A Table in the Wilderness—Communion Liturgy
This is part of the worship series, "A Table in the Wilderness”IntroductionLetter of Invitation | Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 Lent 5 | Palm Sunday | Good Friday | Easter Sunday | Communion LiturgyPrayer Path: A Journey in the WildernessCommunion LiturgyAt Fleetwood Christian Reformed Church we normally observe monthly communion. During Lent, however, we had weekly communion to heighten our awareness or experience of Christ’s journey to the cross. The liturgy we used each week is found below. The lines in blue could be rewritten each week by the preaching pastor to reflect the text of that day.InvitationThe pattern of faith and true life is clear enough: God gives, and we receive. God gives far more abundantly than we can ask or imagine, and we receive.God gives life and breath to the world, gives miracles of deliverance and newness, and we receive.God gives God’s very self in Jesus, and we receive.People of God, this is the table where God intends for us to be well fed.This is the table where the abundance of the whole creation and the angels surrounds us.This is the way Christ comes to renew his people.So come, all you who hunger and thirstfor a deeper faith, a richer life, a fairer world.Christ has come. Christ will come again and againto feed us in the wilderness of life.PrayerCome, Lord, be our host at this table. Bread and wine are waiting.On your words depend all our celebrating.Send your Holy Spirit on us and these gifts of bread and wine,that they may become for us vibrant with your life,and that in them we may know Christ’s presence,the Father’s provision, and the Spirit’s comfort, real and true.The StoryAmong friends, who were “be-wildered” (that is, in the wilderness),and gathered round a table, Jesus took bread and blessed it.Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.Then Christ broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. Through that act Christ teaches that: This loaf, this table, symbolizes a new relationship with God and with each other,sealed with Christ’s body, given for you.Take, eat, remember and believe that God does provide a table in the presence of all our fears.Participants eat the bread.In the same way, Jesus took wine and blessed it. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.Then he poured the wine and gave it to his disciples.This cup then and now symbolizes a new relationship with God and with each other. It is sealed with Christ’s blood, which is poured out and given for you.Take, drink, remember and believe that God does provide a table in the presence of all our fears.Participants drink the cup.Prayer of Confession and RecommitmentHaving shared this bread and this wine, we can expect to be a little more keenly ableto notice the table of God’s provision through all the hours and days of our lives.It is the table of Life itself.We can expect to recognize Jesus Christ in all our meals and fellowship,even when the table is set for one or on a screen. And we remember that our lives, like his,are for the sake of the salvation of a suffering world.Lord Jesus Christ, in deep gratitude for this moment and for the provision of this table,we give ourselves to you.We confess we so often labor for what does not satisfy; we try to drink from broken cisterns.Having delighted now in your abundance, send us out to live changed lives,for having shared in the Living Bread, we cannot remain the same.Ask much of us this Lenten journey, enable much by us, encourage many through us. For we journey with you, Lord Christ, Spirit-led, into the wilderness of all our fears,there to find the courage—and the manna, the quail, the raisins and nuts, the fish, the angel food cakes—that strengthen us to lean once more into the winds of grace that have sustainedyour people through all the wildernesses of life.Amen.
