...beloved, and loving

All who hunger, sing together; Jesus Christ is living bread.

Come from loneliness and longing. Here, in peace, we have been led.

Blest are those who from this table live their days in gratitude.

Taste and see the grace eternal. Taste and see that God is good.

---Sylvia Dunstan, 1990

Communion. Union. Community. From the Latin communio, ‘sharing in common’. This word, communion, speaks to the deep loneliness and longing for fellowship settled in the souls of so many of us, waking faint stirrings of…hope, maybe? There are so many periods of isolation and sequestration in this busy, noisy life---many of them in the midst of the noise and busy-ness of everyday life. So many days which stretch from end to end with no real human interaction breaking through workaday, rote communication, or days of solitary pursuits.

Into this lonesome landscape shines the chance to gather at the table of our Brother Jesus, eating and drinking of love and sacrifice, telling each other the stories that bind us to Christ and to each other. The table draws us---not strangers but family, not hurried and harried but grateful and blessing, not fearful of rejection but cherished and welcoming. This table calls us empty, and we feed each other. This table draws us, and sends us. This table makes of us beloved, and loving.

Oh, taste and see…

...and Give You Peace

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord's face shine upon you and graciousness cover you;
the Lord's countenance turn toward you,
and give you peace...
---priestly blessing
"and quiet."
---Armstrong kids

This blessing, recorded in the book of Numbers, was a favorite 'goodnight' for my children when they were small. There is a hush about it, a kind of settling peace. It encapsulated a sacred moment of the sometimes hectic days with three small children in tow. Without fail, one or the other of my kids would whisper their own benedictive ending to the blessing, adding 'and quiet' to the ancient prayer. Apparently the concept of 'peace and quiet' was a familiar refrain for them at that time, although I will promise you that I don't remember the words being paired in my vocabulary! Somewhere, sometime, they had heard the wistful wish for a little peace and quiet.

But this peace --- the peace of looking into the face of a loving God, of being known to the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, of being cherished, of basking in the warmth of God's grace --- this peace is not the 'peace and quiet' variety. It is the transforming variety.

"...and give you peace."