe was established
just this week to help Walterand Julianne. You can find a
link on my Facebook page, but Ineed you to know this already.
All of you, the community thathas surrounded Brandon and
(02:57):
Julianne for years, you haveexceeded all expectations.
Your generosity has beenremarkable. And in my last
conversation with Brandon onFriday, he was even then in
those moments expressing hisdeep gratitude and peace.
Knowing that there were so manypeople surrounding and
supporting, caring for Walterand for Julianne. I need you to
(03:21):
keep all of that energy now foryears to come, and I know you
will. We need to surround Walteras he grows, Julianne as she
processes all of this.
So, thank you for all of that.The funeral will be held on May
19. It's gonna be at Rock PointBears Point Church just outside
the city on the way to Cochrane.We will post the details on the
(03:43):
community discord for anyone whoneeds them. But please, I'm
asking you to keep Walter andJulianne and everyone that knew
and loved Brandon in yourprayers, especially for this
Eastertide season.
Of course, we also know thatPope Francis passed away this
week, and so we also want tocontinue to pray for all of our
Catholic siblings as they movetoward the election of a new
(04:06):
leader who will guide thechurch. So let's pray together.
Gracious and risen Jesus, wegather in the light of your
resurrection. Hearts stillechoing the joy of Easter
morning, hearts still heavy withthe news of tragedy in our
midst, and yet we live in thetrust that you have conquered
(04:27):
death, shattered our tombs,breathe new peace into rooms
that we have locked through ourfear. And today, are reminded
that Easter is not just a singlemoment, but a season and a way
of being, a rhythm of lifemarked by hope and renewal.
Yes, death, but alsoresurrection. And so just as you
(04:51):
appear to your friends in theirdoubt and their fear, We trust
that you are with us in all ofour uncertainties today. Speak
peace over the places that stilltremble within us, and awaken
faith where our struggles stilllinger. Breathe once again into
your people and let our lives befilled with resurrection wonder.
(05:15):
In the strong name of the risenChrist we pray.
Amen. Today is a strange newworld as we wake in the light of
resurrection. And today, wewanna talk about the table of
Christ. So, we will cover all ofour symbols. Jesus' ask, Jesus'
(05:36):
intent, and finally Jesus'presence with us.
At first, a thought. One of myfavorite things about our
rhythms here at Commons throughEaster and Holy Week is all the
work that gets put into thestage and the decor, the way we
decorate the room. We have four,we call them tent pole events
(05:58):
across the year here at Commons.That's the Stampede Breakfast,
which is up next in July. Ourfall launch every year in
September, Christmas Eve inDecember, and of course Easter
in the spring each year.
And we wanna make those weekendsfun, but we also want to get
creative about how we tell thestory each time. And so for
(06:18):
Easter this year, we werethinking about resurrection and
new life, and this year we hadthe image of the sun coming up
over a valley, if that is theimage we had in mind. And so if
you notice we had those sun raysbehind the cross in front of
that lush green valley on thescreens behind it, We had
streaks of sunlight coming upfrom behind our green meadow
covered in flowers over on theother side in the gym. And it's
(06:41):
actually a lot of fun to thinkabout these things. It's fun to
pull together all the staff andall the volunteers that it takes
to make that happen each year.
But one of my favorite thingsevery year across Holy Week is
when we bring out the cross onthe stage. We have this
beautiful slab cross, just thesewonderful solid wood beams. By
(07:03):
the way, quite heavy if you haveto set this up. If you ever
gotten up close to it though,you also might have noticed
there's these wonderful bow tieinserts holding together the
natural cracks and splits in thewood. I love it.
And I love seeing it change fromPalm Sunday to Good Friday to
Easter each year. The colors andthe flowers on the cross
(07:25):
reflecting the colors that wewear on stage during Holy Week.
All of that tells a story initself. But it is interesting to
me that one of our mostcherished and beloved symbols
within Christianity, the cross,is not an image that Jesus chose
for himself. Now get get mewrong.
The cross is beautiful. I knowsometimes people will say it's
(07:47):
like wearing an electric chairaround your neck, and it is. The
cross was a method of execution.And there's something shocking
about turning that into aneveryday symbol in our lives. At
the same time though, somethingprofoundly subversive in that.
Right? Like, to take an imagethat was meant for death and
transform it into a symbol forlife is resistance. It's a
(08:11):
pushback against everything thatpromotes and wants everything
that manufactures death in ourworld. So, put me on record
here. We should keep the crossand it will be back next Easter.
But, when Jesus told us what hewanted to be remembered by, it
was not a cross. It wassomething very different. And
(08:36):
that's okay. We have a lot ofsymbols in Christianity, and the
diversity of those symbolsitself is quite beautiful. For
example, we have somethingcalled the chairo.
Sort of looks like a p and an xcombined together. Sometimes
we'll have what looks to be an aand an upside down u beside it.
Looks something like this. Well,in Greek, that x makes a sound,
(09:00):
and what looks to be a p theremakes an r sound. So these are
actually the first two lettersof the word Christ.
And beside it are the alpha andthe omega. That's the first and
last letters of the Greekalphabet. They symbolize Christ
as the beginning and the endingof all things. Now, this is sort
of a stylized version of theCairo, but in really old
(09:24):
illuminated manuscripts of theBible. You would often find
illustrations at the top of thepage that looked something like
this with that x and pdecorated, inviting you to then
look for Christ as you readthrough the text.
We also have something calledthe ichthus. That's those Jesus
fishes you find on the back ofyour cars. Personally, no chance
(09:47):
I would ever put that on my car.Not because I'm ashamed of my
faith, because I am ashamed ofmy driving, and I would never
want that to be associated withmy Lord. Please, if you have
one, keep it clean.
Okay? But this symbol actuallycomes from the acronym I x o y e
or better said here, I o d x Itheta upsilon sigma. Because
(10:10):
those are the first letters ofthe phrase, Jesus Christ, son of
God, savior. And in Greek, thoseletters just happen to spell the
word ichthus, which is the wordfor fish. So the legend goes
that early Christians would usethis symbol as a way to identify
themselves to one another.
And if you drew a swoop of thefish and the other person
(10:32):
talking to came along andcompleted the second half to
make the image, you could trustthat they were then part of that
same community of Christ. Nowduring times when the church was
persecuted, that Jesus fishbecame more than a symbol. It
actually became a valuable toolthat was used. Just for fun,
there is another version of theichthus, that may actually have
(10:53):
been older than the fish. It wasactually discovered in some
graffiti uncovered in Ephesus,and it looked like this.
You'll see the same letters, butit's a different symbol here.
It's not a fish this time, but awheel. However, if you notice,
in that eight spoked wheel, youcan actually draw out all five
letters. Now if you're havingtrouble seeing it here, this
(11:16):
might help. Here they arehighlighted here.
Eotexi, theta, upsilon, andsigma. That eight spoked wheel
is yet another way to spell outJesus Christ, son of God,
savior. Except this timeencompassed in the circle that
represents all things heldtogether and sustained in
Christ. Look, pretty cool. Andall of this is kind of fun.
(11:41):
More than that though, I thinkit's actually quite beautiful to
understand our symbols. Wherethey come from, what they were
trying to express, And yetstill, as I said earlier, none
of these are actually the symbolthat Jesus asked to be
remembered by. Because that wasthe table. Specifically, in Luke
(12:06):
22, at the last supper, right onthe verge of Good Friday, we
hear Jesus saying, this is mybody given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me.
And both a symbol and apractice, an image of community
gathered, instituted directly byJesus, who then tells us
(12:27):
specifically that this is how Iwant to be remembered. Now
what's interesting here is thatthis is actually one of the
earliest sayings of Jesus thatis corroborated for us outside
of the gospels. We have fourgospels in our bible. They're
all written in the second halfof the first century. Mark is
(12:49):
probably the earliest, possiblywritten in the mid fifties.
The last of them, which we tendto believe is John, written
probably in the late firstcentury. Although all that is
speculation. We don't know forsure, of course. But if you
remember a few weeks ago, Italked about a document called
the Didache or the teachings ofthe apostles. And you can go
(13:10):
back to the last week in our howto pray series if you want to
hear some of the history aboutthat text.
But the Didache was an earlychurch manual circulating in the
second half of the firstcentury. Essentially, was
guiding church planters in howto start Christian communities,
how to conduct the practices ofthe church. And the Didache was
(13:33):
already teaching the Lord'sSupper in the seventies right
around the time that Luke andMatthew were being written down.
However, maybe even moreinteresting is that this line we
read from Jesus in Luke 22actually shows up in one of
Paul's earliest letters. Infact, this line from Jesus about
(13:55):
how he wants to be remembered isthe only direct quote of Jesus
that Paul records anywhere inall of his writings.
First Corinthians 11, he writes,for I received from the Lord
what I also passed on to you.The Lord Jesus on the night that
he was betrayed took bread. Andwhen he had given thanks, he
broke it and said, this is mybody, which is for you. Do this
(14:20):
in remembrance of me. Now,understand that even the most
skeptical of scholars wouldacknowledge that Paul was
writing in the late fortiesthrough the fifties and the
early sixties.
And that first Corinthians isone of Paul's first undisputed
letters. It would have beenwritten very early in the
fifties of the first century.Probably likely before any of
(14:44):
the gospels had even beenwritten. And what this means is
that not only was the table thesymbol by which Jesus asked to
be remembered by, not only wasthat request circulating in the
writings of Paul and theteachings of the apostles, but
this was indeed one of the veryfirst rituals that the Jesus
community adopted. In otherwords, we actually did what
(15:09):
Jesus asked for once, andhonestly good for us.
Just think about it. We don'teven have gospels yet. And yet,
here's Paul passing on to hisfriends in Corinth what even
earlier Christians had passed onto him. Practices that would
later be recorded in theDidache, narratives that would
(15:30):
later be recorded in thegospels. What all this means is
that the Eucharist table is themost primitive experience of
Christianity that we haveavailable to us.
And I mean that primitive in thebest possible sense here. The
table comes from before ourbible. Even before our gospels,
(15:54):
it traces its roots all the wayback to the very first followers
of the way. The Christians whowere teaching Paul about what it
meant to follow Jesus. And forme, there's something quite
profound about realizing thatbefore we had even begun to
figure out our theology, even aswe were still working to make
(16:16):
sense of what the Jesus storymeant and what it was all about,
before we even wrote any of itdown, we knew from day one that
gathering together around atable.
Rich and poor, slave and free,Greek and Jew, barbarian and
Roman, everyone offered a seattogether. This was somehow the
(16:37):
very heart of Jesus' message,the very expression of Jesus'
life now resurrected within us.And so for two thousand years
now, the church has continued invarious forms with different
approaches and understandings,and granted sometimes with a lot
of disagreement about howexactly it should be done. But
(17:00):
for two thousand years now,Christians have continued to
gather around a table simplybecause Jesus asked us to. And
low key, I kinda love that.
Now, depending on the traditionthat you're familiar with, you
might be more comfortablereferring to the table as the
Eucharist or perhaps ascommunion, maybe even the Lord's
(17:25):
Supper. All of those are fine,by the way. They're all
acceptable. They all point tothe same thing. Eucharist is a
Greek word that means good gift.
Communion points to our sharedexperience together and with
Christ at this meal, and theLord's Supper points us all the
way back to where Jesusinstituted this practice at the
(17:45):
last supper. But even with thosedifferent names, they point us
back to the surplus of meaningembedded here in this simple
meal, which makes me want toreturn to Jesus' choice. Like,
why did Jesus want to beremembered this way? Now, sure.
(18:07):
A meal is nice.
And when I go, I would like asmall group of my friends to get
together and share a meal in mymemory. But this particular meal
strikes me as a uniquely painfulmoment in Jesus' story to be
remembered by. If you think backthrough the events of Holy Week,
events that we just movedthrough, events that culminated
(18:27):
as we shared at the Eucharisttable on resurrection Sunday
seven days ago, then you'llremember that the last supper is
not Jesus' last meal with hisfriends in a nice get together
kind of way, reunion. It was hislast moment before one of those
friends invited to that verymeal would betray him even to
his death. It's also the tableat which he told his perhaps
(18:51):
best friend Peter that he woulddeny him three times.
It's also the table at which hisfriends, presumably those who
understood his teachings thebest, get into an argument about
who would be considered thegreatest in his kingdom. I mean,
imagine that. You gather yourfriends for one last meal. You
tell them you're gonna die. Youpour out your heart before them
(19:13):
asking them to remember you, andthey're so off in their own
world, caught up in their ownambitions that they brush off
your warnings and proceed toargue about their own self
importance.
Sure, Jesus. We're busy here.The last supper is not a
particularly friendly, cozy,cuddly moment. It's not the kind
of moment I would hope myfriends would commemorate to
(19:35):
remember me. Remember that timewe kinda ignored you, Jeremy?
The last supper is profoundlyraw. Again, here's Jesus,
anxious about the path in frontof him, misunderstood by his
closest friends, ignored for thewarnings he offers, and then
almost immediately sold out tohis enemies. And maybe that's
(19:58):
the point. There's somethingabout Jesus' disdain for
personal marketing here thatreally challenges me. You know
what I mean by personalmarketing.
Right? Like, I've talked aboutthis lots of times before, but
the me that you see on the stageright now is not who I really
am. This is me with enoughpreparation to be at least 18%
(20:18):
more eloquent than I am in realtime. Of course, it's more than
that though. We all have verycurated Instagrams and managed
LinkedIns, and that's not a badthing by the way.
You should not be puttingeverything, every story online.
I have lots of stories I'llshare with you on a Sunday, but
I have even more that Iabsolutely will not. Still, we
(20:40):
all struggle with thisdissonance between ourselves,
who we really are, and how wewant to be remembered. Jesus,
though, he seems to invite usinto all of it. And I mean,
think about it.
He could have pointed us back tothat meal on the beach with his
friends after his resurrection.I mean, that's a great meal
(21:00):
story. And conveniently, it'sonly two chapters later in Luke
24. Why not go with that one? Hecould have got all the juice out
of that image there without allthe smoke that surrounds this
one here.
And again, I think that's thepoint. Let me come at this from
a different angle. A number ofyears ago, someone who was
really important in my life,very instrumental in my career,
(21:22):
someone who'd been a mentor tome really, had a very public
downfall. And at first, it wasall very painful for me. Like
somehow this was a betrayal ofme.
Like, they had let me down.Like, I had lost something very
important in all this. Over timethough, in that process of grief
and forgiveness and evenreconciliation, part of what I
(21:45):
had to realize was the onlything that I had lost were my
own illusions. My friend didn'tchange that day. He was still
the same person that I caredabout, still the same person
that had taken a lot of time toinvest in me, didn't all of a
sudden become flawed.
The truth was he always was. Andso at least part of what I was
(22:06):
mourning in that moment wasn'treally the loss of my friend. It
was the loss of someartificially manufactured
persona that I had bought into.And sure, some of that was
created and projected by myfriend, but if I'm honest, at
least as much of it wasconstructed and projected by me
onto him. Everything I wanted tosee in him, everything I wanted
(22:30):
in a friend, everything that Ithought I deserved in a mentor.
I had built him up intosomething that he wasn't, and it
came back to burn me. Jesusseems to want to go out of his
way to destroy all of theillusions we build for ourselves
about him. And that's notbecause Jesus is flawed. It's
(22:52):
not because Jesus is gonna letus down. It's not what I'm
saying here.
What I'm saying is that ourillusions about Jesus, those
inevitably will. The ways thatwe want him to be fearless and
untouchable, or the ways we wanthim to be the perfect leader,
never misunderstood by anyone,always getting the best out of
(23:12):
those around him. Thosefantasies inevitably will fail
us. And so Jesus decides insteadto call us back to Jesus at his
most vulnerable, opening upabout all his fears, To Jesus at
his most misunderstood, even byhis closest friends, to Jesus at
(23:36):
his most graceful, inviting evenhis own betrayer to come and sit
and eat with him. I think Jesuscalls us back to this moment so
that we might, just like thedisciples were forced to that
night, let go of all of ourillusions about Jesus.
Perhaps even so that we might beforced to let go of our
(23:58):
illusions that we could everpolice who was worthy of being
invited to sit at the table withJesus. I mean, trust me, if
Judas was welcome there, Ipromise you are as well. The
table is where we're called toask to let go of a lot. And I
think this is why maybetheologically, the table has
(24:20):
always been complicated. I mean,if we are really stripping away
our illusions here for meetingdirectly with Jesus here, if
there's something very primitiveand unvarnished in our encounter
here, then I can see why Jesususes such evocative language
here.
This is my body broken for you.This is my blood poured out. We
(24:45):
are taking in something of Jesusin a very real way here. Now, in
church history, that's beeninterpreted in a lot of
different ways. Our Catholicfriends will believe in
something they calltransubstantiation.
It's a very big word to say thatthe bread and the wine in some
real but undetectable wayactually becomes the very body
(25:08):
and blood of Jesus. On the otherside of the aisle, our Baptist
friends will say, well, no, thismeal is a sign of something
important, a central and a vitalsymbol, but it's just a symbol
nonetheless, a remembrance thatpoints us back to the very body
and blood of Jesus. Now, forwhat it's worth, I think all of
that is fair game. It's allacceptable. I have less than no
(25:31):
interest in policing theboundaries of the Eucharist.
As I said earlier, the tablepredates even our theological
speculations about it, and Ithink at some level it probably
should stay that way. But for mymoney, and for the tradition
that commons roots itself in,there is also a middle ground.
(25:52):
And this approach often fallsunder the larger category called
real presence. In this specificlanguage we use in our
tradition, the table is a meansof grace. And what we're saying
here in broad terms along withthe Lutherans and the Anglicans
and even the Eastern Orthodoxtraditions is that Christ is
(26:13):
somehow mysteriously actuallyreally present every time we
gather at the table to eat.
Now maybe that sounds like akapo to you. And to be fair,
anytime we use the word mysteryin our theology, that's sort of
our shorthand of way of saying,I don't know. But I think this
time it really is the best thatwe've got. Because last week, as
(26:38):
we all of us stood in line toreceive, trusting or maybe even
just wanting to trust inresurrection. My belief, my
trust is that Christ was reallythere with us.
That you and I, we can actuallytaste the spirit of Jesus every
(26:58):
time we eat at his table. Yousee, you in your bedroom with
crackers and grapes, that is notthe good gift of God. But all of
us here together, all of ustogether anywhere, having our
illusions dispelled over andagain, knowing that we're
welcome every time we fail,seated and standing between
(27:20):
those that we know arestruggling to believe the same
things that we are, thatresurrection really has been set
loose in the world. That isgrace we can taste. And it's
what makes the Eucharist morethan just a belief, more than
just a theological statementthat we give our mental assent
(27:41):
to.
It is an encounter with thespirit that animates all things
in the light of that firstEaster morning. It is an
experience of grace that invadesour world in order to reshape
how we choose to live in it. TheEucharist is the sign of a
(28:03):
strange new world where breadand grape smack of the kingdom
of God. And that is real gracecome to find us. Let's pray.
God, we are so grateful for thatfirst Easter morning and for the
ways that that resurrection hasreverberated out through history
(28:28):
to find us in every newencounter, every reconciliation,
every first bud of spring. Thisslow, small, growing conviction
that resurrection is the naturalstate of the cosmos. All around
us, all the time, just waitingfor us to notice. And now, God,
(28:51):
we recognize this table that youhave offered us, a symbol and an
image, an encounter, anexperience with grace where we
get to taste something of yourkingdom. As we stand with each
other, as we wait in line, as wejockey for position and find our
(29:11):
seat around your table, as wewait for one another to eat, all
of this community helps us toexperience grace in new and
profound ways.
When we doubt, we're surroundedby trust. When we trust, we
offer that to the person besideus. When we gather together, we
(29:32):
embody something of your spirithere in the world. And we trust
that in that, we areencountering the goodness, the
grace that sits at the foundingof the universe. And so, we're
grateful for the table.
And we're grateful for eachother. And we trust that your
(29:52):
spirit will slowly help usencounter you in new and deeper
ways each time we come tofellowship with you. May the
table guide us out into theworld with grace that defies our
expectations even for ourselvesand transforms the relationships
around us. In the strong name ofthe risen Christ we pray. Amen.
(30:22):
Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks forlistening to our podcast. If
you're intrigued by the workthat we're doing here at
Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch. You can subscribeto our YouTube channel where we
are posting content regularlyfor the community. You can also
join our Discord server.
(30:43):
Head to commons.churchdiscordfor the invite, and there you
will find the community havingall kinds of conversations about
how we can encourage each otherto follow the way of Jesus. We
would love to hear from you.Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
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