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The Third Sunday of Easter, April 10, 2005
Acts 2:14a, 36-47, I Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

The Rev. W. Lee Shaw

As you know I have spent several weeks at home recuperating from surgery. While home I noticed a number of things. First, it is very easy to get “cabin fever” even in your own home. Second, I really missed this community and my interaction with you. Third, I noticed myself paying more attention to the people, places and things that are important to me.

A celebration dinner for my son’s engagement. Farewell dinners when I left for seminary. Birthday parties. Gatherings of friends and family. Christmas Eve buffets and Easter brunches. Meals, coffee, cocktails and most importantly conversation. It has been used for vestry meetings when I was in Brigham City and EFM gatherings here in Salt Lake. It has been used several times for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. It is the center for my Epiphany vestry gathering. I use it to study on, write in my journal, compose letters, and of course eat.

When I was at the cathedral, three of us gathered every Tuesday at 7 a.m. for Morning Prayer. Every other week it was at my home and the table became the center of our morning together of “coffee, gossip and Morning Prayer.”

This table for me is the center of my home, the heart of my hospitality and a prize part of my home that helps reflect who I am. A table is also an important part of our lives as human beings, as Christians.

The table, the altar, here at St. Stephen’s is the center of our life as members of this parish. We gather around it week by week to be fed. As one of the people in the via media program notes, it is our “family table” and it sets the tone for our spirituality and hospitality as Christians. Many times, most times, before I begin the Eucharistic prayer I will lay my hands on the altar. I have done this from the very beginning of my priesthood. It is my way of touching a piece of the holy: whether it is the massive stone altar at St. Michael’s, the square butcher block style at St. James’ or the elegant wood of the altar here at St. Stephen’s. It connects me to all who have come before me as priests as well as those who have been fed from those altars.

It is a unique piece of our worship, this table, this altar. It is the center of our hospitality that extends to the tables of the parish hall to then your own kitchen and dining room tables at home. It sets the tone for our giving and receiving for all are welcome at this table.

It is the place where the Body of Christ shares in the Body of Christ. Holy gifts for a Holy people, be what you see, receive what you are. These really are holy gifts for you a holy people of God. It is where we find our identity as Christians and we find our communion with our God. This table helps to define who we are as we go out to share the Good News we have heard here: The Good News of God in Christ; The Good News of God’s grace for us; The Good News of God’s mercy on us; The Good News of God’s love for us.

I wonder about the table we heard in the Gospel reading. Where Cleopas, his friend and Jesus shared a meal. And when did they “know,” recognize Jesus? It was not in the talk along the road. It was not in the questioning and give and take of conversation. Rather, “…he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” It was in the table fellowship, in the breaking of the bread that their Lord was revealed to them. The table can be a place of being fed and revelation, connecting with the Divine in a new way.

He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them, as he had so many times before. And this is how they knew him, in that simple, elegant gesture of taking, blessing, breaking and giving them the bread. This is one way we know him as well.

We are invited to share in that same pattern with Jesus week by week. We are invited to share in this simple meal in remembrance of Him who died and rose again. He asked us to come together, to break the bread and share the cup of wine until he comes again. We do it to remember the future. We do it to share in the mystery of his Body and Blood. We do it so he will be known to us in the breaking of the bread. This altar is a place of holy food and revelation for us.

The poet Ann Weems has eloquently phrased it:

Eat. Drink Remember
      Who I am.

Eat. Drink. Remember
      Who I am
So you can remember
      Who you are.