I sure miss in person communion. Jubilee is a very small worshipping community, six to ten people on any given Wednesday night. When we worship together it is an intimate experience, and like other Church of the Saviour communities, we serve communion to each other. For many years we’ve met at The Potter’s House. We moved to the phone during the pandemic, and got a precious glimpse of life together after the pandemic meeting in person a handful of times over the last few months before going back to the phone last week due to the emergence of the Delta variant. I could be bitter, but was Jesus that night in the upper room, facing much worse? Not enough to withhold the bread and cup from Judas. No, he was a model of grace and compassion, love and forgiveness. Surely I can bear this inconvenience, again, for however long it will be, and pray for grace to deepen my love for God and others even if I can’t hold out a cup to them and hug them after the service.
As I paced back and forth on my porch with my phone to my ear on Wednesday, and we reflected on last week’s scriptures, very similar to this week’s*, about Jesus’ body as the Bread of Life, we recognized the distance between us, that this was an ongoing struggle. It feels like we are still wandering in the desert of this disease with no end in sight. June and July were mirages. But Jesus reminds us that water is indeed there, the bread of his body is a gift beyond space and time. We were still meeting even if it was over fiber optic signals. I could still hear Jeri and Debi and Jimmy and Chris and everyone else’s voices, their interpretations of the scriptures, their relating it to their lives. Our prayers and our fellowship are still heard. We are still witnesses to Christ’s love in our lives, on or off the phone. Whatever our station, whatever class, wealth, disposition, whatever the location near or far, whatever troubles we face, Jesus always offers us a place at his table. Take and eat.
-Matthias Everhope, Jubilee Church
