i am in danger of making every piece of liturgy cheryl lawrie writes a worship trick as i seem to love every one. i am particularly inspired by the challenge of creating liturgies for use in prison. her latest is it would not have been god’s table, written for a fellow chaplain, worship trick 8 [series 3]
it would not have been god’s table
On their own, the bread and wine are nothing.
To become a foretaste and a promise
of love made real and a world made whole,
they need a story and a blessing
and a people who believe…It would not have been God’s table
if they hadn’t all been gathered around it:
the betrayer and the friend
the power-hungry and the justice seeker
the faithful and the fickle.When Jesus poured the wine, and the bread was broken;
when everyone could eat –
the outcast and the beloved
the arrogant and the gracious
the wrong-doer and the wrongly done by –
the table became a foretaste
of love made real
and of a world made whole.Your company at the table, Ross,
will include the betrayer and the beloved
the wrong-doer and the wrongly done by.It would not be God’s table without them.
And the promise is
that when you are together,
when you tell the story and give the blessing
when you break the bread and pour the wine
you will discover a foretaste
of love made real
and of a world made whole.
As Mike Yaconelli reminds me in “Dangerous Wonder” danger is one of the many words we don’t use at least in US church settings. I would love to see your music intermingled with Cheryl’s liturgies. Wow.
Actually, on their own, the bread and wine are something.
They are food and drink, essentials for life.
The story and the blessing need the substance of these physical things
For the foretaste and the promise of love
to be made real
and a world made whole.
That’s why Jesus became flesh,
so he could break, take, eat, drink them.
that is beautiful, thanks for posting it Jonny.
this is beautiful. thank you for posting it.
I am going to use this with a group of young people, this evening.