Do this to remember me
by Nikki Groarke, Archdeacon of Dudley
As we live lent and embrace justice this week, our focus is on breaking bread together, the shared church practice of holy communion, or the Eucharist, which shapes us as kingdom people, causing us to remember week by week the death and resurrection of Jesus, embodying not just justice, but the values of love, compassion and freedom which guide our lives together in this diocese.
Before I was Archdeacon of Dudley, I was vicar of a church in North London which had a large community outreach project supporting rough sleepers. We provided hot meals and showers, access to drug and alcohol advisors and health care workers. People were welcome of all faiths and none, but we served transparently in the name of the church, offered prayer for people, and held a monthly healing service with communion to which everyone was invited … and many came. People who had been shouting and swearing, sometimes fighting, usually arguing, came into the stillness, respectfully, and allowed themselves to be ministered to, anointed with the sign of the cross, joining in a simple liturgy and receiving bread and wine. We practiced an open table. No questions asked, All were welcome. That to me was just and generous.
We used an invitation to Communion from the Iona Community:
“The table of bread and wine is now to be made ready. So come to this table, you who have much faith and you who would like to have more; you who have been here often and you who have not been for a while; you who have tried to follow Jesus, and you who have failed; Come. It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.”
Many who came had been to church as children, some never, but they experienced God’s love at that table, and there were often tears. Aggressive, street-soiled and often smelly men and women stood as equals with the team before God and remembered a body broken on the cross for them.
“Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
So simple, yet so profound. Simple because it was in the day-to-day shared necessity of eating that Jesus told us to remember him, eating the most basic of foods, common bread. Profound because it was in breaking it that the point was made. Jesus was pointing to the physical breaking of his human body which his followers were soon to see, and which we will soon remember on Good Friday. In brokenness and surrender, Jesus accomplished justice for all.
We remember him weekly, in some settings daily, in that brokenness, reminding us of our shared humanity, our shared need for forgiveness, our shared dependence on a God of justice.
We remember him in our churches, acutely aware of those who have no bread to eat – which prompts us to act in ways that will embrace justice for the hungry. We remember him in our churches, acutely aware of faithful sisters and brothers celebrating the Eucharist in Ukrainian subway stations with bombing all around, embracing justice for them in our prayers for peace.
We remember him in bread and wine, and are reminded he invites all to meet him in this way, all are welcome, all are loved, equality and inclusion, twin pillars of justice, are most evident in this most broken place, because of what was accomplished on the cross. Remember me. Remember me, and pray for those who you remember me with. All who are part of the body of Christ, united around a table in our beautiful and rich diversity.
