We imagine our connection to the whole wide world on this particular Sunday where the table has no end. It reaches out of the sanctuary over the edge of town and across the borders of this nation.
We share this feast with people around the world and celebrate our connection as one body of Christ. It is an amazing thing but hard to imagine when the same hearts and hands are seated next to us in the pews. A visitor might have stumbled in but it is mostly the same people who have loved and supported us all year long.
It’s hard to see that broad and beautiful community when you can only see what is familiar. I want to push beyond those boundaries and allow others to host so that we can experience more and more of what it is to be part of God’s beloved. I want us to stumble over the words and hear something different. I want us to be surprised and challenged but what it means to be a Christian right now in this world where so many of our connections are broken, traumatized and injured. I want there to be healing and hope. I don’t know that this liturgy does that but it’s a beginning to gather the voices and invite another experience of what it is to be in God’s love.
Rejoice, people of God! Celebrate the life within you, and Christ’s presence in our midst.
Our eyes have been opened! The present will have new meaning and the future will be bright with hope!
Rejoice, people of God! Bow your heads before the One
who is our wisdom and strength.
We place ourselves before our God that we may be touched and cleansed by the power of God’s Spirit.
Source: I. Waren Mastra’s Liturgy for Agape Feast in Gifts of Many Cultures edited by Maren C. Tirabassi and Kathy Wonson Eddy (1995)
Welcome us as we arrive,
sometimes with the shame of mistakes made,
other times with the wounds of injustice lived,
almost always with the exhaustion of walking so much
and with the hunger for the elusive dignity
Smile at us right when we arrive
so that we may see in your eyes
the joy of reunion,
the forgiveness announced in your open arms,
the grace present in your voice that says our name.
Bless us in a tight hug
and in the tears that we cry without shame.
Bless us at the table to which you invite us,
that celebration of solidarity with a place
for each son, for each daughter
that was once away from your house.
Recíbenos así como lleguemos,
a veces con la vergüenza de los errores cometidos,
otras veces con las heridas de lo injusto vivido,
casi siempre con el cansancio de tanto andar
y con el hambre de la dignidad esquiva.
Sonríenos al ir llegando,
que podamos ver en tu mirada
la alegría del reencuentro,
el perdón anunciado en los brazos abiertos,
la gracia presente en tu voz que dice nuestro nombre.
Bendícenos en el abrazo apretado
y en las lágrimas que lloramos sin pudor.
Bendícenos en la mesa a la que nos invitas,
esa fiesta solidaria con lugar
para cada hijo, para cada hija
que alguna vez estuvo lejos de tu casa.
Source: Recíbenos, sonríenos, bendícenos (Welcome us, smile at us, bless us) by Gerardo Carlos C. Oberman, in the translation of Katie Fiegenbaum — an Invocation from Argentina from Gifts in Open Hands
Grandfather, Grandmother,
Look at our brokenness.
We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the Sacred Way.
We know that we are the ones
Who are divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk the Sacred Way.
Grandfather, Grandmother,
Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion, and honor
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.
Source: Ojibway Prayer from Canada from Poetry Chaikhana
Know that God loves you. From the very beginning God’s loving mercy has been poured out upon you. God loves you like a mother embracing us in her lap; like a father, God watches over you, guiding you each day. On behalf of the Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, I assure you: you are forgiven, forgive others. You are restored, restore others. You are reconciled with God, be reconciled with others, in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
Source: Assurance of Pardon from Bangladesh in World Communion Sunday Service with Missionary Letters from Global Ministries
Genesis 2:18-24 read in English or another language*
Invitation
An Agape Meal is a Christian fellowship meal recalling the meals Jesus shared with disciples during his ministry and expressing the koinonia (community, sharing, fellowship) enjoyed by the family created in Christ. It is a tradition that started with the Moravians in Germany to share food, prayer, religious conversation, and hymns. It is in this worship experience around a common table that we share in the joyful feast of God’s love and grace calling forth the anticipated hope for God’s justice for all.
As we gather in this community to share this meal and lives together, you are invited to reflect on these questions on the words of scripture. You’ll find these questions printed on your tables.
- In the beginning, God says that it is not good to be alone. Where do you experience loneliness right now?
- We hear loneliness in the psalm’s query to God: what are humans that you are mindful of them? How do you hear this question today?
- How does our separation from each other inhibit our ability to believe that any one of us “is a little lower than God” and “crowned with glory and honor”? What help might you need to see this in yourself or in another?
- Where have you recently seen people around the world connect so deeply that they become “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”?
Please begin your conversation and share in the bounty of this feast. You’ll hear music stir us to greater attention and hope. When that time comes, join in the singing and share the gifts of God with each other and then please continue your feast.
Passing of the Bread
Our celebration of this feast begins with sharing the bread from person to person. Each person is invited to pass the bread to the person next to them, saying, “Take and eat.”
Passing of the Cup of Love
Our feast continues with the sharing of the cup from person to person. Each person is invited to hold the cup for the person next to them, saying, “Take and drink.”
The congregation forms a circle large enough to include everyone. Each person either places their hand on the head of the person to their right or their right palm on the back of the left hand of the person to the right.
May God prosper you.
May your days be long and your nights serene.
May your friendships honor you, and your family love you.
May you eat at your table, and
may you be gathered into to God’s embrace
with a smile.
Source: A Blessing from Cuba from Global Ministries
Another option for a blessing might be to sing your way out of this worship experience with the Palestinian song Shalom Chaverim and a dance taught by Marcia McFee.
*If you feel like no one will be able to hear the possibility that might be held in the Genesis reading, swap out the Bible reading for James Weldon Johnson’s poem The Creation. Wil Gafney offers this amazing suggestion on Working Preacher to expand our understanding of what it means to need companionship in this story.
I love an agape feast though it does require setting up the sanctuary differently so that there are tables spread with delicious food to share. You might opt to have this service outside of the usual worship space. Set the tables with what feels familiar and unfamiliar including some breads from other parts of the world, hummus, olives, cut veggies and fruit, cheeses and other finger foods.
Or this might be the one Sunday you have communion with rice like they do in so many parts of the world which would require a different array of food on the tables. It might even be a hearty rice like this that adorns the table with sparkling apple juice for the celebration.
If an agape meal is unfamiliar to you, I commend to you this information from the Methodist Church in the UK. There is also this explanation from the Moravians. You might even want to bookmark this worship service from the Iona Abbey for another time like Maundy Thursday. Or if you prefer another communion experience, you might use Claudio Carvalhaes’ liturgy here.
I hope the world feels a little less lonely as you celebrate this communion.
Cooking with Elsa 
Leave a comment