Hungry at the Table

Mostly I was surprised when I found my pew, looked up, and saw the Table that had been prepared for all of us.  Like a child called in from play, I did not realize how hungry I was till I saw the Table there in the holy space.  Eager I became to see the bread lifted and broken with the words, "The body of Christ broken for you."   Like one overcome with thirst I watched as the pitcher was raised and the holy sacrament was poured into the waiting cup with the words, "The blood of Christ shed for you."  I did not mean to feel overwhelmed with the love which suddenly seemed to flood my soul and neither was I prepared for the tears which filled my eyes as I knelt in my place to wait.    

 

Charles Wesley's old hymn began to stir in my spirit.  "How can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me?  Amazing love!   How can it be...?  The Holy Sacrament which I have been privileged to offer to others an uncountable number of times in the past fifty years has never tasted so much like mercy, so much like grace, and so much like love as it has in these days of being on the outside of the altar as a beggar hungry and thirsty for the soul's life giving food.  All too soon the robed one spoke the benedictory words calling me to rise that another might come and take a place at the Table.    

 

Yet, I rose knowing that it was not my place that was taken for my place was special as was the place of the one who followed.  We were each, every single one of us, welcomed to the Table to be served by the sacred Christ and to be blessed by Him with an assurance that forgiveness was ours to claim and a place at the heavenly Table as well.  "Since I met this blessed Savior, since He cleansed and made me whole, I will never cease to praise Him, I'll shout it while eternity rolls.  He touched me, He touched me, and O the joy that floods my soul..."